Small Forward Wednesdays: Bojan’s favorite play

Bojan Bogdanovic has been a great shooter for the Pacers this season. But an underappreciated aspect of his game has been his skill running plays where he curls off of a pin-down.

The Pacers run a smooth offense under Nate McMillan. One of his strengths as a head coach is catering the sets the offense runs to the strengths of the players on the court. This season has been no different.

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One of those plays, or at least an action with many variations, that McMillan frequently uses is called “Curl Down Flare”. There are many iterations and intricacies of this action, but there is one main portion that often leads to buckets, and it is one of the motions the play is named after, the curl down.

The “curl down” is a pin-down screen designed to get Bojan Bogdanovic (or whoever is playing the small forward position – which has been almost entirely Bogey this year) free curling toward the basket. A pin-dow screen is one in which the screener is facing the baseline. The curl describes the route in which Bogdanovic runs off the screen. He “curls” in from the wing, around the screen, and runs toward the rim. The ball handler is at the top of the key and gets him the ball as he caroms in the direction of the tin.

Put it all together, and you get this:

There’s a lot to analyze here to see how it all works. First, right as the clip starts, watch Bogdanovic put his arm up to fake signal that he is going to set a screen for Darren Collison. Doing this fools his man into taking a step back, which gives Bogdanovic more room to start his run off the screen. Then, Bojan does a perfect job rubbing shoulders with the screener, Myles Turner, to ensure there is no space for Evan Fornier to clog up the action. Turner does good work making contact with Evan Fornier and then popping back out to pull his man, Nikola Vucevic, away from the basket. The solid screen and the threat of a Turner three-pointer opens the lane for Bojan’s cut, and the perfect pass from Thaddeus Young leads to an easy two points.

There are many variations of the set that are successful. On this one, the Pacers get an offensive rebound and reset on the wing. Because the ball starts on the wing and the defense is all jumbled around the basket, they are forced to run a more compact version of the play. Since the ball is coming from the wing instead of the top of the key, the pass can come in faster, and lower, instead of being lobbed, and Bojan is able to score before the tightly-packed defense can recover:

It is very impressive how Nate uses this play so it can be useful in many scenarios. The Pacers even have a variation of it that they use on sideline out of bounds plays:

Isn’t it crazy how similar that first clip against the Magic and the clip you just watched are?

The variation in this basket is that it is a SLOB play with Bojan as the inbounder. Other than that, it is the same as before. Nate’s idea to use a set that has been successful against the Magic before as an out of bounds play is genius, and it worked here.

Bojan deserves some credit too. His finishing off of these curl screens has been great, and his decision making when other teams stop him has been operative. For example, watch this clip. The Pacers set up the play, this time with Domantas Sabonis as the screener. Bojan starts to move like he is going to run around the screen. His matchup, Wayne Selden, recognizes the play and begins to cheat to cut off the action. Bogey recognizes that he is cheating, so he simply back cuts to the rim for a wide open layup:

What a great read. Bojan has a knack for making the right decision when McMillan calls his numbers.

When his shot gets cut off, he often still makes the right play by passing to an open look somewhere else. On this set, the Pacers run the play but set the screen much deeper in the corner. Bojan gets free and receives the pass while cutting down the lane. The Bucks (literally, the whole team) cut off Bogdanovic in the [aint, so he alertly gets the ball to the open Sabonis who floats it in over the shorter defender:

There is another variation of the play that Bojan gets most of his assist out of. It is essentially all the same, but instead of the entry pass coming from a ball handler on the top of the key, it comes in the form of a dribble handoff with the screener. It looks like this, and it always leads to the defense having to make a decision about who to guard:

See how Bojan starts running before Sabonis gets there with the ball? That allows him to gain speed before his drive and get his defender on his back, forcing the help to come in the form of a switch. Sabonis rolls, nobody covers him, and bam. Easy dunk.

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The Pacers run this play multiple times every game. Thankfully, they see great results from it. Let’s hope they continue to be deadly with such a simple action.