I checked out some of the types of plays Cory Joseph’s been making in San Antonio and had a few observations. You can see the plays below. Generally, I thought he greatly benefited from from having a very structured offense around him, and guys who could simply make plays and finish in traffic. He does have it in him to create a shot for someone else out of nothing, but he wasn’t called on to do that with the Spurs too often. There aren’t many pick ‘n roll plays as the Spurs really do have a very spread-out offense which doesn’t lean heavily towards one particular play. I found his greatest strength to be delivering pin-point passes to where certain players are supposed to be, and he’s got the ability to drive either direction and make passes with either hand. Check out the plays below:
The pass here is important, but what makes this play is the baseline screen set for Leonard which gives him plenty of daylight to hit a mid-range jumper. Structured, man. That’s what the Spurs are:
The more highlights I saw, the more you see these types of assists, where he gives it up to a guy who has it all to do, but for some reason it counts as an assist. A bit misleading to be honest:
A recurring theme in Joseph’s play-making is how often he actually gives the ball up, sometimes multiple times, in a possession before somehow ending up getting the assist. He also has a tendency to visibly take a few steps back before he charges into the drive, which could give him up a little:
Here’s a very deliberate play where Ginobili is curling around the FT-line screen, expecting to receive the ball exactly where Joseph delivers it. It’s a simple play which warrants a simple pass. In fact, most of the Spurs passing is quite simple and certainly so is Joseph’s. There aren’t any draw-four-defenders-and-kick-out-with-a-behind-the-back-pass assists anywhere in Joseph’s highlight reel. This lends greater credence to the idea that Dwane Casey really has to design a very structured offense to integrate a PG like Joseph:
This is straight-up recognition that Diaw has a lane available and making a quick pass, without even wasting time by dribbling it:
This is a much more bang-bang play than it seems. Love gets screened freeing up Diaw for an instant and Joseph finds him easily. Simple basketball yet again, where Joseph’s reads are easy to make, and so is the pass:
The below is his most common drive-and-kick. He can drive in either direction and can make the pass with either hand. This is a pretty subtle skill, and when used in the context of a spaced out floor with the defense shifting, can be a great asset:
A simple cut to draw an extra defender and pass it back out to a three-point shooter. Imagine this play being run in combination with DeMarre Carroll instead of Ginobili:
This here is a more Raptoresque play, where he’s single-handedly generating a shot for a teammate. There aren’t many such examples in his Spurs highlight clips, as usually the Spurs don’t require heroics like this to generate clean looks. Last year’s Raptors, though, they relied on plays like these:
Man, how is this classified as an assist? I get that he picked out Parker on the curl, but Parker still had two defenders to beat:
He evades four defenders here before dropping off the pass. I get a sense that it’s these types of plays that he’ll be asked to make with the Raptors:
Simple drive and kick back out:
Have a nice humpday!
