Film Analysis: Suns’ Elevator and Hammer plays for Booker

screenshot-170

While the Phoenix Suns are in the midst of a season where they’re trying to establish a positive culture and build a foundation for the future, there are two plays the Suns have executed involving second year guard Devin Booker to get him wide open threes.

In this Film Analysis, we’ll look at an elevator screen set the Suns used and then a Hammer screen set they used to get Booker two efficient looks.

Elevator Screen for Right Wing Three

The first was an elevator screen play the Suns ran for Booker against the Oklahoma City Thunder defense. The play diagram can be seen below:

Play Diagram by @PaulGarciaNBA
Play Diagram by @PaulGarciaNBA

Booker’s use of the misdirection by first slowly heading toward the paint was the key to get his defender behind on the play and to run into the screens, which freed him for the wide open shot.

[protected-iframe id=”338e9ee7e08142a82f3a5b81d71a28aa-114320562-25928832″ info=”https://streamable.com/e/ne2wb” style=”position:relative”]

SLOB Hammer for Corner Three

The second play is a Sideline Out of Bounds (SLOB) play with the use of two Hammer screens the Suns used to get Booker free for an open corner three against the Denver Nuggets.

Play Diagram by @PaulGarciaNBA
Play Diagram by @PaulGarciaNBA

The key for this play was for P.J. Tucker and Alex Len to set solid Hammer screens, which allowed Booker to get the wide open looks from the corner.

[protected-iframe id=”6ae7166a9e543943c9d1789c6bd15c8a-114320562-25928832″ info=”https://streamable.com/e/0x9db” style=”position:relative”]

This season Booker is Phoenix’s second leading scorer with 18.8 points per game. While he’s shooting below league average from three (32.5%), the two plays above show that while Phoenix might not have a winning product at the moment, they’re at least trying to put some sets in to get their shooters quality looks from the outside.

Arrow to top