Big Game, James: How Sion James’ subtle playmaking & connective passing drive success

Sion James leaves in mark at Syracuse, plus more on Duke's Iverson series, Cooper Flagg-Khaman Maluach pick-and-roll and zone offense against Syraucse

With an 83-54 win over Syracuse, Duke improved to 12-0 in ACC play. The Blue Devils scored 1.37 points per possession, breaking the 1.3 points per possession benchmark against a conference foe for the seventh time this season. In five of those seven league games, Duke also held its opponent under 1.0 points per possession, including the victory against Red Autry’s club in Western New York.

All together, this was a dominant offensive performance; Duke shot 70 percent on its 2-point attempts (21-of-30 2PA) while assisting on 60 percent of its field goals and recording a 3-to-1 assist-to-turnover rate (18 to 6).

Playing without Mason Gillis (illness), every other player in Duke’s rotation had positive minutes, though the game ball should go to Sion James, who had his fingerprints all over this contest for the Blue Devils.

Duke is now +328 in 525 minutes with James on the floor (100th percentile), outscoring opponents by 38.8 points per 100 possessions (100th percentile). In the minutes with James in the game, nearly 23.5 percent of Duke’s defensive possessions have included a block or a steal, according to CBB Analytics.

James has been one of the most impactful transfers in the country, regardless of conference or position. Now in Durham, he’s found himself in a perfect role, too, working as connector in Duke’s decentralized half-court playmaking apparatus.

Up at Syracuse, James finished with 10 points on five field goal attempts, dished out four assists (0 turnovers) and recorded three steals. Duke was +18 in 26 minutes with James on the floor, according to CBB Analytics, scoring 1.40 points per possession on offense and allowing only 0.95 points per possession on defense.

It was a mistake-free game for James, filled with plenty of defensive havoc, too. Let’s rewind the film and see where and how James enforced his will on Syracuse.

Sion James introduces himself to Syracuse

Currently, there are three ACC players with a defensive box plus-minus rating of 5.0 or better: James, Cooper Flagg and Maliq Brown — all of whom have defensive rebound rates above 15.0 percent and steal rates above 2.5 percent. While authoring another chapter into his case for ACC All-Defensive Team inclusion, James finished the contest with three steals while defending across all five positions.

As James usual does, he started the game on the opposing team’s top perimeter player: JJ Starling, a veteran guard with good burst, some upper body strength and shot-making tools. Given Starling’s role as Syracuse’s primary initiator, this meant James would start out defending at the point of attack. However, the flexibility and scheme of Duke allow Jon Scheyer to play confidently with five guys on the floor who are ready to defend a variety of position types.

Duke is going to switch when playing man-to-man defense, but that philosophy extends to the break, too. When defending in transition, guys can just pick up the offensive player that’s closest to them: worry less about matching positional assignments and just make sure to have numbers back, a hat on a hat and the rim sealed off.

Early in the game, Starling pushes the ball up and Duke’s cross-matched at the 1 and 4: Flagg is on Starling and James is on Jyare Davis. James switches to Elijah Moore after a handoff action. As Davis starts to post Kon Knueppel up on the switch, he turns his back to the floor — with James one pass away. That’s all James needs to see: he races over to double team the post. Davis, who is a good passer, spins and quickly gets rid of the ball before James can disrupt him and Flagg gets into the passing lane. Duke is in motion after the kick-out, though, and it’s an impressive display defensive rotations: closeout, closeout and then James rotating from the left side to help on Lampkin at the right box.

That’s a lot of ground to cover. On this possession alone, James defends three players, makes an on-ball switch, doubles the post and hits a cross-court rotation to help contest a layup at the rim — with help from Knueppel.

Here, Lampkin chases his own miss. As he comes up empty on the offensive rebound opportunity, Maluach is left unaccounted for as he runs the rim. James pushes the pace and Lampkin tries to communicate the concern, but as Starling goes to stop the ball, no defender takes Maluach, the guy who has 43 dunks (in 22 games) and is shooting 79 percent on 2-point attempts this season. (Not great, Bob!)

Of course, the Blue Devils complicate these things with an arsenal of excellent shooters running the floor, too. When Proctor, Knueppel and Isaiah Evans fill the corners and wings in transition, they get open shots, or they help open things up for teammates by flattening out the defense.

Later on in the second half, Duke is again cross-matched to start the defensive possession: James is on Davis and Flagg has Taylor. As Starling dribbles left around a ball screen from Lampkin, Duke’s in drop coverage — with Brown below the level of the pick, while Proctor fights over the top.

