How You're Always Wrong: The Unstoppable Garland-Mobley Pick and Roll

    The Darius Garland and Evan Mobley pick and roll has a chance to be really special in a couple years. Their unique skillsets and how they mesh together can cause tons of problems for defenses. If everything pans out, this pairing will be able to beat every single common pick and roll coverage with ease.

    vs Drop Coverage (primary):

    High ball screen into a Garland pull up three. This is the most important part and should set up all the other options.

    vs Drop Coverage (failed screen)

    If Mobley fails to get Garland open with a screen, Garland can drive with the opposing guard on his hip and kick it back out to Mobley for a three. This will take time to develop, Mobley isn't super threatening from deep right now. His screens also aren't the best currently, so this might be used more often than you would like. Could also just dive and take a floater over the center for now, but eventually threes will be the better option.

    vs Blitz

    Set up by Garland killing drop coverage with threes, Garland gets it to Mobley on the short roll, where he has a 4-on-3 and can win pretty easily with his guard-like skills. Given where Mobley is at currently, putting him in situations where he already holds an advantage will definitely help him out. This is going to be dangerous if Garland can consistently get it to Mobley when he's double teammed.

    vs Hedge/Big steps up:

    Garland blows past the big for a layup or Mobley slips behind the big and Garland drives and throws Mobley a lob. Not many short roll guys can catch lobs like Mobley can, so this versatility will be useful.

    vs Switch

    Mobley slips and gets it on the short roll, where again he has a 4-on-3 advantage. Garland could also drive on the big and throw Mobley a lob after he slips the screen. Another option is just to accept the switch and punish the mismatch. Garland is alright with switches onto bigs, sometimes he gets caught without his dribble in the short midrange and has to take a one-footed fadeaway, but he's very comfortable with stepback threes over bigs. Mobley posting up on a shorter player will also be devastating, especially if the defense brings help, leaving someone open for Mobley to find with his passing skills.

    vs Ice

    Similar to drop coverage with a failed screen, Garland can take the lane that ice gives him and kick it back out to Mobley for a three, or Mobley can dive in for a floater. Another option is for Garland can do a CP3-esque in-and-out dribble to move the guard defender out of the way and just go around the screen. If the defender bites, then it should set the screen up perfectly and get Garland wide open for a three.

    There aren't many other pick and roll coverages than these, at least without thinking extremely out of the box. Playoff defenses usually have more time to strategize, so they might find something crazy, but with the combined passing skills of Garland and Mobley, it shouldn't be too hard to find where the help is coming from and exploit it. One note with all of these, there is always the possibility the defense brings help from one of the corners, and Garland can abandon the first read to kick it out for the open corner three.

    This duo has some insane potential, and the Garland-Mobley pick and roll could become one of the best plays in basketball in a few years. We're already seeing glimpses of this, as down the stretch in the season opener Garland hit a pull-up three and on the next possession, Garland got blitzed and Mobley made a play out of the short roll. It's a perfect example of this duo's bright future; they beat the standard coverage and Memphis adjusted, so Garland and Mobley made their own adjustment and made the defense wrong again. There really is no answer to stopping this duo.