Prized Possessions: Corner Sets

Early in Miami’s recent victory over the Orlando Magic, Mario Chalmers brought the ball up the court and passed off to LeBron James. Then Chalmers, making no secret of where he was headed, strolled down to the strong-side corner and set a pick for Dwyane Wade.

Wade curled over the top of the screen and hit turbo, receiving a pass from James as he neared the paint, where Wade eventually scored.

There doesn’t seem to be anything particularly complicated going on here. This isn’t some elaborate set drawn up out of a timeout that catches the defense off guard. It’s a simple screen in the corner and a simple pass. You could go out and run the same set right this very second, without a second glance at a clipboard.

But consider what the HEAT did in the above possession. In less than six seconds from the initial pass to the score, Wade got a layup against an above-average NBA defense. This wasn’t in transition, and there was no exceptional ball-movement at play. In less than six seconds, with a couple of players moving off the ball, the HEAT got exactly the shot they wanted.

That’s why this set, the corner set, is a huge reason Miami scores more points per possession than any other team in the league (.943).

In half-court offense alone.

An oft-used criticism of the HEAT last season was that their execution in the half-court would get bogged down, that it relied too much on the pick-and-roll. That was entirely accurate to say. When James or Wade or Bosh heated up, they would also eventually cool down, and when talent alone couldn’t carry the offense, there wasn’t always enough that the team was comfortable with to fall back on. There was the pick-and-roll, sure, but as you saw against the Dallas Mavericks last June, the pick-and-roll is predicated on bringing extra bodies towards the ball. When your execution and spacing hits the skids, that can be the last thing you want to do.

The HEAT needed to be able to manufacture good opportunities without relying on ball-handling creation.

“It’s important for us to have continuity, rhythm offense where everybody is involved,” Erik Spoelstra said. “When we get stagnant, we go to that, and there are a lot of reads. Guys can use their IQ, they can help each other, they can make the game easier for each other.”

Think of the corner, Spoelstra’s version of the famed triangle offense, as a simplified version of a run-blocking scheme. The offensive line sets up to push the defense in a particular direction, but it’s always up to the running back which manufactured gap he’s going to hit. Once the handoff is made, it’s up to the back to read how the defense has been manipulated.

It’s up to Wade – or James or whoever else is in the corner – to read the defense and choose the best course of action. At times, as he did early against the Magic, he’ll go over the top of the screen if his defender lags behind. If the defense jumps the screen and tries to cheat over the top, then Wade can cut backdoor.

And with James or Bosh holding the ball with a good view of the floor, due in part to both floor positioning and their size, Wade is usually going to get the ball if he makes the correct read.

“The best thing about that offense is that it has different things going on at once,” Wade said. “It’s all about patience. About waiting until the right moment to make a cut. To make a move. Knowing that you might have some space, a quick second to be able to attack the basket and get your shot off.”

Patience didn’t come the moment Spoelstra decided to incorporate these sets into the offense. The corner was used as far back as last January, and when it worked it provided a stark contrast to the offense the HEAT had just used to run off 21 wins in 22 attempts. The glimpse of a dynamic attack was there, but with Wade and James still adjusting to making reads off the ball and Bosh learning to play as a passer at the elbow, it didn’t always work.

“I think that’s the biggest adjustment,” Wade said. “Even when we ran it last year . . . we just have more patience with it, we’re more comfortable, we know what we’re looking for.”

Of course, it still doesn’t always work. It’s no secret that the HEAT use the corner actions, and defenses will sniff it out ahead of time. But this year the offense doesn’t die if the first screen doesn’t produce a cutting lane. Since Miami runs the corner set early in its offense, if the defender jumps in front of Wade, he still has plenty of time to turn around and work out of the post.

But as defenses begin to adjust, Spoelstra can continue to tinker. Instead of just running Chalmers to the corner for a screen, maybe he’ll have Udonis Haslem set a staggered screen in the same area. Or, with Bosh holding the ball up high, they’ll run simultaneous corner picks on either side.

If none of that works, then at the very worst you still have time on the shot clock, with bodies moving and the defense distorted and reacting. Smart players are left to make smart basketball decisions.

Has this set alone revolutionized Miami’s half-court offense? No. But it’s an example of what’s been a long time coming. Spoelstra implemented a number of half-court actions in the second half of last regular season, sometimes at the cost of a few wins in March. And they’ve continued to drill those actions until the required split-second decisions become second nature.

That’s the point the HEAT have reached with the corner set. But there’s more to come.