Starling does exactly what Duke wants to encourage — lofting a difficult runner from the short midrange, which he misses badly. Lampkin tracks down the offensive rebound and charges toward the rim. The Syracuse center tries to back down the more nimble Brown; however, while Lampkin is occupied with his battle in the post, he doesn’t sense James making a play on the ball. James leaves Davis in the left dunker spot and doubles Lampkin — creating a steal with his hands and hustle.

The play results in a transition opportunity with Flagg leading the break and feeding a perfect pocket bounce pass that hits a sprinting Brown in stride.

James’ ability to turn defense into transition offense is a massively important feature of his game. He fits with other recent Duke guards — like Tyus Jones, Tre Jones, Wendell Moore Jr. and Proctor — who were/are able to get the Blue Devils rolling in transition with hit-ahead passes and open-floor drives.

On this drag ball screen with Starling and Lampkin, Duke has Khaman Maluach hedge out. With the strong-side corner emptied, this leaves James as the back-side help defender. Lampkin short rolls into space and is met by James, while Starling’s pass if off target (an issue of his when passing off of a live dribble). James grabs the loose ball and Duke is running with numbers, though James multiplies that initial advantage with a hit-ahead pass to Proctor, sprinting up the left side. Proctor makes a great catch, snagging this pass along the sideline, and his able to attack the closeout for a score.

This may not seem like much; James won’t chart in the box score for what he does defensively on this possession, but it’s crucial, and it leads to points on the other end, too. As Flagg is stripped while going to the rim, James races to get back and wall off the rim in transition. With James at the basket, the 6-foot Jaquan Carlos doesn’t want to try a rim attempt. Instead, Carlos kicks out and Starling settles for a poor midrange shot early in the clock. The miss creates a Flagg rebound and an opportunity in secondary offense. Going the other direction, Syracuse is cross-matched and the Orange don’t have the same caliber of defensive personnel as their opponent: Carlos is on Flagg and the 7-foot-4 Naheem McLeod is on James. Seeing the mismatch, James immediately strikes, rattling off his signature lefty inside-out move, which results in a layup.

According to CBB Analytics, James has averaged 4.0 field goal attempts at the rim per 40 minutes this season, which accounts for nearly 45 percent of his total attempts. James ranks fourth among Duke’s rotation players in terms of rim field goal attempt frequency — behind only the centers: Maluach, Brown and Patrick Ngongba.

When Flagg is on the floor, Duke has four players that can rip-and-run as lead ball handlers in transition — all of whom can dribble in tight spaces and pass. This allows James to get off the ball on the break, too.

Flagg is switched out on Starling and blocks this shot to end Syracuse’s offensive possession. Proctor grabs the rebound and leads the push. Maluach runs the rim and Flagg comes up behind Proctor as the trail man. James is out ahead of the pack and in the right corner; however, Evans is also on that side of the floor, filling the lane. Quickly, James recognizes the spacing and sprints hard to the opposite corner, running in the direction of Proctor and forcing the defense to defend maximum real estate, sideline to sidline.

Well, except for the fact that Syracuse doesn’t really even defend James on this possession. James streaks across the floor, no one picks him up and its an easy pass from Proctor for a corner 3.

Duke has seven different players who are shooting 37.5 percent or better on corner 3-point attempts this season — all with five or more corner 3-point field goals. Knueppel leads the way in terms of volume: 19-of-40 (47.5 3P%) on corner 3-point attempts, per CBB Analytics. James, however, leads the roster in 3-point percentage from the corners: 8-of-15 on corner 3-point attempts (53.3 3P%), which adds to his overall resume as a potential NBA role player.

(I remain adamant that a savvy team will look to add James this summer, whether it’s through the draft or free agency. Hello to my friends in Boston, Memphis, OKC and Houston!)

In total, Flagg has assisted a team-high 52 3-pointers, including 16 from the corners, which is also tops on the roster.

Caleb Foster leads the break here, James and Flagg fill the corners and Evans is the trailer. Instead of running the rim, Brown sets a crack-back flare screen and Evans gets an open 3-point attempts off of James’ skip pass. Evans misses his deep bomb, but that allows Duke to get funky for a few seconds. Brown back-taps the offensive rebound. Flagg corrals and skips to James, who relocates to the right corner. James cycles the ball back, and now it’s time for Foster-Flagg pick-and-roll. Syracuse is in drop coverage, so Flagg is open on the short roll. Flagg hits Brown in the dunker spot and Duke’s center quickly pings the ball back out. James attacks a closeout, touches the paint and hits Brown with a little drop-off pass in the dunker spot.

