Slim's Pickings: Isaiah Evans catches fire, Duke switches up vs. Auburn's Flex offense

How Duke generated open 3s for Evans vs. Auburn, Duke's defensive approach against the Flex offense, Maliq Brown being everywhere all at once and Cooper Flagg in attack mode

There’s a lot to get to regarding Duke’s 84-78 win over Auburn in Durham — one of the most entertaining games of the season. Let’s dive right in.

Slim Evans

Have a night, Isaiah Evans. After a sluggish start for Duke — with Auburn racing out to a 13-2 lead after less than four minutes of action — the Blue Devils started to punch back. However, things hit another gear when Evans entered the game at the 12:40 mark. Less than two minutes later, Evans hit his first of six 3-pointers (6-of-8 3PA), finishing with 18 points on nine field goal attempts. In total, Duke outscored Auburn by 16 points in the 15 minutes and 43 seconds with Evans on the floor.

All six of those 3-pointers were assisted. Throughout this ridiculous display of microwave shooting, Evans demonstrated excellent off-ball activity — running off of screens, filling the wing in transition and relocating without the ball.

On the first after-timeout (ATO) play with Evans in the game, Jon Scheyer dialed up Floppy action from Duke’s go-to 5-out setup: Cooper Flagg initiating in the middle of the floor and Khaman Maluach, the 5, spaced to the left wing. To launch the off-ball action, Mason Gillis cuts through the lane, while looking like he may set the first of two staggered screens (see his left arm raised) for Evans — before coming off a down screen on the right side of the floor from Caleb Foster.

This movement with Gillis and Evans creates the single-double Floppy action. Gillis slips a potential screen with Evans, though, and runs off of the down screen from Foster. Now, the left side of the floor is cleared for Evans. You don’t have to tell this guy twice: go hunt a shot.

JP Pegues tries to top-lock Evans, but the freshman wing runs hard and Maluach sets a good screen, which creates the necessary separation.

Less than three minutes later, it’s the same thing: 5-out Floppy action with Evans seeing a basket the size of an ocean. Kon Knueppel is in the initiator role with Flagg on the bench and Tyrese Proctor, another talented movement shooter (who was excellent in this game), takes the spot of Gillis. Miles Kelly, who starts the possession on Evans, wants to switch as Proctor slips out in the direction of Foster’s down screen. The switch isn’t communicated, though, and Pegues sticks with Proctor, too. In turn, this leaves Evans all alone for an uncontested 3-ball.

Auburn’s defense tried to top-lock Duke’s off-ball movers and switch the down screens, but the Blue Devils found ways to attack those coverages.

Evans misses this look off the 5-out Floppy action; however, it’s still good process from the Blue Devils: a rhythm catch-and-shoot 3-point attempt for a red-hot shooter. If Knueppel doesn’t pass the ball to Evans, he likely hits Sion James, who slips his screen for Proctor. Regardless, the ball eventually finds James on the offensive rebound.

Once Evans started to cook, it forced extra attention from the defense. It’s simple math: draw two defenders to the ball and it creates an opening for a teammate somewhere else on the floor.

Here’s more off-ball activity that starts from the same 5-out alignment: Flagg in the middle and the 5 (Maliq Brown) on the left wing. Duke adds a bit of a twist, though. Evans starts in the left corner this time; it looks like the possession will feature staggered screens for Proctor coming to the left wing, via Evans and Brown. Instead of running out to the wing, however, Proctor flips his hips as Evans changes his direction — resulting in a staggered screen look for Charlotte product.

Kelly wants to track and stay with Evans, but Tahaad Pettiford — worried about another 3-point barrage — jumps out in the direction of Evans. With two defenders on the ball, Proctor has enough time to screen and then space out to the right short corner, which ultimately result in an open look and a foul drawn.

From earlier in the first half, it’s the same 5-out staggered chase play: Evans screens for Knueppel, who spins and sets the first of two staggered screens for Evans, along with Maluach. Once again, you can see the gravity of Evans: two defenders leap out in his direction. Knueppel, like Proctor, spaces to the right short corner, but Flagg opts to enter the ball to Maluach near the elbow. That triggers the next progression: Zoom action at the elbow for Foster (3-of-5 FGA at the rim vs. Auburn), who attacks downhill and scores.

