Film Room: NC State's Offense is Cooking

NC State's offense currently ranks 20th nationally in total efficiency, 17th in effective field goal percentage, and despite some regression, is still shooting almost 40% from three as a team. The offense has done a lot of things right to this point, and the Pack is having fun compressing defenses and zipping the ball around the perimeter to its squadron of shooters. Let's hope it continues into conference play.

The pieces have fit together well. Even with Darrion Williams struggling mightily, State has been able to achieve a lot because it has paired rim pressure and distribution with floor spacing/shooting. That's basketball in its simplest form. Copeland, Lubin, and McNeil are all posting excellent numbers so far this season, and while all are playing at a high level on offense, being around the other two has also elevated each individually. Wade has done well to understand how these guys function and to get them into advantageous spots. Let's take a look.

First, we're going to look at one of the many ball screen actions Wade has run, this one involving the three guys we just discussed. This action is a combo of a ram screen and a roll-replace. A ram screen refers to a screen on the defender who is guarding the eventual screener in pick and roll. You can see Breed screen for Lubin, who then climbs to set the screen for Copeland. After the pick and roll initiates, McNeil will “replace” at the exchange point of the screen. Teams have a tendency to lose track of the shooter here if they’re aggressive helping at the rim or rotating.

State is able to discombobulate Ole Miss with the ram action. The Rebels want to switch this screen, but the big is delayed getting there, which is the point of the ram action. The guard doesn’t look like he was made aware of Lubin's screen. He runs straight into it, and Copeland is able to easily come off the screen and get downhill because the big is way out of position. The guard is chasing Lubin now and has no real help. The final piece is a phenomenal leading pass from Copeland and a good catch and finish from Lubin. 

Copeland and Lubin have been good partners in pick and roll. I had some questions about how Lubin would fit into this, because he doesn't have a ton of versatility as a roll man and he has poor hands. These things haven't really changed, but he's been pretty effective as a rim runner, largely because he's an excellent finisher when he does get a clean catch. Over 66% of his makes at the rim are assisted, which is a large number, but he's shooting almost 74% at the rim, which is also a large number. Wade has got him looking to take souls at the rim and it's elevating an already efficient finisher. The percentages are similar to last season, but on more minutes and higher usage. He's largely been the offensive player we thought he would be, but just the best version of that player.

Copeland activates a lot of Ven-Allen Lubin, which you can see in the above GIF. The same is true for McNeil. It’s important to understand how much of a boon Copeland is for McNeil, who is shooting 43% from three and posting 40-point games where he has more made field goals than dribbles. A lot of that is downstream of State being able to initiate offense with a creator who puts pressure on the rim. McNeil didn’t play a lot last year, but if he had, it would not have looked like this. State just did not get defenses into rotation last year like it has this year, and that’s Copeland at work. I'm not trying to give someone else credit for McNeil's (or Lubin's) work of course. It's just that what he does is so much more impactful with this cast of characters.

Here, McNeil is actually the screener on a guard-to-guard pop action.

Ole Miss offers up the switch, so no advantage is created, but Copeland is able to attack off the bounce. He draws the second defender and suddenly Ole Miss is in rotation. Now McNeil can go to work, and here’s where you really see the details that make him such a threat. He passes up the first shot to keep the wheel spinning. Sagnia is able to attack the closeout and McNeil relocates all the way to the corner. He’s excellent at relocating to open space, and it’s a big part of why he gets so many shots out of these situations. He ends up getting a better shot than he would have had the first time.

Here's another example of McNeil doing the same thing.

He is really good at coming back to the ball. This isn't even an offensive action from State. This possession just plays right into an empty-side isolation for Copeland as he gets a plus matchup. Copeland is once again able to compress the defense, McNeil comes back to him when he sees the back of his defender's head, and the duo exploits space the defense opened for them.

This is just an offensive rebound, but McNeil once again finds the open spot on the floor and then Copeland fires a crosscourt skip pass directly into the shooting pocket. This pass is so good. Also, hats off to Sagnia on the improvised screen.

One of the things I've liked with Will Wade's offense is the additional frills they've added to base actions. State runs variations of pick and roll plenty, but they have consistent wrinkles for the shooters, the most obvious being the veer screen that they run most games. That was the play they ran to beat South Carolina in the scrimmage.

This is a played called Ram Exit.

At the very beginning, you can see McNeil setting the ram screen for Darrion Williams, who will be the screener in the on-ball action. After the screen, McNeil receives an exit screen from Musa Sagnia as he clears to the corner. Copeland rejects the ball screen and gets all the way to the rim. This is one of the best examples of the amount of rim pressure he creates. He's got three guys leaving the floor in the charge circle here. At that point, it's just a matter of finding McNeil with a another highlight reel pass.

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