That’s beautiful basketball.

James ranks behind only Flagg on Duke’s roster in terms of total assists that have led to a finish at the rim: 29 to 34. Unsurprisingly, James also lands behind only Flagg in terms of assist rate: 22.3 percent.

A low-mistake, lower-usage player, James is No. 1 on Duke’s team with a 2.62-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio, which has only increased during conference play: 3.54-to-1 ratio against ACC opponents.

Often, you’ll hear James referred to as a “connective” passer or player. Jon Scheyer mentions this all the time with regard to James. This buzzword stands in for a player who constantly makes good decisions with the ball and has the ability to find gaps or moments in the half-court offense to make the pass or set the screen that helps create points.

On some possessions, yes, only one or two players are needed to score; however, there are many half-court scenarios that require multiple passes, screens and cuts to open up the right look. The outcome of the possession is the result, but this is the process. James doesn’t always create the initial advantage, nor is he a top-two play-finisher on Duke’s roster. That’s the domain of Flagg and Knueppel. Instead, James is routinely the player that links those items together.

For instance, Duke starts the second half with its go-to “L” series for Knueppel. Maluach sets the ball screen for Knueppel atop the key and dives to the rim. With Syracuse in drop coverage, Knueppel pressures the defense and drives right at Lampkin, which forces Moore to come off the wing and tag the roller. James is now open and Knueppel hits him with a kick-out pass. The Tulane transfer could look to shoot a 3-pointer here off the catch, but he opts to drive the ball instead. James touches the paint with his dribble as Knueppel relocates back to the left wing, opening up another kick-out pass — resulting in a clean catch-and-shoot 3.

This is the goods from James: turning a good shot into a great shot. He touches the paint with a live dribble and creates a second kick-out opportunity. The more an offense bends a defense — forcing it to handle numerous drives and rotations — the better.

There are other times, though, when James is just too good, too fast and powerful, and he can do it all on his own. This is a weight room finish from James, who buffaloes the 190-pound Chris Bell on a ferocious downhill drive.

Iverson Series

The offense clicked in several different ways for Duke at Syracuse — one of which was its Iverson series. Iverson plays start with one of the off-ball guards (Knueppel) cutting across the formation, using screens at the elbows from the 4 (Flagg) and 5 (Brown).

James passes to Flagg and slinks down to the left corner. After cutting off Brown’s screen, Knueppls curls towards Evans, who is stationed in the right corner. This is where Duke gets into its Strong Motion setup: staggered down screens for the player (Evans) in the weak-side corner. Evans will runs off the screen and finish with a tight curl — cutting into the paint.

As soon as Evans curls, the Blue Devils flow into a quick “gaggle” action — with Brown setting another down screen for Knueppel.

This is a great way to involve Knueppel (37.3 3P%, 12.5 3PA per 100 possessions) and Evans (45.5 3P%, 19.8 3PA per 100 possessions) — two talented movement shooters — together in off-ball action: screening for and curling around one another. That’s a lot of a defensive to deal with away from the ball. On the catch, Knueppel curls his way into the paint and scores off of two feet at the rim.

During the win over UNC last week, Duke ran Iverson Strong for Knueppel, although on this play, there’s no gaggle action. Instead, Proctor runs over the Iverson screens and helps set the down screens for Knueppel. Ian Jackson gets stuck on both pindowns and Knueppel gets a good, open look from deep.

This feels like an expansion of the playbook for this year’s Duke team, too. While the Blue Devils have used their Iverson series to tap into different pick-and-roll actions and isolations for Flagg, they’re now mixing in motion and movement shooting sets.

Going back through my playbook database, Knueppel’s 3-point attempt vs. UNC marked the first time that Duke ran Strong (staggered down screens) out of Iverson since Darren Harris used this possession during the scrimmage at Countdown to Craziness. Although this play is a little different, too, as the ball is entered to the wing — with the player coming across the Iverson screens (Knueppel) receiving the initiation pass.

This play design was really useful with Jeremy Roach and Jared McCain during the 2023-24 season. At Wake Forest: McCain runs across the Iverson screens and helps set the staggered screens for Roach, who curls and gets to his elbow jumper. Kyle Filipowski, in the same frontcourt hub role as Flagg, delivers the pass.