Foster comes off of the down screen from Flagg into the handoff with Maluach, thus creating the Zoom action. Dylan Cardwell (only 11 minutes of action at Duke) hedges out on Foster, but as he retreats, a lane opens up for Foster.

Slim, Fast, Break

According to CBB Analytics, Duke averages 13.1 fast break point per game this season — compared to only 5.6 fast break points per game for its opponents. During the win over Auburn, the Blue Devils outscored the Tigers 16-0 in fast break points. Evans, of course, was a major contributor in this category, too, although he wasn’t alone.

Here, Flagg intercepts a bad pass from Chad Baker-Mazara and ignites Duke’s transition game. Flagg lofts a hit-ahead pass to Foster, which results in a wing 3.

Flagg blows up this half-court possession for Auburn; he switches the ball screen on Denver Jones and forces the turnover, which leads to a 2-on-1 break. Knueppel and James execute that situation flawlessly.

On this possession, it’s Foster’s turn to facilitate on the break. After sturdy post defense from Brown on Johni Broome, Duke hits the gas: Brown to Foster to Evans as Auburn’s transition defense fails to match up. Evans drills another one.

As usual, Flagg was everywhere as a connector between Duke’s defense and its high-octane transition attack.

Late in the shot clock, Brown switches out on Pettiford and contests the off-dribble 3-point attempt. Flagg boxes out and earns a contested rebound against the larger Cardwell. Duke pushes the pace, again. As Flagg rips-and-runs, Evans trails the play and does a marvelous job relocating from the left slot to the left wing — creating separation and coming into Flagg’s passing vision. That’s a heady play from two freshmen.

This is such a fun sequence for Duke — every guy on the floor makes a hustle play within the span of 20 seconds. Flagg and Brown contest/alter the shot at the rim. Flagg makes the quick second jump to get the rebound and pushes in transition — hitting Foster, who sprints to the far corner, with a nifty skip pass. Knueppel crashes into traffic to grab a contested rebound and immediately skips it back out to Evans. Finally, Evans and Brown improv a little give-and-go action with Evans wisely relocating to the corner for another triple.

Evans is an incredibly confident scorer, one who love to shoot the ball: 30 field goal attempts in 61 minutes this season, so far. That said, his willingness to get off the ball and relocate to the corners/wings makes him all the more dangerous.

Moreover, it adds to the scalability of Evans. Playing with guys like Flagg and Knueppel — who have the ball a lot — along with Proctor and Foster, Evans can float around and hunt for spot-up 3s. As he develops and gets stronger, though, Evans has the chance to become a go-to featured guy on offense for Duke. That likely won’t happen this year, but it’s something to consider for next season or the following. There’s shot creation upside here. In the meantime, he lurks as an explosive gunner off of the bench.

Here, Evans claims a contested rebound and saves the ball back to Knueppel, who taps the turbo button. Evans sprints to trail the play; he doesn’t receive the ball when he initially calls for it atop the ball, but as Knueppel drives into the paint, Evans back pedals to the corner and is wide open for another 3-pointer.

Auburn’s transition defense was shaky at times during the Maui Invitational — one of the few gray areas from that otherwise dominant performance. That followed the Tigers to Durham, and Duke took advantage of those failures to match up.

No Flex Zone

Duke’s defense allowed 1.24 points per possession in this game. In most cases, this would be considered a troubling number and likely result in a loss. Prior to the Auburn game, according to Bart Torvik’s database, the last time Duke allowed better than 1.2 points per possession against a high-major opponent and won was in February 2017 — a 99-93 victory over Wake Forest. Duke’s leading scorers in that game were Luke Kennard and Jayson Tatum.

Given the opponent — the No. 1 offense in the country — the Blue Devils did just enough on that end against the Tigers. This process started with Duke focusing on taking away the paint.

