The Official Site of Brandon Roy

Wed, Nov 5th 2008, 14:53

Roy rolls on as defensive pressure increases

Three games into the Trail Blazers season, Brandon Roy can list the number of bad passes he has made.

“There have been about four total this year already,” Roy said. “And every time it’s like I know right away.”

Roy in each instance has let out a disgusted scream, which at times has been audible throughout the lower bowl. Usually one of the smartest and poised players on the Blazers, Roy has probably had more bonehead plays in the first three games than he did in all of the second half of last season.

“I’d say that’s a true statement,” Roy said. “I don’t think I’ve made that many (bad passes) in a long time. But now I know it, it’s in my head.”

What’s in his head is the way opponents are attacking Roy and the Blazers’ bread-and-butter play – the pick-and-roll. Teams are aggressively trapping Roy like they always have after he runs off a screen. But in a slightly different twist, the Blazers first three opponents have used another player to run at LaMarcus Aldridge, which complicates Roy’s option to pass back to Aldridge.

That tactic was best illustrated on Saturday in Phoenix, when Roy was trapped near the sideline. To get out of the trap, he passed toward Aldridge at the top of the three-point line. It was exactly what Amare Stoudemire anticipated, and the Suns forward stepped in front of the pass and took it the length of the court for a dunk.

“It’s almost as if the defense is reading our plays,” Roy said after his three-turnover performance against the Suns. “It seems like I’m looking for the open guy, but it seems like there is two, three guys to deal with: a dude guarding me, a guy trapping, and then another man helping. It’s like OK, how do I deal with this?”

In his first two seasons, Roy said he would easily deal with traps off the pick-and-roll by immediately sending the ball back to Aldridge, who usually set the screen for him.

“I didn’t even have to look,” Roy said. “I knew LaMarcus would be open. But teams have scouted it, and they are saying ‘No, we are taking that away.’ “

In tactical terms, teams are “shooting” at Aldridge, meaning a defender “shoots” up quickly from the lane to take away the pass to Aldridge. The conventional pick-and-roll defense is a 2-on-1 philosophy – pitting two defenders who guard, or “trap”, the ball handler. The tactic being thrown at the Blazers is a 3-on-2 strategy, which pits two players to trap Roy and one to shoot at Aldridge.

Coach Nate McMillan said the 3-on-2 tactic has been around since the 1990’s, and that Roy saw it at times last season. The only difference is that teams have been more aggressive with it this season, To make matters even more difficult, Roy was being guarded by three of the best wing defenders in the NBA: the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant, San Antonio’s Bruce Bowen and Phoenix’s Raja Bell.

“What’s happening is Brandon is getting the respect,” McMillan said.

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