Wide Pindown: off-ball screen freeing up player towards the ball spanning the width of the court
Wide (aka "Quick") has been a Klay Thompson staple for years. In essence, the play aims to get Klay separation from his defender in space via an off-ball screen. That’s it.
In basketball, and especially in the NBA, the simplest actions can be the most effective ones because of the talent you have to work with—get your best players in their spots and you’ll be just fine.
Klay Thompson’s one of the most dangerous shooters we’ve ever seen, so even the slightest opening is a great look for him.
Klay's threat to shoot often puts the defense in a panic, compelling them to commit two on the ball to make sure that he doesn’t have a look.
This is found money for the screener. Slipping out of these situations can create easy paint touches, courtesy of pocket or overhead passes from Klay.
Andrew Bogut, in particular, mastered this formula in the 5 seasons he spent with Klay. The synergy between the two was so tight that Bogut figured out that sometimes… he didn’t need to come close to setting the screen at all.
Klay’s threat to shoot was so great that bigs would be in a mental bind over him coming off of a screen before it actually even happened. This gravitational attraction towards Klay could be so strong that, at times, it meant losing focus on Bogut, who took full advantage with rim runs.
This “fake” wide pindown became a Bogut special over the years.
Slipping out of these screens so effectively is no easy task. It takes an awareness and a feel for the defense’s reaction, factors often developed with experience.
This is why, when rookie Trayce Jackson-Davis pulled it off several years later, it raised some eyebrows.
It’s like looking in a mirror.
Bogut and TJD have a lot of similarities; they’re both big, athletic, and have great feel. To make this action work, it requires the screener to not only be an effective target for the shooter that draws attention but also that the screener knows how to make themselves available.
Jackson-Davis replicated this play a couple weeks later.
Nice work Yashwant!