Through the first seven games of the season, including wins over Houston, Iowa State, North Carolina and Memphis, the Tigers shot 65.7 percent on their 2-point attempts. At Cameron Indoor, Auburn hit just 19-of-39 (48.7 2P%) from attempts inside the arc.

Earlier this week, I published a piece that detailed Auburn’s half-court offense, which starts with its base — a unique spread Flex concept — but has multiple shapes that it can shift into. One the things that makes Auburn’s Flex offense so potent is its spacing, which opens up the lane/rim for the initial baseline Flex screen.

On the very first play of the game, Duke showed parts of its approach for containing the paint. The Blue Devils cross-matched the 4-5 defensive assignments: Flagg on Cardwell and Maluach on Cardwell. Baker-Mazara comes off of the first Flex screen from Cardwell, which Duke switches: Flagg takes Baker-Mazara and Knueppel lands on Cardwell. Auburn manages a score on this possession, but it requires a second-chance opportunity — with Cardwell grabbing an offensive rebound and kicking out.

By cross-matching and switching 1-4 on this possession, Duke sacrifices some size once the matchups get a little scrambled, but this strategy took away the rim off of the initial Flex cut, a priority for Scheyer, and the catch-and-shoot 3 from the weak-side pindown action.

A few minutes later, Auburn gets back to its Flex offense. Kelly sets the Flex screen for Chaney Johnson, but as Johnson crosses over the screen, Duke switches: Proctor takes Johnson and Flagg plants on Kelly. Pettiford tries to squeeze a pass into Johnson, but Proctor deflects it out and Auburn must reset with its rhythm disrupted.

Baker-Mazara taking a tough, contested off-dribble 2-pointer as the shot clock dwindles is far less efficient than Johnson receiving an entry pass with two feet in the paint.

Here’s what that same Flex cut can look like if the defense is unwilling to switch the screen. UNC’s Cade Tyson tries to fight over the top, but Johnson catches deep in the paint, scores and draws the foul.

This is where Duke’s defense — with all of its collective size and brain power — can be special. With good positional length across the board, the Blue Devils have the personnel to do damage with their switch.

Once again, Auburn is in its 2-3 alignment and runs Flex. Broome sets the Flex screen for Jones. Chris Moore tries to sneak a pass to the cutter, but Brown — with his impressive wingspan and the fastest hands in college basketball — is there to deflect the ball out of bounds.

Several freshmen worked well within these switch concepts against the Flex, including Evans and Knueppel on this possession. Those two pass the proverbial baton — with Knueppel covering the Flex cut — and then Proctor helps by switching out on Kelly as he runs off of the screen-the-screener pindown action.

Brown vs. Broome

Brown is one of those defenders who you almost have to see up close to fully appreciate his disruptive habits. He’s fluid laterally, nimble on his feet when hedging ball screens and his hands are everywhere. This is what made the Brown-Broome matchup so tantalizing: elite frontcourt defender vs. elite frontcourt playmaker.

Broome has been one of the best — if not the best — player in the country through the first month of the season. He’s an outstanding offensive talent and a matchup problem. Broome also has a weight advantage on Brown, so it was no surprise to see Auburn try to isolate him in the post. That’s where Brown’s speed can offset some of the raw power limitations.

Auburn runs a cross screen action here to target Broome, just off the left block. Jones has a decent angle for the entry pass, too, but as he tries to feed the ball into the paint, Brown reaches from behind and slaps it away.

There were other possessions where Auburn punched the ball into Broome, but Brown still managed to be a pest with his hands. Jones throws another entry pass from the wing to Broome and engages in a little split cut with Pettiford. Before Broome can make a play with the ball, though, Brown deflects it out of bounds.

I was at Cameron for this game. During at least one stoppage in play, Broome went to the refs to seemingly describe his displeasure with how Brown was guarding him. Broome played great, but it wasn’t an A-level performance and Brown played a huge role in that effort.

On this possession, Auburn runs pick-and-roll with Broome as the screener — followed by replace action from Cardwell, who lifts up the floor. Broome rolls and seals in the post on Brown. Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Jones throws an entry pass and Brown eventually deflects the ball out of bounds when Broome tries to make a move.

