Earlier this season, we looked at the leaders in screen assists – the big men that use effective and sometimes crushing screens to free up their teammates for open looks.
Today, we look at the players that take advantage of those screens with the top 10 pick-and-roll ballhandler scorers in the NBA through games played on Feb 27.
Pick-and-roll ballhandler plays remain the most utilized play across the NBA, accounting for over 17% of all offensive possessions, according to Synergy play type data. So, it should come as no surprise that the top five pick-and-roll ballhandler scorers rank among the top eight overall scorers in the league.
From our partners:
| PLAYER | Pick-and-Roll PPG | Overall PPG (Rk) | %PPG Pick-and-Roll |
| Trae Young | 13.5 | 27.8 (5) | 48.6% |
| Donovan Mitchell | 13.1 | 25.9 (8) | 50.6% |
| Luka Doncic | 12.3 | 27.6 (6) | 44.6% |
| Ja Morant | 11.4 | 27.1 (7) | 42.1% |
| DeMar DeRozan | 10.9 | 28.3 (4) | 38.5% |
Trae Young: Young is on pace to lead the league in pick-and-roll ballhandler scoring for the second consecutive season. After finishing ninth in his rookie season in 2018-19 at 7.8 ppg, Young has become one of the most prolific pick-and-roll scorers in the game. He finished second in the league in 2019-20 (15.3 ppg), first in 2020-21 (13.9 ppg) and holds nearly a half-point lead over Mitchell this season.
Take a look at this play from Atlanta’s win over the Raptors on Feb. 26. De’Andre Hunter comes up to set the screen, but never makes contact with Young’s defender. However, it is enough for Young to get by Fred VanVleet, force a switch to Chris Boucher and the rest is highlight history.
Donovan Mitchell: The Jazz continue to lead the league in pick-and-roll ballhandler frequency (23.1% of possessions), have the league leader in screen assists (Rudy Gobert at 6.5 per game), and Mitchell leads the NBA in pick-and-roll efficiency, scoring 1.09 points per possession. Mitchell has a 56.0 effective field goal percentage – third behind Lance Stephenson and Jrue Holiday among the 111 players with at least 100 pick-and-roll possessions this season.
Check out this play as Royce O’Neale sets a screen on Russell Westbrook, and as Westbrook steps up to start to go over the screen, Mitchell rejects the screen and drives right past Westbrook and gets into the lane for the layup. The timing of Mitchell’s move toward the basket is perfect — it catches Westbrook as he’s dealing with the screen.
Luka Doncic: Doncic and Young not only entered the league together – and will forever be tied by the Draft-night trade for one another – but they also have a similar trajectory as scorers since they’ve entered the league. Doncic also averaged 7.8 ppg on pick-and-rolls as a rookie before vaulting to a top three pick-and-roll scorer in each of the past three seasons.
Ja Morant: Morant’s third-year leap has seen all facets of his game elevate to new heights, including his pick-and-roll scoring and efficiency. Last season, Morant averaged 8.3 points per game on pick-and-rolls (11th) and 19.1 points per game overall (35th). This season, he’s up to 11.5 ppg on pick-and-rolls (fourth) and 27.6 ppg overall (seventh). Ja’s rise is not just about taking more shots, it’s about converting those extra shots at a higher rate. Last season, he scored 0.81 points per pick-and-roll possession with a 43.4 effective field goal percentage on 7.3 shots per game. This season, he’s up to 0.91 points per possession with a 50 eFG% on 9.3 shots per game.
DeMar DeRozan: Take another look at the side-by-side charts above and notice that there are only two players that rank in the top 10 in both pick-and-roll points per game and pick-and-roll points per possession – Mitchell and DeRozan. DeMar ranks fifth on both leaderboards and is the fourth-leading scorer in the league with a career-best 28.2 points per game in his 13th season.
Check out this highlight reel from Chicago’s game against Memphis last week as DeRozan reached 30 points for the 10th straight game. He uses picks above the 3-point line to create the separation he needs to get to his favorite area of the court – the mid-range, where he’s been unstoppable all season long.
Damian Lillard: The Blazers announced on Sunday that Lillard is progressing in his rehab following abdominal surgery and will be reevaluated in two to three weeks. When looking at the leaderboards above, we see Lillard sixth among pick-and-roll ballhandler scorers, which would be his lowest finish since we have play-type data going back to the 2015-16 season.
- 2015-16: 10.0 ppg, 1st
- 2016-17: 11.2 ppg, 3rd
- 2017-18: 12.4 ppg, 1st
- 2018-19: 11.7 ppg, 2nd
- 2019-20: 15.8 ppg, 1st
- 2020-21: 12.9 ppg, 3rd
In addition to Lillard in the scoring leaders, the Blazers also have Anfernee Simons ranked in the top three in pick-and-roll scoring efficiency (1.05 points per possession) as well as CJ McCollum ranked seventh during his 36 games in Portland this season. Synergy keeps separate data based on the team a player played for, so we can compare McCollum’s pick-and-roll numbers during his time in Portland (1.02 points per possession) and his time so far in New Orleans (0.92 ppp over seven games).
Another player moved at the trade deadline that we have to mention is James Harden, who has been phenomenal in his first two games with the Sixers – scoring 9.5 pick-and-roll points per game on 1.36 points per possession, with an effective field goal percentage of 81.0%. Of course, that is an extremely small sample size so we did not include it in our leaderboards above. During his 44 games in Brooklyn, Harden averaged 6.3 pick-and-roll points per game at 0.83 points per possession with a 49.0 eFG%.
While we’ll have plenty of highlights of Embiid scoring as the roll man on pick-and-rolls with Harden (come back on Thursday), here’s a look at Harden surveying the floor after getting a screen before pulling up for the jumper.
Dejounte Murray: Murray’s leap is reminiscent of Morant’s as the first-time All-Stars have taken huge strides this season in both their overall game and pick-and-roll dimension. Murray averaged 5.6 pick-and-roll points per game last season (0.84 points per possession) on 45.2 eFG%. This season, those numbers have climbed to 9.0 points per game, 0.87 points per possession and 48.0 eFG%.
De’Aaron Fox: Since Domantas Sabonis made his Kings debut on Feb. 9 following the trade deadline, Fox has averaged 26.7 points per game on 50.7% shooting from the field over seven games. Compare that to his 21.2 points per game on 45.9% shooting in 44 games prior to the trade and it’s safe to say that adding one of the best screening and passing big men in the game has been beneficial for Fox. Sabonis leads the NBA in screen assists (6.6 per game) since joining the Kings.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: SGA and Doncic are the only two players in the league to rank in the top 10 in both pick-and-roll ballhandler possessions and isolation possession so far this season. Gilgeous-Alexander’s efficiency is slightly higher in isolation (0.96 points per possession on seven possessions per game) compared to pick-and-roll (0.90 points per possession on 9.7 possessions per game).
Chris Paul: Paul is the only player in the top 10 in pick-and-roll ballhandler scoring that does not average at least 20 points per game. The 17th year veteran is averaging a career-low 14.9 points per game for the NBA-leading Suns (although he is currently sidelined with a broken thumb). He’s been able to find the perfect balance between scoring and playmaking as he leads the NBA in assists at 10.7 per game. Paul leads all players with 55.9% of his possessions coming as pick-and-roll ballhandler sets, and that coincides perfectly with the fact that 57.0% of his points come on pick-and-rolls.
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