Trae Young - Double Drag (Passing)

The Atlanta Hawks ran Trae Young through a TON of screens in his freshman season, but one of their pet sets was this Double Drag action. Trae will get two ball screens in a row, sometimes from two bigs, sometimes from a wing or guard and a big. Whatever the combination, the Hawks have players who are aware of their strengths and play to them, and they have bigs capable of stretching the floor and hitting shots when they pop out. As a defense, you’re forced to make decisions: do we just switch everything? In that case, there’s obviously going to be a mismatch. Trae is cagey enough not to give away what he’s going to do until he does it (regarding attacking the big or hitting his big on the roll or pop). Does the defense hard hedge the second screen? Well, either attack that gap the defender is no longer occupying, or have that screener slip the screen. You’ll see Young throw a variety of passes in these situations, and his ability to look the play off, to freeze defenders with fakes, all the while keeping the defense honest with his ability to attack the rim, play the in-between game, and shoot from distance is pretty spectacular for someone so young. The best part is that he’s not alone in his playmaking, because everyone who sets a screen for him has the versatility to slip, pop, roll, or even rescreen just opens everything up. One of my favorite wrinkles they run out of this is actually the end where they sort of disguise the action and then have the ball get pitched to Trae and then receives another screen. The pitch is essentially the first screen, and that gets him sort of going downhill, so that by the time he gets that second screen, he’s got as many avenues to attack as he wants. That and the quick hit ahead pass Trae will throw, only to get it pitched back? Beautiful. It’s practically the same, but any kind of movement that gets multiple players touching the ball and being able to potentially make plays is always enjoyable to me.