NBA Film Room: How to Stop the Pick-and-Pop

This article is a facsimile of an earlier publication on The Basketball Writers (TBW), which recently closed its doors.

The pick-and-pop has become one of the NBA's most common plays on offense, even more so as skilled big men continue to get stretchier and the lanes are kept open for ball-handling drivers rather than lumbering rollers. With everyone frequently running this action—even going so far as to invert the look with guards and wings taking turns as the screener—defenses have had to concoct easily repeatable counter schemes.
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TBW's Coach Adam “Spins” Spinella of Dickinson College details how teams essentially have two different options, and both include involving a third defender for help. But is that assistance the real thing or just a mirage?