Duke also used Iverson action to launch step-up ball screens (which I refer to as “Iverson Step”) against Syracuse, including the final play of the first half. James runs across the Iverson screens. Immediately after screening for James, Maluach sprints to set a step-up screen for Proctor. Maluach smacks Lucas Taylor with his step-up screen while Lampkin is in deep drop coverage. Proctor exits the ball screen with a ton of real estate and drains a walk-up 3-ball.

The Blue Devils have run Iverson Step a fair amount this season. It was especially effective against Pittsburgh, including the first play of the game, which resulted in a lob connection between James and Maluach.

Later on in the second half at Syracuse, it’s more Iverson Step. Knueppel comes over the Iverson screens and Brown lifts to set the quick step-up screen for James. With their feel for the game and chemistry on full display at Syracuse, James dribbles off Brown’s screen and McLeod is in drop coverage. McLeod, however, is in no-man’s land: dropped too far to pressure James, but also too far out of the paint to contain the dive. This is poor pick-and-roll fit from Syracuse and James takes advantage. Brown dives hard to the rim and James uncoils a pocket pass that hits his center in stride.

The next time down the floor, it’s the same setup.

James attacks the drop coverage, but he’s stymied at the rim, which results in a kick-out. Proctor misses the subsequent 3-point attempt, but Brown collects the offensive rebound and instantly kickstarts Duke’s offense. There’s quick elbow action with Flagg. Brown short rolls to the right elbow as Flagg drives and collapses Syracuse’s defense. Before Flagg’s pass back to Brown has even been received, though, James is on the move, catching Taylor watching the ball and cutting from the weak-side wing to the paint. Like a quarterback seeing a slot receiver break free on a slant pattern, Brown is on the same page as he snaps a perfect pass to James for the cut finish.

Once again, James and Brown are heady basketball players. They think and play the game at such a high level, and it’s really fun to see them connect like this, especially when it’s in the random flow of the offense. Even without Gillis, this win was yet another demonstration of just how well Duke did in the portal last offseason.

Cooper + Khaman

Late in the first half, Duke found a rhythm with the Flagg-Maluach pick-and-roll combo. Flagg, in the span of a couple of minutes, showed why he’s such a tough cover in the ball screen action, putting Lampkin and Davis in the spotlight.

On this after-timeout possession, Duke runs a baseline-out-out-bounds play for James. When that action doesn’t generate the desired shot, Duke resets and quickly flows into Maluach setting a ball screen for Flagg on the left wing. As Flagg dribbles off to the middle of the floor, Lampkin is in drop coverage, well below the level of the screen. Davis fights over Maluach’s screen, but he doesn’t go to Flagg — instead, he sticks with Maluach on the dive. Starling helps off of Foster on the wing, but he doesn’t really pressure the airspace of Flagg, who dribbles into a rhythm pull-up jumper. That’s too easy.

During the next half-court trip, Duke runs its Stack Chin pick-and-roll action: Flagg pops out to the left slot off of a brush screen from Maluach, Foster then shuffle cuts off a back screen from Maluach, who lifts up to set a ball screen for Flagg.

After allowing an all-too-easy look for Flagg on the possession before, Lampkin comes up one step higher in his defense (just above the foul line), though he’s still dropped below the level of the screen. Now, Lampkin is also caught in no-man’s land: too far from Flagg to pressure the ball and off of his line to handle to roller. As soon as the window opens, Flagg slips a pocket pass into a rolling Maluach and it’s an easy dunk at the rim.

Opponents are shooting 65.3 percent at the rim against Syracuse this season, per CBB Analytics, which ranks in the 25th percentile nationally.

With a minute to play before halftime, Duke again dials up Flagg-Maluach screen-roll — for the third time in 90 seconds. Lampkin switches and meets Flagg several feel above the foul line. Meanwhile, Taylor, who is assigned to James in the left corner, shows early help at the left box area against a Maluach roll.

Syracuse does a better job keeping the ball in front and containing the roll, but the coverage still leaves Lampkin on Flagg, which is a mismatch in Duke’s favor. Flagg draws a shooting foul, earning his only trip the line in this game.

Bonus section: Memory Zone

The table is now set for Saturday as Duke remains on the road to faces one of the toughest challenges remaining on its schedule: Clemson.

Before turning the page to that matchup, a quick bonus section look back at some entertaining Duke-Syracuse games from the past decade, which have produced a few notable offensive performances against Syracuse’s zone defense, including this Feb. 2025 matchup.

