NEW YORK — The pick-and-roll has morphed into the NBA's most popular play during recent years.
Offensive attacks, such as the one belonging to the Charlotte Hornets—who run pick-and-rolls more frequently than 25 of the league's 30 teams—are built around it. Defensive schemes are predicated on being able to stop it. The play has catapulted a number of guards, like Charlotte's Kemba Walker, into stardom.
Walker could credit his favorite pick-and-roll partner Cody Zeller for a few of his career-high 23.8 points per game, and he does, but that'll have to wait:
"He sets illegal ones," Walker told Bleacher Report, with a laugh. "But I love it when guards get hit. It happens to me all the time, getting hit by other bigs. It's fun to see other guards deal with the same thing."
Zeller is averaging five screen assists per game, the third best mark in the NBA this season. He's doing so despite averaging just 25 minutes, 10 less than Washington Wizards center Marcin Gortat, whose 6.4 screen assists per game lead the league.
Screen assists take into accoun ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by Yaron Weitzman