Hoop Vision Weekly: Back To School, Feat. Kawhi & Fred (6/16/19)
A look back at Kawhi Leonard and Fred VanVleet's games in college
As we turn the page on a wild NBA season and gear up for next Thursday’s NBA Draft, this special Father’s Day edition of Hoop Vision Weekly takes us on a trip to the past.
Last week, we looked back at John Beilein’s prolific coaching career and the elements he might take to the NBA as he “goes pro.” This week, that’s reversed; we’re going back to school.
If you saw the subject line and expected an unreleased, post-Finals Drake song, well, apologies. You won’t find that in here.
What we do have for you is a look back at Kawhi Leonard and Fred VanVleet’s college careers, and the progression they’ve made from being stars at mid-major juggernauts to NBA champions.
This week’s edition gets fairly technical in parts, but will take you back to a memorable era of college hoops. And while there’s no new Drake song here, the throwback videos do feature the soothing beats you’ve come to expect and love from Hoop Vision.
Making an MVP: Kawhi Leonard Now vs. Then
With the Raptors winning the NBA Finals and Kawhi Leonard getting his seconds Finals MVP, we flashed back to Kawhi's San Diego State days earlier in the week on Twitter for a baseline out of bounds play Steve Fisher used to run for his superstar…
As these things go, that cut became the inspiration for a 14-minute YouTube video on the evolution of Kawhi Leonard's offensive game (full video below).
The first five minutes are devoted to how Kawhi was used within the confines of San Diego State's offense back in college, where Steve Fisher ran a lot of action for Kawhi to get into post-ups and isolations.
That San Diego State was elite defensively (#2 in KenPom adjusted defensive efficiency), but the Aztecs’ shooting ability (and as a result, their floor spacing) wasn't a strong suit.
Fred Van You-Know-Who
As an exclusive for newsletter subscribers / blog readers, we're continuing this idea of looking back on the college career of a member of the Toronto Raptors. This time, Finals hero Fred VanVleet gets the breakdown treatment.
While his performance in the NBA Finals caught much of the continent by surprise, we imagine that (just by virtue of your reading this), VanVleet’s series wasn’t as much of a Shocker (get it?) for you.
VanVleet was one of the best passers and ball screen playmakers in the country during his time at Wichita State. In his senior season, the Shockers’ lead guard ranked #9 in assist rate and #22 in points created off ball screens per game.
What made VanVleet so good in ball screens was his ability to pass to any of his four teammates (or shoot) while probing. This might sound somewhat obvious, but it's something that a lot of college players tend to struggle with. It's easy to get tunnel vision when coming off a ball screen and lock in on your decision right away.
This ability to distribute equally out of ball screens was something we talked about several times this season — both within this newsletter and via other Hoop Vision content — in regards to Gonzaga's Josh Perkins. VanVleet's ball screen abilities at Wichita parallel Perkins, but probably even go a step further.
Wichita State ran plenty of traditional "spread ball screens" with four players out on the perimeter and one big setting the screen. For most defenses, the standard way to guard that action is by having the strong side corner "tag" the roller.
VanVleet was elite at displaying patience in reading the tagger. Usually, the tagger is taught to do his job (tag) early so that he has time to recover to his man, and that is the exact situation in which VanVleet's patience comes into play. He would wait for the tag to occur and then throw to the roller anyways.
VanVleet was good enough where a team could just space the floor and let him go right into the ball screen on his own, but that doesn't mean Gregg Marshall didn't have other ways to complicate things for defense.
One concept Wichita State used with ball screens was Spain or Roll Replace. Instead of putting all four players on the perimeter, they would put a shooter in the paint and bring him up the middle to the three-point line as VanVleet was coming off a middle ball screen.
Ron Baker and Conner Frankamp were the two main shooters used here — sometimes setting a screen for the big rolling to the basketball, or sometimes just replacing straight the three-point line:
Lastly, we have (given both Wichita's personnel and the action itself) one of the hardest sets to guard from any college team in the last several years.
Wichita ultimately gets into a spread ball screen, but watch how much action and movement the tagger is put into both before and while the ball screen is occurring. With VanVleet's passing ability and Wichita's shooting, it was nearly impossible to guard this with traditional tag coverage from the single side.
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