By Rob Scott

Unicaja Malaga are 4-0 in the ACB, and 1-1 in Euroleague play coming off an 85-78 overtime victory over Zalgiris Kaunas on Tuesday. Joel Freeland starred in the latter game, with 21 points and 12 rebounds, as he and Kristaps Valters combined to first bring Unicaja back into the game and then seal the deal in OT. Freeland is averaging 18.6 points on 65% shooting from 2 point range in 3 ACB games. So far, so good? Well, yes and no. Freeland was one of Europe's most efficient bigs last season and could be even better this time round. But I believe that Unicaja's less than stellar point guard play both this year and last, is hampering their ability to get the best out of the Great Britain forward, and with a possible jump to the Portland Trail Blazers in the offing, their window for success with him may be closing.

Freeland is a strong offensive threat on the block, able to turn and score over either shoulder and he has a great fundamental post game. Without anything like Synergy to track this accurately, watching the team early on, the three players who handle the ball the most - Gerald Fitch, Earl Rowland and Kristaps Valters - have been able to get Freeland the ball in the post and let him go to work on a pretty regular basis. But Unicaja could definitely make more out of pick and roll and pick and pop situations, not just for Freeland as the roll man, but to create shots for others on the perimeter.

In their 79-57 weekend win in the ACB over CAI Zaragoza, Unicaja only ran two pick and roll plays for Freeland. One with Gerald Fitch as the ball handler and one with Earl Rowland.


Here we see Fitch as the ball handler. As Freeland sets the screen, his defender can either show or hedge, and Fitch should decide whether to pass or drive to the rim accordingly.


Freeland's man has cut off the drive by Fitch, who makes a good decision to give up the ball to Freeland, who is in position to take an open jumper. However, Luka Zoric's defender steps up from the baseline to challenge the shot and Freeland hesitates then attempts to force a pass down to Zoric and turns the ball over. However, Fitch made the right play and more often than not, good things would have resulted for Unicaja.


Earl Rowland hooked up with Freeland later in the game on a very well executed side pick and roll, and this time Zaragoza is going to switch on the screen.


Rowland times the pass perfectly, and the end result is an emphatic dunk for Freeland.


With the well timed pass from Rowland, the defender rotating along the baseline is far too late, and it's an easy two for the big man.

So, we can see that both times Unicaja worked directly off a ball screen set by Freeland, the results were promising. This wasn't their plan of attack vs Zaragoza, but they used it to much greater effect against Zalgiris. We take a look at three plays that show the strengths and weaknesses of their guards in this situation and some evidence to point to who should be handling the ball at crunch time.


Here, Fitch gets the ball screen up high from Freeland, whose man - Milan Rakovic - is going to stay home to prevent Fitch from penetrating.


As we can see in this shot, Rakovic, Lawson and Kalnietis have converged on Fitch, leaving Freeland alone for the nice pick and pop jumper off the reverse bounce-pass, a play guys like Pablo Prigioni and Dimitris Diamantidis have made a career out of. However, he hesitates, caught between dumping it to Tremmel Darden in the corner, who Kalnietis has left, and ends up turning the ball over.


Kristaps Valters has been coming off the bench, but his pick and roll work late in the game with Freeland was mostly exemplary. Here as he comes off another good screen set by Freeland, Robertas Javtokas is playing off Freeland, and he is going to slide back to cut off the drive.


Valters times his pass perfectly, and when Freeland catches the ball on the move, there isn't a chance that anyone will be able to stop him, and the result is a powerful dunk that brought Unicaja to within one point. Video of the play is below.


Valters was not only useful when feeding Freeland as the roll man. The play below shows how he adapted to what the defense offered him at another crucial point in the game.


Here, Valters uses Freeland's ball screen on the left side. Again Robertas Javtokas, guarding Freeland, plays it passively, while Kalnietis is going to leave his man and provide help from the weakside.


Javtokas has switched onto Valters, cutting off his penetration, and now Kalnietis has his back to Berni Rodriguez, the man who he had left to provide help.


Whilst we have seen that both Fitch and Rowland are capable of running an effective pick and roll with Freeland, it isn't a natural part of either of their games, both preferring to attack off the dribble. That is not an unwanted skill, but Unicaja may well be advised to give primary playmaking duties to Valters, as he is definitely the most proficient and consistent pick and roll ball handler on the team. Freeland is already possibly Europe's best big man, but he would be even more devastating if Unicaja can add this dimension to their offense.

Editor's Note:Rob Scott is a featured blogger for 'The Basketball Post', providing insight on European basketball. More of his work can be found here and can be followed on twitter @robscott33