Well above replacement level

Auburn’s best half-court set in this matchup was its spread pick-and-roll with roll-replace action: as the screener dives to the rim, the opposite big lifts up the floor. This is where Pettiford and Broome got going.

For example, Broome sets the ball screen for Pettiford and Johnson replaces up the floor. With Brown hedging the ball screen, and all of Duke’s help defenders lifted out of the paint due to Auburn’s spacing, Broome is open on the dive. Pettiford picks him out.

Pettiford is an excellent scoring guard prospect. During the second half, he repeatedly made good decisions with the ball and hit tough shots — primarily out of this roll-replace action.

Look at this split from Pettiford when Brown hard hedges the ball screen, plus the soft touch on a difficult finish.

Brown doesn’t hedge this screen; instead, he’s caught between being at the level and a full switch. Either way, Pettiford turns the corner and puts up a marvelous corkscrew finish between Flagg and Brown.

Pettiford’s shot-making arsenal is super impressive. There’s something here.

Flagg Carrier

Flagg missed all four of his 3-point attempts vs. Auburn, but he was outstanding in basically every other capacity of the game: 22 points (7-of-14 2PA), 10 fouls drawn (12 FTA), four assists and zero turnovers.

During the second half, Duke played matchup ball with Flagg. The Blue Devils moved Flagg all over the floor and used him as a screener, or set a screen for him when he was a ball handler, to create a switch and play out of the new matchup.

Here’s a simple drag ball screen for Flagg from Maluach: Cardwell switches and Flagg goes to work, sticking spinning fadeaway jumper in the lane. Flagg was 6-of-7 shooting vs. Auburn in the paint, per CBB Analytics.

This is really good stuff from Duke. The possession starts with Maluach setting a brush screen for Flagg at the elbow, which creates the first switch: Broome on Flagg and Johnson on Maluach. Instead of having Maluach set the next screen, Scheyer (you can see him orchestrating on the sideline) calls Knueppel, defended by the 6-foot-1 Pettiford, into the action. Knueppel screens for Flagg and Auburn switches again, which leaves Pettiford on Flagg and pulls Broome (8.9 percent block rate), Auburn’s best rim protector, away from the hoop when Knueppel pops out. Maluach stays down in the dunker spot with the 6-foot-7 Johnson on him. This is a good setting to initiate a drive for Flagg, who bullies Pettiford for the spinning and-1 finish.

Similar to the Arizona game, Flagg and Knueppel as a screen-roll/pop partnership is powerful. Those roles can reverse, too, with Flagg acting as a very productive screener for Knueppel.

Duke ran this play a lot down the stretch vs. Kansas: Knueppel zips up the middle of the lane off of staggered screens from Flagg and the 5 — in this case, that’s Maluach. Instead of using Maluach to set the ball screen for Knueppel, Flaggs lifts up and works as the screener. Once more, Auburn switches the screen, but Baker-Mazara is a step slow and Flagg is able to gain inside leverage. Knueppel pitches it to Flagg on the short roll; with Baker-Mazara trailing a step behind, Kelly leaves Proctor in the corner to help in the lane. Flagg sees this and, as he has all year, makes a nice short-roll passing reading — kicking to Proctor for a 3.

Duke starts in its 1-4 Flat set for this play; Foster initiates while Knueppel and James space to the corners. Flagg lifts up and runs a little ghost screen action with Foster, creating the initial switch. Duke plays out of that, flowing into a high-post look with Brown, which turns into a Foster kick-out and another Flagg drive.

With Flagg’s movement and work as a screener, all five Auburn defenders at one point take a turn defending him on this one single possession, and he’s still able to produce points.

When the defense is burned on enough switches, it may alter its coverages and that can create other issues. Here, Flagg sets an empty-corner ball screen for James on this possession. Johnson stays home on Flagg and doesn’t switch, which means the 175-pound Pettiford must try to corral a 6-foot-6, 220-pound bulldog in James, who is hellbent on getting to the rim.