Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Matthew Dellavedova and the St. Mary's Offense

When talking about St. Mary's you have to start with Matthew Dellavedova and when you speak of Dellavedova, you have to talk about St. Mary's offense. Dellavedova's game revolves around the pick and roll and St. Mary's revolves around their senior point guard so naturally, the Gaels start off the majority of each offensive possession with their star getting a high screen at the top of the arc.

Dellavedova is the catalysts of the St. Mary's offense, even when he isnt putting up huge numbers, the team is always relying on him for their open looks. It all starts with him in the pick and roll where he looks to distribute first and foremost.

Dellavedova is a good passer and has nice size for a point guard, allowing him to see the whole court when working at the top of the arc. He stays under control attacking the pick and roll, rarely driving into the lane - instead attacking JUST far enough to draw the second defender.

This is where the offense starts for St. Mary's - a team with only one shot creator - Dellavedova. Dellavedova's first pass to the open man is the start of getting the opposition of balance. They can get a shot early a lot of times off his pass, but the Gaels are more patience than that. They are a team of ball movers, with no ball stoppers to be found. Dellavedova's first move to draw the defense gets them off balance and the rest of his teammates build off his momentum by keeping the other team scurrying to open men by continuing to move the ball. They take after their

When things are going good, its a simple matter of "Where's Waldo" - Brad Waldow that is, who manages to benefit from the ball movement with surprisingly open looks in the lane.

Dellavedova controls the pace of the game and also controls himself.

The offense is far from spectacular but is some kind of efficient machine. Dellavedova is able to create things out of this offense without forcing bad passes or overdribbling and he relieves his teammates from having to do that too. That is why St. Mary's rarely turns the ball over and has been that way since Dellavedova has been in charge.

Its really a recipe for winning a lot in the regular season. And it doesn't help that the one shot creator is a legitimate contender to post 50/40/90 shooting numbers. Yea, I suppose it would be good to mention his deadly shooting at this point.

Dellavedova is the magician of all of this though - he's not just a system player. He has a lot of saavy to his game and is creative in delivering passes to his teammates. He is one of the best jump passers in the nation. He has a good mid-range game, sporting a quick floater that looks more like a flick shot. He's done a ton of work to his body over the years. This season he came in looking like a workout warrior, sporting a new, ripped physique.

And his body isn't for show. He has used his new found strength to show off an advanced post game. He's been a great scorer from there, but ironically enough, its passing out of doubles teams from the post that he's struggled with.

For Dellavedova his main weakness on the offensive end is his ability to get to the lane for easy buckets. And it shows in his overall field goal percentage. He can go stretches of games without getting a lay-up and did so against Pacific and Georgia Tech to name two recent games.

Overall, Dellavedova is a great college player and has an outside shot at the NBA. Ultimately, I'd expect to see him find his way back to Australia, although his game would fit the Europe well too. 

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