Ranking the best new pick-and-roll combos

Any pick-and-roll combo with LeBron, Chris Bosh and/or Dwyane Wade will be lethal in Miami. (Getty Images)

It’s the NBA’s bread-and-butter play, and a new season promises a whole set of new pick-and-roll combinations to look at. Say goodbye to LeBron James-Anderson Varejao and Steve Nash-Amar’e Stoudemire and get ready to welcome the following 12 combos, in ascending order of most anticipated:

12. Mo Williams-J.J. Hickson, Cleveland Cavaliers

This isn’t precisely “new,” but this particular pick-and-roll combo merited a diagram on the back of a napkin somewhere in Mike Brown‘s office last season. Now, it’s going to be featured heavily, and it might be the best (and perhaps the only) reason to watch the Cavaliers this season, save for the possibility of a true Leon Powe comeback. Defenses must respect Williams’ shooting ability, meaning Hickson should have plenty of space to dive down the lane. And if there’s one thing Hickson is good at, it’s darting through open space (hopefully the correct slice of open space), catching a basketball and dunking it.

We’re also likely to see Hickson break out a pick-and-pop jumper this season. Yay, Cavs!

11. Raymond Felton-Amar’e Stoudemire, New York Knicks

If the Nash-Stoudemire screen-and-roll, one of the greatest in league history, was beauty feeding destruction, we can at least take heart that the “destruction” half will carry on in New York. Felton is no Nash — in style or substance — but his partnership with Stoudemire will turn him into a better screen-and-roll distributor than he was in Charlotte. In a preseason game this week, he whipped an off-the-dribble bounce pass through traffic to a cutting Stoudemire for an easy hoop. It was almost like watching the Suns. Almost. Enjoy this little number:

10. Yao Ming-Aaron Brooks, Houston Rockets

This feels new even though it isn’t, and it’s here mostly as a (very cautious) celebration that Yao is back after a year away. He’s a beautiful player to watch, and some preseason play-calling hints at the possibilities of a Kevin Martin-Yao pick-and-roll game in addition to the more common Brooks-Yao play. Yao won’t jet down the lane like Stoudemire, but he’s (obviously) a legit pick-and-pop threat and he has a certain way of meandering to open spaces in and around the lane as a roll man. There’s no one quite like Yao.

9. Darren Collison-Roy Hibbert, Indiana Pacers

The contrast alone is appealing, as one of the quickest players in the league will have to stay connected with a loping giraffe of a center. But Hibbert, who lost more than 20 pounds in the offseason, has proven an effective roll man when given a chance. Remember: Collison’s in only his second year, so it will take time for him to learn how to avoid getting too far ahead of Hibbert when he turns the corner and how to find the big man at the right spot on the floor. But Collison’s ability — he averaged about 20 points and eight assists per game when starting in place of Chris Paul last season — and Hibbert’s combination of size and touch will make this pairing fun to watch.

8. Derrick Rose-Carlos Boozer, Chicago Bulls

The Jazz don’t run the screen/roll as much as some folks think, but Boozer has all the tools to be a beast on the play — a reliable jumper, shot-making ability in the lane and willingness to set a nasty pick. He gets his shot blocked a lot, but he also moves well enough to put defenders in awkward positions and draw fouls.

Questions remain about whether Rose is a “true point guard,” and though the usefulness of that designation is debatable, it’s fair at this point to question Rose’s ability as a creator for others. Watching him work with Boozer should give us some answers.

7. Russell Westbrook-Unnamed Big Man, Oklahoma City Thunder

For all their improvement, the Thunder were a poor screen-and-roll outfit last season for two reasons: 1) Westbrook was learning how to run the play properly; 2) the Thunder lacked a big guy who is an ideal screen-and-roll partner, a hole that led to Westbrook shooting a bunch of long pull-up jumpers on screen-and-rolls last season.

The Thunder will certainly use Kevin Durant as a pick-and-roll ball-handler, but they can’t do that every time down the floor. The Westbrook-centered combo must improve, and watching that process unfold will be fascinating. Rookie Cole Aldrich is a promising roll man, and Nenad Krstic is capable as a pick-and-pop guy. Very nice players, both of them. But for real excitement, we’d all be best served if Serge Ibaka, the athletic freak the Thunder (then Sonics) drafted along with Westbrook, grows into this role.

