On paper, it seemed entirely elementary. Put Goran Dragic and Chris Bosh on the floor. Put them in the pick-and-roll. Put points on the board. Rinse. Repeat.
Things are never as easy as them seem.
There would be glimpses, but we would rarely see that pick-and-roll combination materialize in any meaningful way during the preseason slate. Fine, they’re working on other offense. They can always get to the bread-and-butter, the thinking went. Then we got to the regular season and it didn’t happen then, either. Fine. But when?
Dragic and Bosh would downplay the topic of their pick-and-rolls. They would answer questions, but it was never the most engaging subject to speak to either of them about.
“I didn’t talk about that,” Bosh said. “Everybody else was like, ‘Oh, pick-and-pop. Hey, what do you think about pick-and-pop’?
“We’ll see,” Bosh would say.
The tempering of expectations was so consistent that once the games got going and it became clear there was plenty else to sort out with the offense, the Dragic-Bosh pick-and-roll was something of an afterthought.
Now, a month into the season, the time is right to roll out the welcome mat. It’s finally here.
For most of the night against the Cleveland Cavaliers, or at least as long as the game was still contested, Bosh found himself catching the ball in space. He only took six shots, making five, but he also had three assists. For as long as Miami needed offense, the court was Bosh’s oyster.
All because a single communique was received loud, clear and effectively.
Right off the bat, the Miami HEAT appeared to want to put Kevin Love in pick-and-roll situations. As Dragic and Bosh ran their first action, they quickly recognized the coverage. Unlike the soft, zone coverage popular with most of the league’s big men, where they hang back behind the screen to contain the guard and protect the paint a la Hassan Whiteside, Love was showing on the ball to prevent penetration at the point of attack.
So, point guard and power forward proceeded to make the adjustment as smoothly as guys with years experience together.
“They came really strong with Kevin Love on a show,” Dragic said. “I just talked with CB and he was going to slip the screen because the middle of the floor was going to be open.”
A few possessions later, Bosh slips. He approaches Dragic as if they’re going to run a routine pick-and-roll but forgoes making actual contact and slides right into the space created by Love’s pressure on the ball.
Catch. Read. Swing. Penetrate. Corner Three.
“Tonight, with CB, we played well together,” Dragic said. “That low pocket pass was always available.
“We hit him like four or five times. From there on he’s going to get a shot or he’s going to be a playmaker.”
If this seems like a relatively simple adjustment, that’s because it is. Nobody is splitting the atom. But being able to make a switch in game, execute that tweak and have it work is something Dragic and Bosh couldn’t do as recently as two weeks ago. Which makes sense. How many of you start a job with new co-workers and develop a two-way street of constructive communication on the first day?
“Within those two weeks, we’ve gotten extra work after practice,” Bosh said. “Talked about it. Talked about it during shootaround. Talked about it during practice. Talked about it during the games. As we see more situations, he asks me questions and I ask him questions.
“It just takes time.”
When everyone was thinking about the pick-and-pop action between Dragic and Bosh, we were probably being too specific. Inherent in the name of that action is the pick, which implies making contact. A slip-and-pop is a variation on the same theme, sure, but it’s the ability to bounce back and forth between tiny little changes that makes an action truly deadly.
Earlier in the year, sets had been too predictable almost because it was only pick-and-pop in the strictest sense.
“At the beginning of the year were just playing and CB was always popping,” Dragic said. “Now we are mixing things. We are talking. We are seeing how the defense is reacting. I can say, ‘CB, now you’re going to be open on a short roll. Now you’re going to be open on a pop’.”
As Dragic said earlier, the pocket pass with Bosh slipping into space was repeatable and productive.
“In the first couple of minutes you see how the defense is guarding the pick-and-roll,” Dragic said. “Then you make the adjustments and then you know where the shot is going to come.”
Even for a shooter as good as Bosh, you don’t always want to be taking 15-foot jumpers when three-point shots are ever on the rise. But a team that knows it can get consistent, open shots in a specific zone is one step closer to becoming a top-tier offense.
Better yet, for all this talk about a single adjustment made on the fly, what was most impressive Saturday night was how Dragic and Bosh were able to re-adjust. When Tristan Thompson was in the game for Love, he was playing the aforementioned zone coverage on the pick-and-roll. So Bosh started making contact again, and Dragic controlled the pace of the play knowing that Bosh would be rolling a little slower toward the rim.
And when Love starting zoning the pick-and-roll himself, Bosh made the same adjustment. The pick-and-pop came to life.
“I think today was the best that we’ve played the pick-and-roll all year,” Bosh said.
Just as Dragic’s individual performance and comfort level increasing is just as or more important than the actual wins this time of the season, the development of his and Bosh’s communication and execution is crucial to the big picture. Months from now, when that pick-and-pop we so eagerly anticipated actually becomes the bread-and-butter, it will because of the small steps forward taken on nights like Saturday in December.
“When we’re playing in the Spring and it’s like we’re making plays out there and just playing, those are buildups of conversations over and over and over that we’ve had,” Bosh said.
Over time, that’s hundreds of different, sometimes uncomfortable conversations just to make one action seem effortless on the court.
Things are never as easy as they seem on paper.
