SCREENING Part 1

The Stance - 

Players should stand with their feet wide and planted firmly against the ground. They should literally feel like mountains that cannot be moved. Also, players should have their arms tucked into their chest so the refs can see that you're  not committing a foul with their hands.

Positioning -

 As a teammate runs off of a screen, make sure that they rub shoulders with you, the screener. The person coming off of the screen needs to be very close and tight with the screener. The closer the player is to their teammate, the closer they will be to cutting off the defender.

Timing - 

This requires lots of practice and individual attention. The main thing a player needs to do is to wait for the screen before

they moving towards the screener. When players move before the screener has a chance to set, it really kills the offensive flow and really makes it easy on the defensive players, thus making each screen virtually useless.

Angle -

Players need to be in the correct angle so that the player is directly in the way of the defender. Otherwise, the screener could be "too wide" or "too high" allowing the defender to slip underneath the screen, or "too low" in which case the defender can easily fight over the top of the screen. All of which makes the screen useless. 

Now, the angle that the screen is set is going to be determined by the type of screen being used. So let's talk about the different types of screens that are commonly used:                                                       

This is a basic screen that's usually used "on-the ball". 

The screener needs to stand perpendicular to their 

teammate, so that they will be directly facing the defender.

                                                 

This is where the screener goes from the elbow to the opposite low block of the lane or vice-versa. The screener needs to come towards their teammate at a 45 degree angle and try to screen the defender on their shoulder area.

This type of screen is usually used "off-the-ball". 

The screener needs to stand parallel to their 

teammate so that the screen  is set on the 

defender's back side.

This type of screen is usually used "off-the-ball" and is 

normally a screen used to get players open down on 

the block. Similar to the back screen, the screener 

needs to be parallel to their teammate and should

set the screen on the defenders back side. 

All of these screens can be set by any player.  The player number used in these examples is just that, and example.  For example, in the diagonal screen, 2 may come from the elbow to set the screen for 5 or 5 may come down from the elbow to set the screen for 4.  Stay tuned for part two of screening in the next  blog.