Pick and Roll Coverages play
Coverage: Drop and the Snake
- Court
- Half court
- Length
- 13 steps
About this play
Drop coverage on a middle ball screen, from the defense's side: the screener's defender stays below the screen, at or just above the nail, between the roller and the rim, and never comes up to the level; the on-ball defender chases over the top with his top shoulder above the screener and stays on the handler's hip; the low man on the weak side tags the roller with a bump and gets back to his man. What the drop concedes on purpose: the mid-range pull-up from twelve to fifteen feet and the pick-and-pop. Why that trade: a drop defense decides before the game that it will live with contested mid-range pull-ups, and the coverage's advantage is that it never gives up the rim or the roll and never needs a rotation; most high school bigs cannot hedge and recover, and a drop asks them only to stay home. The offense's counter is the snake: the handler comes off the screen and crosses back in front of the screener toward the other elbow, keeping his defender on his back and dragging the big away from the roller, so the big has to choose between the pull-up and the pocket pass. The coverage's answer is the peel switch, from Slappin' Glass: the top defender on the full side of the floor switches onto the snaking handler while the on-ball defender peels into the rotation, so the dropped big stays attached to the roller. Common mistakes: the big stepping up to the level and turning the drop into a soft hedge, the on-ball defender getting smeared on the screen, and the tag coming late so the roller catches. I learned drop from Basketball Immersion's coverage breakdown and HoopsKing's guide to what it gives up, with Hoop Student and HoopBrief on the pull-up trade and Slappin' Glass on the peel switch; look them up if you want to go deeper on the rotations.
