Trae Young is about to run the play that’s helped turn him into one of the game’s most explosive players: the high pick-and-roll with Clint Capela. It’s late in the third quarter during an early-season game between the Hawks and Jazz, and there are no good options for Utah’s defense in this situation. Joe Ingles, who is tasked with the unenviable assignment of guarding the Atlanta star, knows it. If he tries to avoid the screen by going under it, Ice Trae will pull up from three and fire without hesitation. If he goes over the screen, he’s on his own; Capela’s defender, Hassan Whiteside, has to stay close to the Hawks’ big man, otherwise he will run to the rim for an easy alley-oop. And if the Jazz decide to hedge, Young can skip a quick pass to Capela and Atlanta’s offense can play four-on-three.
The best option, though still treacherous, is for Ingles to stay attached to Young’s hip and go over the screen, crowding Young so he can’t shoot, but not so close that the lightning-quick guard can launch himself into his body and pick up an easy foul—something Young is adept at doing.
That’s the option Ingles takes. With Capela setting a screen on Ingles’s left side, the Jazz forward darts above it to stay attached to Young, who right on cue stops abruptly, hooks Ingles’s arm on the way up and immediately draws a whistle.
