A normal ball screen, plus one more screen behind it. As the screener rolls, a third player back-screens the roller’s defender and then pops out behind the three-point line. The handler comes off the pick with three things live at once: his own drive, the roll, and a shooter stepping into space.
The name comes from the Spanish national team, which is where most coaches first saw it. Some staffs call it a stack or simply a back-screen roll.
Why coaches use it
It attacks drop coverage at its one weak point. Drop works because the screener’s defender is between the ball and the rim, protecting it. Spain takes that defender and pins him with a back screen, so he is neither at the rim nor with his man.
Now count the defenders. The guard is chasing over the top. The big is stuck on the back screen. Whoever steps up to the roller is leaving the popper. It is three problems for two and a half defenders, and the read is simple enough to teach: roller first, shooter second.
How it is guarded
- Switch the back screen. The most common answer. It hands the roller to a guard, so the offense usually goes straight to a lob or a post-up.
- Get skinny. The roller’s defender fights over the back screen rather than taking the long way around.
- Top-lock the back-screener, so he cannot get to the screen at all.
- Pre-switch before the action starts, which removes the screen but announces itself.
Set it up in the editor and replay the same possession against drop, switch and hedge. The three results look completely different, and that comparison is what makes it worth teaching.