From a young age, basketball players are taught not to get beat backdoor and give up layups, yet this still happens at the highest levels because the art of cutting is emphasized just as heavily.

A few months ago, I published an article here regarding The Anatomy of a Backdoor Set, detailing all the necessary movements, requisite defensive coverages and precise details that go into making a backdoor play successful.

One area that article fell short was in detailing the players who make the cuts and how they can be so good at getting open. So let's dive into four of the league's premier back cut artists.

All four are perimeter-oriented players and high-level scorers, which dictates the first principle needed for any of this to matter: The backdoor cut must actually be open.

Typically, either within a defensive gameplan or an individual personnel assignment, over-pressuring is what leads to backdoors. Since it only makes sense to pressure a strong player and prevent them from getting the ball, we rarely see backdoors work for non-scoring threats.
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Nonetheless, while exhibiting some of the same traits needed to be a great cutter, each player in this breakdown scores in a drastically different way.

Anthony Davis is one of the best pick-and-roll bigs of this generation. He's now paired with perhaps the greatest passer of all-time in LeBron James, a special athlete with an insane command of any defense he's facing.

The duo is as vaunted in one action as any in recent memory.

But something is also strange about their pairing in its current manifestation: Davis, for all his unworldly athleticism and natural skill, prefers not to be the only post player on the floor for the Los Angeles Lakers. Such a choice has altered the team's attack on both ends, pairing Davis and LeBron with another big.

In theory, this relieves Davis from the bruising nature of physical post play, allows him to rove more on defense and gives him a distinct size advantage in his individual matchup. In practice, the lineups morph the spacing around Davis during ball screens.

Since Mike Miller took over as interim head coach for the New York Knicks, the team has responded by going 7-12. Those numbers don't set the world on fire, but they are a massive improvement from the 4-19 start under David Fizdale. Specifically, Miller has sparked their offensive performance: Over the last two weeks, according to Cleaning the Glass, the Knicks are 20th across the league in points per 100 possessions.

Again, that sounds pretty bad until you remember where they were prior.

The question surrounding any coaching change would be, "what did he add to improve the team?" For Miller, a more appropriate question might be, "what has he subtracted?"

Watch the Knicks play and one thing is evident: Their playbook is much, much thinner with Miller. Instead of running a lot of different actions, he is taking a patient, teaching-based approach with this young roster. The Knicks will only run a few things, but they will be good at them. They won't change much based on an opponent unless it's within the structure of what they already do.
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Miller's aim seems to be finding something simple, universal and meaningful to what an NBA team would need to be successful in the future.