The Hawk Set - plays for shooters

make it too easy for teams to scout us, lol. Excellent info.
Training camp can’t come soon enough.

seem perfectly suited to Rip Hamilton. I wonder how much of it was re-jiggered with him in mind and can be redeveloped for Arenas. Our roster doesn’t seem ideal to fit into this set without adjustment, with AJ as primarily a screener and with several of our 2 guards not being primarily shoot-off-screen guys (DSteve, Miller).

Some of you are thinking, where are the plays for Arenas…?

The Hawk set has an almost unlimited number of variations…

For instance, in the first play, where the 2 cuts to the baseline – as long as the PG maintains his dribble, the 4 can slide over and set a second screen for the PG to come back towards the foul line (ie: a pick-and-roll play). If the PG rubs his man off on the screen, he can either stop and pop, drive to the basket (if 2’s defender helps, 2 is wide open)….. If the 4 defender hedges, 4 can step out for an open shot (pick and pop).

Arenas is going to absolutely thrive in this Offense.

And why Jamison is perhaps not the greatest fit at that spot. The tall smooth-passing forward can see over the defense and read the timing on the screens to anticipate the motion guard popping loose.

Caron, Nick, Foye, Miller, even Jamison can all work well in that motion role.

Caron because one of the ways to defend the downscreen is for the opposing bigs and forwards to disrupt the motion pattern by stepping into contact, with sneaky knees and porkchop elbows to discourage weakminded willowy finesse shooting guards from entering that painted area. Nick Young on the bench with a fat lip will probably see a more timid Nick the rest of the game. But go ahead, lean into contact with Caron, he might break something either way, himself, you, whatever, but he’s not slowing down, and if he can continue to play he’ll do it. Also that initial move off the screen is ideal for a tough juice attack down the lane on the one-two dribble elevate to dunk.

On the question of plays run for Gil, right, there’s the PG-in-motion version of this play (receiving the pass off that Four). But there are other plays as well. In the initial set the four can simply pick Gil’s man and he can tumble down the lane hell for leather. If the big steps over to cover, he’s got options to pass to underneath. Or if he passes to Caron/Miller on the cut, he can slide to the corner if they’re blocked and catch the kick out for the three.

Mostly, he has the ball in his hand to start every play, if he has the mismatch he can call his number at any time, or if the pattern is defensed well he can take over the last second clutch shot on a broken play. In effect the motion becomes a decoy. Gil’s defender becomes distracted, concerned about the passing lane to the cutter behind him after the pick, and Gil gets a wide open three if his man sags on the pass feint. Notice the 3 & 5 are in good weakside position for rebounding the shot.

This is what I was trying to describe with word-pictures based on sets I diagrammed on scraps of tissue paper or whatever from watching Twolves footage and Pistons. Rook gives you actual visuals, which naturally shortcut the explanation by a thousand words a picture. Thanks for that.

The interesting sets are the innovations Flip had to develop with Spree and Sammy, who had different skillsets for the offense. Flip doesn’t run Hubie’s system without wrinkles, he uses the skills of the players he’s got, finds ways to maximize the efficiency of his most efficient players (rather than try to improve his least skilled guys all that much). If Brendan grooves that short jumper he can release early from the screen a la McDyess and catch a wide open shot when the PF plays relay man and dumps him the shot.

Flip is happy to have role players and run his offense through the guys who can get it done, use the rest as support. (In the above sets you could play Dom at that 4 spot, or Dray, or OhBoy, and not lose much if any of them didn’t choose to shoot). You show what you can do, he’ll draw a play to use it.

In any case I could design six to twelve variations of the above plays with any reasonable configuration of players on the roster. I would upload the napkin playbook, but I think I used part of it to clean up some cat sick. Point being I’m pretty sure Flip will expand his system little by little to incorporate the strengths of the guys he has, eager to try out a few new wrinkles suggested by their varying talents.