Back in Feb. 2019, Duke’s first game after the injury to Zion Williamson was at Syracuse. Duke scored 46 points in the second half and pulled out a comeback victory, riding the brilliance of RJ Barrett, which I wrote about at the time: 40 minutes, 30 points (12-of-15 2PA) and seven assists. Minus Zion, Duke went small for large stretches of this game, surrounding the slashing and playmaking of Barrett and Jones with the 3-point shooting of Cam Reddish and Alex O’Connell.

When Duke and Syracuse rematched three weeks later at the ACC Tournament in Charlotte, it marked Zion’s return to the floor for Duke — in what would become a memorable tournament run.

Williamson, of course, was amazing in that game: 29 points on 13-of-13 shooting (12-of-12 2PA). Here, Duke runs some Floppy action that it’d normally run against man-to-man defense; however, it works here against the zone. After Reddish and Barrett come around the single-double action, Duke’s overloaded the right side of the floor with Zion flashing to the middle of the zone.

There are two defenders between Zion and the rim when he catches the entry from Barrett, but he’s just so damn fast and explosive. Incredible what he’s able to do with just a sliver of space.

During the 2021-22 season, Duke defeated Syracuse three times, including a dominant defensive outing during a Jan. 2022 game in Cameron, with the Blue Devils winning 79-59 and holding the Orange to only 0.86 points per possession. When the teams rematched up in the dome, in February, Duke posted its most efficient offensive performance against a high-major opponent in the Bart Torvik database, which dates back to the 2007-08 season: 1.58 points per possession.

As the frontcourt fulcrum, Paolo Banchero overwhelmed Syracuse in this game — 21 points and nine assists — with AJ Griffin and Mark Williams orbiting around him as passing targets: Griffin (20 points, 6 3PM) spaced beyond the arc and Williams (28 points, 7 dunks) perched in the dunker spot.

That game was such a destruction that when the two teams met again at the 2022 ACC Tournament, Jim Boeheim pivoted away from his famed 2-3 zone and went the junk route with a little triangle-and-two defense. It took the Blue Devils time to adjust, but they still managed to find their footing: 1.28 points per possession, assisting on 75 percent of their field goals and shooting 60 percent on 2-point attempts.

As Jon Scheyer took over, Duke continued to hum against the zone, scoring 1.24 points per possession and assisting on 73 percent of its field goals during a Feb. 2023 contest. Filipowski took over at the nail — the spot occupied previously by Banchero and Zion — and made things flow, including this lob to Dereck Lively, which allowed the 7-foot rim-runner to showcase his ridiculous catch radius.

When Syracuse moved to the Autry era, the Orange shifted their menu on defense, featuring much less zone. However, Syracuse tried to throw off Duke’s rhythm by mixing the zone in for a few possessions this week, starting with an after-timeout play in the first half.

Duke has one of its larger lineups on the floor with Flagg at the 3, next to both Brown and Ngongba. Under both Scheyer and Mike Krzyzewski, one of the things Duke likes to do against a zone is to start with three perimeter players lifted above the free throw line while the 4 and 5 — Brown and Ngongba — sit in the two dunker spots.

As Proctor enters the ball into Brown, the left short corner becomes the playmaker spot for Duke. Starting with Brown, the ball changes sides multiple times, and Flagg is able to hit Ngongba with a diagonal pass in the left short corner — as Proctor pulls Chris Bell away from the paint.

Ngonga and Evans show good patience and feel on this possession, too, with Evans sliding from the wing down to the corner, tucked behind a pin-in/flare screen from Brown.

Similar to Brown and Ngongba, here’s Banchero and Williams doing the same thing three years ago against Syracuse.

On this play, though, the ball doesn’t need to change sides once Banchero has it facing the basket inside of 15 feet. It’s time to go score.

A minute later, Duke is back to a more standard alignment: three guards, Flagg at the 4 and Maluach at the 5. Flagg flashes to the nail — like Jones, Zion, Banchero, Filipowski, etc. — and hits Evans with a ball reversal on the kick-out pass. This creates a closeout for Evans to attack. Evans draws two zone defenders and makes the next play in the chain — kicking to Proctor for an open catch-and-shoot 3.

The process on this possession reemphasizes Duke’s commitment to playing team basketball and optimizing its half-court offense — turning down decent shots to further build the advantage and create an even better look at the rim.