The NBA team NOT running pick & rolls (!)

Watch this play. Do you notice anything strange about it? It may look like a standard NBA possession, but it is not. Something weird is happening here, because teams today don't really play like this, and yet this unique style of play has led to one of the biggest turnarounds in the entire history of the NBA. Over the last few decades, the league has run more and more pick and rolls to generate offensive advantages. The 80s and 90s were defined by a ton of post-ups, where the idea was to stand as close to the basket as possible and receive the ball for a high-percentage shot. The 90s and early 2000s ushered in plenty of isolation, where the best players could But then coaches realized the screen was a massive built-in advantage for the offense, so pick-and-roll-heavy teams became the norm. A typical NBA possession has at least one ball screen, and sometimes more. And it's fairly common for the first action to involve a ball screen, have that fizzle and then re-screen or set a second screen for the ball handler as a backup option to keep seeking out that advantage. Now let's rewatch that Memphis possession. It starts without a pick for the ball, the trailing big usually gets involved in some kind of pick and roll here, but they look for a backdoor cut instead, and now there's a full reset with 11 seconds left, and no one comes to set a screen for the ball handler, and then off his drive, their center flashes to the interior and throws up a hook shot for two. The Grizzlies run plenty of off-ball screens. This is something you might see from a Steve Kerr offense, the guard in the post, with a bunch of fancy screening and cutting out at the elbow like this. But they don't run perpetual motion schemes like the Warriors, it's not like there's a bunch of movement shooters constantly zipping across each other in chaos. Instead, the Memphis offense is about positioning, it's about moving into the right spaces to stress the defense. They aren't looking for a ball screen here, but to find space to drive into. There's room on the baseline, so Santi Aldama attacks it, that triggers a cut from the weak side into the lane, and notice how the man on the baseline in the dunker spot automatically spaces to three, they get a kick out on the collapse, and suddenly it's an open shot. The next trip down, they're again looking to drive into space, the defense takes that away, and instead of the big man coming to set a pick, or flowing into screen and roll with a guard, they try more isolation. There's that same cut and space out concept, they swing it around, and again that produces an open three, but Scottie Pippen Jr. drives it instead, another teammate circles behind so he can attack on the move, and they end up with a great shot at point blank range. So a big key to this offense is to attack driving gaps with almost any of their players on the court at a given time, and that means creating those driving gaps by moving into the right positions to perpetually open that space. A play like this starts with a common NBA set, with a simple elbow screen for a teammate to come off of, only it's already weird because there's two bigs screening for each other, the defender is thrown off, so now there's a small advantage to attack, which opens up a skip pass, and even though that's off the mark, this player isn't looking to come set a screen, instead he's spacing to the corner to open another driving lane, and look at how everyone repositions during that drive, there's still an advantage to attack, and Jaron Jackson Jr. finally drops it in. So instead of running toward each other to converge in a pick and roll, Memphis players pass it, and often move away from each other, and while this possession still ends up with Pippen attacking a closeout and throwing a baby dream shake at Luke Cornette, all of the repositioning by the Grizzlies opens up this opportunity for Pippen, because Jay Huff goes to the baseline, dragging Cornette with him, then Huff gets out of the way to distract the help defender, which gives Scottie just enough space. Here's a simpler example a minute later, where Pippen pitches it, and is almost forced into setting a screen by Jason Tatum, Jackson then looks to isolate, so the wing cuts down to the baseline to pull the help defender out of the way, then Jaron can go left for that deadly little floater. So Memphis' movement is often repositioning as a unit instead of traditional cutting, and this really stresses help defenders. They set up some screens for Morant, Desmond Bain drags his defender so he can't easily slide over in front of Jha, Jalen Wells circles behind the ball to occupy his defender, and Jaron relocates to the corner so if his man stays to help on the lob, he'll be open for a catch and shoot three. Draymond's talking about this entire offense shifting in unison, where as Morant drives left, the wing repositions to the corner, and the corner repositions along the baseline, and that occupies the help defenders to make the drive much easier. This time the ball is headed to the right, into the middle of the floor, that pushes the top to the wing, the wing to the corner, and the corner to the dunker spot, and even LeBron is thrown off by this because defenses aren't used to all this repositioning. And I really love how they move along the baseline from position to position, where any player can slide from either corner to one of the dunker spots, where they become a layup threat. This possession against Sacramento starts with Jaron in the dunker spot, but when the ball drives towards him, he needs to move