6. Steve Nash-Anyone, Phoenix Suns

He’s arguably the greatest pick-and-roll distributor of all time and the architect of the league’s top-rated offense for nine seasons running, but Nash is without his screen-and-roll security blanket in Phoenix. Stoudemire missed all of 2005-06 and a big chunk of 2008-09, so Nash has proven he can keep the Suns humming without him for long stretches. He’ll have to do it this season with a strange collection of potential partners: a pick-and-pop three-point specialist (Channing Frye); a developing big man (Robin Lopez), and, perhaps most interesting, a cast of small forwards not accustomed to setting ball screens.

If anyone can make it all work, it’s Nash. Witness:

5. Stephen Curry-David Lee, Golden State Warriors

There might not be a more efficient screen-and-roll combination in the league, in terms of points per possession and shooting ability on both ends of the play. Curry came into the league as a shooter with questionable passing ability; Lee was seen as a banger who could rebound and put the ball back in the hoop. Both have broken far, far out of those stereotpyes. Curry is a smart and willing passer, and Lee has developed into an elite mid-range shooter. This combo is going to be so efficient that it might get boring — in that Spurs sense where “boring” is a compliment — which is why the following combos rank above it here.

4. John Wall-Andray Blatche, Washington Wizards

We’re starting to enter the unknown now. Wall is a 20-year-old rookie with just one year of college experience, an apparent turnover problem and an iffy jumper. He also looks to be a strong finisher, a willing passer with crazy vision and perhaps the fastest man on Earth while dribbling a basketball.

And Blatche? He remains as big an enigma as there is in the league. He emerged as a 20-point scorer when the Wizards gutted the team last season, and he’s a threat to score from 20 feet and in. He can pop, and he can roll. He can also be turnover-prone and selfish on offense, but he’s a major talent who should have started practicing his delayed transition screens the second the ping-pong balls came up Wiz.

3. DeMarcus Cousins-Tyreke Evans, Sacramento Kings

Evans was a solid screen-and-roll player last year, even though he didn’t have a particularly skilled big man target until Carl Landry arrived via trade. The Cousins-Evans combo should develop into one the league’s elite screen-and-roll forces. This pairing has the highest size/strength factor of any on this list, and it will cause some serious damage in the lane.

But there will be growing pains. Evans can get shot-happy, which is what happens when you’re the best player on your team, and he’s itching to unveil a mid-range jumper that will be much-improved but still won’t be the best shot for the Kings as often as Evans will think it is. Cousins is obviously raw, and he’s been turnover-prone in preseason games. Even so, he has everything you could possibly want in a screen-and-roll target — or at least the potential to develop everything you’d want in such a target.

2. Baron Davis-Blake Griffin, Los Angeles Clippers

This could be terrifying, and it really depends on how hard Baron Davis feels like working this season and if he can kick the habit of taking awful three-pointers off the bounce. Griffin could emerge as something like Stoudemire as a violent roll threat. Even in the preseason, he’s slipping screens and darting down the lane like Amar’e, and he has the athleticism and strength to finish with authority. He is going to have a highlight screen-and-roll finish every night, and he looks to have a good enough jumper to get your attention on the pick-and-pop.

Davis, when he’s motivated, is a patient and nifty passer. This should work, especially since the presence of Chris Kaman means the Clips don’t have to be overly reliant on one screen/roll combination.

1. LeBron James-Chris Bosh-Dwyane Wade, Miami Heat

Pick two of these three and toss them in a screen-and-roll. I don’t really care — it’s going to be fun to watch and enormously powerful either way. The most natural combination is James-Bosh. Only six players in the entire league produced more points per possession last season as the ball-handler on screen-and-rolls than LeBron, according to the tracking service Synergy Sports, and James now has one of the game’s great roll men to pair with in Bosh. Imagine this play unfolding with Wade working as a weakside cutter (or shooter) and Mike Miller spotting up for three? Good luck, other 29 teams.

The other combinations are just as intriguing, particularly a Wade-James pairing. Defenses might be tempted to switch, which would create mismatches for both players; James is four inches taller than Wade, after all. James got about only two-dozen chances as the roll man last season (per Synergy), but he was efficient on those plays.

It would be really exciting to be Erik Spoelstra right now, and this team is going to be must-watch every night.