On the Warriors using ‘Circle’ to run circles around Rudy Gobert’s pick-and-roll coverages

How a rarely used sideline play triggered a revolving door of Gobert coverages on Steph Curry.

In the Golden State Warriors’ 113-103 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves to stave off a stretch of losing nine of their last 11 games, my mind comes back to a certain possession that wasn’t involved in the final 18-possession stretch of the game in which the Warriors scored on 15 of them. Rather, it was a sideline out-of-bounds (SLOB) play ran at the 10:43 mark of the second quarter. While Rudy Gobert protests an out-of-bounds call that didn’t go in his favor, listen carefully in the background as Steph Curry yells out quite clearly the SLOB play he wants his teammates to run:

The ”Circle” play call is a rare one from the Warriors, reserved for situations in which they need to get a quick shot up with the shot clock winding down. If you recall, perhaps the most famous instance of “Circle” being used by the Warriors was back in the 2022-23 season against the Memphis Grizzlies, where Curry was infamously ejected due to throwing his mouthpiece out of frustration from an ill-advised Jordan Poole shot. Not too long after, it was Poole himself who would make the game-winning layup out of “Circle” (in the form of a baseline out-of-bounds or BLOB configuration):

“Circle" is named as such due to the circular motion it triggers from the triple curls that come one after the other — in the case above, Poole is supposed to be the third curl but decides to cut backdoor in response to being denied and top-locked away from the curl toward the corner. It was a brilliant display of improvisation in response to being taken away from the action, instead willing himself to becoming its main focal point.

In Curry’s case against the Wolves, “Circle” was more of the traditional variety in which he played the Poole role of the third curling party. The Wolves let him curl off of the screen with Gobert monitoring the various curls and dropping back to shut off the paint and the rim, in case one of the curls find themselves cutting inside. However, the initial curls act as distractions compelling Gobert to drop back, away from the final curl that happens to involve the greatest shooter of all time.

(To be fair to Gobert, perhaps he was confident in dropping back due to the confidence he has in Nickeil Alexander-Walker’s screen navigation chops. But against someone like Curry, it still presents a major risk.)

As such, the greatest shooter of all time feasts against a deep drop:

While Gobert certainly has the capability to play a coverage involving a higher step up toward the ball handler in the pick-and-roll, his nature as a rim protector gives him the instinctual need to drop back in the paint on almost every possession. The Wolves certainly do want Gobert to be near the rim as much as possible, and the benefits outweigh the risks on most nights.

On nights that involve Curry, however, the gap between benefit and risk closes massively, something the Warriors know all too well in their battles against the French center. In that regard, they make it a focus to double down on that pressure point by involving Curry in all sorts of screening actions and testing the Wolves’ willingness to draw Gobert away from the rim and the paint — all in an effort to take away Curry’s space around ball screens.

Initially, Gobert was reticent to step up. A drag screen in transition — in which Gobert’s natural proclivity while going back on defense is to drop deep in the paint — gives Curry an easy look:

Curry’s nature as a deadly pull-up shooter gave the Wolves no choice but to bring their rim-protecting center away from the rim — and Curry almost immediately responded by hitting Gary Payton II on a baseline cut toward the rim, which sends him to the line:

Even while Gobert tries his best to step up and take away what would be a layup for Curry, the Warriors superstar makes his version of what would be a tough switching-hands layup over a rotating help defender — except this time, that rotating help defender is instead a seven-foot center playing up to touch at the perimeter. The Warriors go to one of their classic half-court sets for Curry: “Thumb Out,” involving a ball screen followed by “Get” action in which Curry throws his pass to the wing, follows it back for a handoff, and puts pressure on the big to decide what to do with him around the handoff.

Gobert decides to step up and plays the best defense he could against a deadly pull-up artist who’s among the best at creating separation. All Gobert is left to do after, however, is to tip his cap:

When Gobert has to step up, it delegates the rim-protecting responsibilities to someone else, preferably from the weak side and from someone who may not be as proficient in shot blocking or deterrence as Gobert is. When Gobert steps up again to meet Curry around the screen, Trayce Jackson-Davis takes advantage by finishing over Anthony Edwards — much shorter than Gobert and less likely to send Jackson-Davis’ point-blank shot away:

To make matters worse for the Wolves and Gobert, the Warriors employ a bit of simple trickery to compel him to drop back — even if he doesn’t want to. On another staple set from the Warriors they call “Dive Roll,” Payton comes over to set a screen for Curry to force Julius Randle to be involved in the action. Randle doesn’t want to switch, however, so Payton relocates to the weak-side dunker spot, drawing Gobert away from the perimeter in an effort to cover Payton momentarily.

What Gobert realizes too late, however, is that another screen is being deployed for Curry — and his man, Jackson-Davis, is the one setting it. Having dropped back to monitor Payton, Gobert is too far away to cover for Jaden McDaniels, who is a beat late trying to get over the screen:

Afraid of giving up another open three around a ball screen, the Wolves make the call of having Gobert step up against Curry no matter what — which once again opens up the Wolves’ backline defense to being vulnerable in scramble situations. Curry, generating the initial advantage by drawing two to the ball and putting the Wolves in rotation, is rewarded with the ball back in his hands and drilling an open shot, helped by his teammates swinging the ball until they find the one man the Wolves did not want to see open under any circumstances:

The ball circling back toward Curry in the possession above is poetic — in the sense that all of this was started by a simple “Circle,” in which Gobert dropping back compelled him to step up as the game progressed, giving Curry the look he needed to send the Wolves away and give the Warriors something they haven’t had in quite a while: a morale-boosting win.