away to the other block, or in this case, the opposite corner. So if his man stays to help, Jaron then ends up open on the other side of the floor, he attacks the closeout, which still requires a second defender, and that turns into a simple kickout for an open three. And on this one, Wells starts down on the block, Morant is supposed to cut off these two screens, which means Wells would shift back to the near side of the court. But the Kings blow up the action, so Jha decides to cut it back to the near side, which means, you guessed it, Wells needs to move away from him to the far side, but then Jha heads middle anyway, so it's another reposition and the third time's the charm. Opening driving lanes like this and attacking with the dribble might remind some of you of Vance Wahlberg's dribble-drive motion that John Calipari popularized in Memphis. But a heavy inspiration here is new Grizzly assistant Noah LaRoche, who architected a similar offense at Division 3 St. Joseph's Monk a few years back. Only the Grizzlies have mega NBA talents like Jha, who is beyond deadly playing one-on-one in space, and Jaron, who is an absolute handful in isolation situations when a second defender never comes to help. As Jaron brings it up in early offense, look at the size of these wide, luxurious driving lanes, and that leaves his man on an island and is really hard to guard. Wide lanes! This is so luxurious! Also, notice how that was only an 8-second trip? Because this entire system lends itself to immediate attacks in early offense. They space it out instead of setting any ball screens, then Jackson just attacks in single coverage, and that is a 7-second possession. This one is off make, they set up the exact same spacing but with Bain as the ball handler, emptying the corner gives him space to attack right, and it's a quick pull-up jumper. The Grizzlies are the second-fastest offense in the entire play-by-play era, taking just 12.6 seconds on average to get up a shot or turn the ball over. Yes, that is nearly half a second faster than the 7 Seconds or Less Suns, and 7 tenths faster than the 2023 Kings, who created a ton of problems with their pace two seasons ago. One of the reasons Memphis is so fast is that a number of their players can grab and go while the other four players run ahead to fill out the desired spacing. And when everyone has an attacking mindset, anyone can drive in isolation, and their speed and positioning really stresses defenses. Off of this main shot, they immediately inbound it to the big, he brings it up and throws it ahead, and when there's just a little confusion about matchups, that leaves the shooter wide open. And in this half, they absolutely buckle the Lakers' defense with their pace, constantly pushing the ball right down their throats. It also helps that they're a solid defensive team, so they can turn stops into quick offense going the other way, and they usually have four or five athletes that can run the break and attack on the fly like this. And they're fast because they attack for 24 straight seconds, often sprinting out of the gates, and when the first action is stopped, it's Aldama's turn, the give-and-go doesn't materialize, so again, Bain pushes the issue, and suddenly, boom, it's a Huff's stuff. And if you blinked, you missed it, but Huff spaced out of the dunker spot to the corner, then when the ball came toward him, he moved back there, and that broke the Kings' defense. Now it's not like Memphis never runs handoffs or pick-and-rolls, it's just that they rarely run them compared to how dominant it's become across the NBA. According to Second Spectrum, the average team runs 89 ball screens or dribble handoffs every 100 possessions. The Nets lead the league with 117 this year, and the 29th-ranked Celtics are running just 71. But the Grizzlies are at 43 ball screens or handoffs per 100 right now, which is the lowest in the 12-year history of optical tracking by a country mile. Those numbers are even lower when Morant goes to the bench, since he's by far their best pick-and-roll player. And even when they do screen, they don't always really stop to set the pick. Bain comes toward the ball for a change, only to ghost the pick by avoiding any contact, then he can backdoor into all that beautiful space. This time Bain has it, and Jay Huff might come screen, but once Dallas forces this action to the sideline, Huff can just space out anyway, and then Bain can fake the pass to him to set up another easy drive. The Grizzlies are first in the league in field goal percentage at the rim, and first in points in the paint. And as of right now, they have the second-largest offensive improvement in NBA history, adding nearly 12 points to their offensive efficiency when compared to league average. And their offense is ranked fifth, which might be the second-most impressive turnaround we've seen after Steve Nash's sons. And because they haven't sacrificed any defensive principles, Memphis might be looking at the biggest single-season turnaround ever. And yes, they were decimated by injuries last year, but they've also been better in 2025 than they were in 2023, and they're doing it while playing like absolutely no one else has in the modern NBA. It's unclear how much of this will hold up in a playoff setting, or if defenses just need time to adapt to these concepts. But right now, this team is fast, aggressive, and a handful to play every night, and they've basically done all this by abandoning the most successful play in the sport's history, and rarely running any pick and roll. 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