How the Pacers can "stack" the deck in their favor (Patreon)

Putting the ball back in the hands of Haliburton with an unexpected stack screener 

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper 

Prior to Tuesday's win over the Dallas Mavericks, Tyrese Haliburton had gone from playing out of 51.4 ball screens per 100 possessions to averaging just 32.3 over the prior five games. With Ben Sheppard and Doug McDermott both sidelined, the Pacers continued to run "stack" (i.e. a pick-and-roll combined with a back-screen for the screener), but more often with Haliburton as the stack-screener rather than the ball-handler -- as was so often a staple of the playbook before Buddy Hield was traded. In fact, two nights earlier, when the Pacers lost to a Spurs team with the third-worst record in the league, they basically never ran two of Haliburton's pet plays, with Aaron Nesmith only once making a shallow cut under a ball screen and no guards ever setting a non-contact screen and slipping out to the perimeter with any momentum. Instead, Haliburton was playing off-ball as much as ever, appearing to be moving differently as he was also moved to different spots within the offense. 

That changed in Dallas -- to an extent. With the Mavericks soft contesting against Myles Turner, despite the fact that he torched them for 35 points less than two weeks ago, the Pacers went back to spamming picks for Haliburton, as the star guard dribbled off 63.1 ball screens per 100 possessions. In that regard, the mission was clear. If the defensive big sagged off, Turner pulled the trigger from deep. More often, though, with both defenders committing to the ball, the big man was moving toward the basket, attacking Kyrie Irving as the lowest help defender on the weak-side.

In the second half, when the Mavs switched the match-ups, with Derrick Lively II taking on possessions against Pascal Siakam instead of Turner, the strategy remained largely the same, only with Nesmith setting a non-contact blur screen (ahh yes, remember blur screens?) to get Luka switched onto the ball, followed by a screen from Siakam. In this case, Haliburton glides to his floater, but Irving was again stationed, very conspicuously, as the low-man. 

Since playing the Pacers at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the Mavs have surrendered 120+ points in each of their last five games, while also ranking dead-last in points allowed per chance when defending ball screens, according to Second Spectrum. As such, the Pacers didn't exactly need to overcomplicate the simple in this match-up in order to get rolling with the pick-and-roll. In that regard, the only sightings of "stack" once again involved Haliburton as the stack screener, with McConnell at the controls, or came out of a sideline out of bounds play that never really generated an advantage, aside from a deflected post-entry pass. 

Moving forward, the Pacers are probably still going to need to find some hacks for how to get the ball back in Haliburton's hands while running one of the game's toughest actions to guard when the starters are on the floor -- especially against stiffer defenses. In order to manipulate the change in spacing without a more credible movement shooter in that five-man lineup than Haliburton, perhaps the seemingly organic set-up of this possession can offer some insights. 

In the moment, it didn't exactly seem intentional that Siakam paused momentarily in the lane as the potential stack-screener, but there might be some future utility to unearth if he did. 

For example, consider that most teams typically defend "stack" by switching the guards, with the stack-screen defender jumping onto the ball and the on-ball defender bouncing out to the stack-screener, like so.

If that happens, imagine if Siakam slipped to the rim instead of leaking out to the wing. In that event, with Turner holding the ball-screen and prolonging the roll to occupy the defensive big outside the paint, the on-ball defender would get caught on the high side of switching onto the slip from Siakam.   

Plus, given that the both frontcourt players are involved in the screening action, that means the guards for the opposing team would be responsible for tagging, with Irving once again in position to protect the rim as the low-man. As it was, Dallas attempted to guard everyone straight up, which allowed Haliburton to get downhill, finishing with a wrong-footed floater.

Again, Dallas isn't exactly the model of pick-and-roll defense right now, especially with Josh Green as the on-ball defender in lineups with Luka and Irving as the only other possible options. Still, just as Haliburton found his shot putting in work at the Dallas home of Buddy Hield, maybe the Pacers can also find a way to "stack" the deck in their favor, with Siakam also taking up residence in Hield's old stomping grounds -- only with a twist or, rather, a slip.