The resident All-NBA member of the Raptors, Pascal Siakam is a weapon to be unleashed on opposing teams. It’s well within the Raptors interests to get Siakam downhill where he can make his way to the basket, playmake on the interior or out to the perimeter, or nestle into the short mid-range where he was one of the most effective shot-makers in the NBA last year (hitting 49-percent and assisted on less than 20-percent of them).
The Raptors isolated him at the 45-extended a lot last season, where he could go to work, and he actually ended up leading the NBA in isolations at the end of the season. However, what if the isolation wasn’t the first option, but a very healthy thing to fallback on? Enter the 4-1 Ghost Action.
The general appeal of a ball-screen is couched inhere. The person on ball is more than likely going to get some sort of advantage coming off the screen. Only, NBA teams have gotten much better at guarding these actions as 5-man units who shift and adapt to that advantage. The ghost action brings it back to the POA and tries to win there.
The ghost screen is kind of a read and react play from the screener. It’s no longer about where the screener might go after they lay it down, it’s about whether or not they actually set that screen. The defenders are on the back foot to guard a 2-man action, they slow down, and suddenly one of the league’s best 3-point shooters in Fred VanVleet can burst into open space. That’s easy, that’s a great look. And maybe the trailing defender doesn’t think you’re going to slow down, so you do plant the screen and give your handler major clearance around the edge.
There is, however, a way to halt this action in it’s tracks – by switching it. Which, is what makes the 4-1 aspect of it so great, because if you switch VanVleet’s primary defender onto Siakam? That’s food. If Siakam doesn’t get the edge, if VanVleet doesn’t get to burst into space, you get a mismatch at the very least. Having led the NBA in isolations last year, one of the concrete takeaways of Siakam’s current form? He’s very difficult to stop 1-on-1. Teams who tried to stick one defender on him often failed, and teams that doubled him had significant trouble as well. The only way to stop Siakam from driving an offense forward is to shade him into spots as a team and hope for misses from he or his teammates.
Another fun thing to notice in that collection of clips? The Clippers pre-switched Terrence Mann onto Boucher so they could keep Luke Kennard out of the screening action, but the Raptors countered by shifting into a stagger set that VanVleet ended up ghosting – and bang, a triple. The first two clips also come with an empty-side, which is getting less popular in the NBA for a lot of actions (filled corners are powerful), but it’s generally to keep help defenders away from potent 2-man actions, which the Siakam-VanVleet ghosted pick n’ roll absolutely is.
You’ll get to see a lot of it this year, so if you notice it in game, let me know under my piece the next day or under the reaction podcast.
Have a blessed day.
