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Isolation plays are considered selfish and risky by a vast majority of basketball experts in touch with the game. But the sheer skill and speed of modern day ball handlers coupled with the quickness to beat their defender off a quick first step, has made this style of play an instant crowd pleaser.
There's something about a dazed defender grasping on thin air while stumbling on his ankles in the open floor, which drives the arena crazy.
The ability to make plays and score individually with no help in sight is an art form mastered by a few gifted ones in the league. The slideshow that follows consists of teams rather than players who have been blessed with a bunch of ball-dominant playmakers, and so have based their primary offensive flow around the concept of isolation plays, drawing huge returns from a domain left untouched by many.
Iso-ball was on its way out of the NBA until these teams (one in particular) reinvented it last season. While the rest of the league was moving away from isolation basketball because of its low rate of return, they played more isolation possessions than anyone else.
Let's take a look back at the top 5 teams from the last season, when it comes to isolation scoring.
#5 Portland Trail Blazers - 8.5 points per game
When your team is stacked with Iso specialists such as CJ McCollum, Damian Lillard and Shabazz Napier, there's no surprise to the fact that a lot of plays will go through them facing off a defender one-on-one on an island and scoring with no help. In fact, McCollum leads handily in average seconds per touch and average dribbles per touch. So, safe to say, he's kind of a ball-hog.
The Portland roster conjured 9.3 isolation possessions per game during the 2017-18 season (which was the 6th most in the league), scoring an efficient 0.91 point per possession.
Dame and McCollum combine to make one of the most lethal backcourts in the league. This was clearly visible last season as they finished their campaign just one game shy of a 50-game winning season, drastically improving from a mediocre 41-win season and finishing No. 3 seed in the mighty Western Conference.
#4 Los Angeles Clippers - 8.8 points per game
This entry might come as a surprise to many basketball lovers. But the stats have never lied and they never will!
Although the Clippers lost Chris Paul (before the start of the season) and Blake Griffin (mid-season trade), Austin Rivers, Milos Teodosic and Lou Williams summed up the Clippers isolation firepower on paper.
They managed to score 8.8 isolation points with 8.8 isolation possessions per game during the last season, without having Chris Paul in the rotation. If that's not an achievement to remember from the season, I don't know what is.
They could only afford to salvage their pride on a 42-40 win-loss record, depreciating from the 51 wins in the season before. Nevertheless, the exchange of Teodosic for a big man and the inclusion of two guards in the draft to a roster already posing an abundance of guards will aid the Clippers in bringing their roster to completion in the upcoming season.
#3 Oklahoma City Thunder - 9.6 points per game
Surely, if you watched ample OKC basketball last season, you'd know that they don't share the ball as much as their competition.
Undoubtedly a Westbrook-centric offense, the average touches by the former MVP is 96 per game, 40 more than the second most of Paul George's. And we all know Brodie loves to take it on face-to-face, ending in a thunderous jam or a slick jumper.
In the season before the last, Oklahoma City Thunder were 15th in the league in iso plays - about 12 per 100 possessions. Clearly, they have repaired their isolation plays enough to make it to the 3rd spot this time around, but it is largely because of the fact that they had 3 elite iso experts now, sharing the floor with each other, each requiring the island as much as the other.
The initial six weeks of play were enough to sprout major doubts, solidifying the belief that this Big-3 would fight for personal space on the hardwood more than they would, collectively, for the team. Although they never had a legit shooter around, but it wouldn't have hurt to move the ball around and try to find one.
#2 Cleveland Cavaliers - 9.9 points per game
Cleveland's season was marred by injuries and mid-season trades leading to an ever-changing lineup throughout the 82 games.
Every Cavaliers fan knew that LeBron is their go-to playmaker and he usually turns to isolation plays late in games. Apparently, James scores just under a third of the Cavaliers’ points in the fourth quarter, and so you can't really tell the best player on the planet to pass the ball.
Also feeding off of the isolation-style offense were Dwayne Wade and Derrick Rose. Eventually, the Cavs ended up having the third most isolation possessions (10.9) per game last season and scored 0.91 point per every such possession.
Understandably, their ball and man movement are not impressive and furthermore, the man who handled the ball for a vast majority of possessions last season has joined the Lakers.
If there's anything that can keep their hopes alive in the upcoming season, it's to pass more, move more and include as many players within the rotation system as was not possible when James was in charge.
#1 Houston Rockets - 17.5 points per game
The Houston Rockets are the quintessential example of a team that excels at isolation offense.
To make matters interesting, James Harden, who was notorious for his fascinating ability to break down a team from the top of the key, received the 'Point God' as an offseason trade gift from the Clippers and it seems like that was all the Rockets needed.
The Rockets scored 8 points per game more than the second best isolation team (Cleveland Cavaliers) in the league last season, and trust me, that's a mammoth gap between a first and a second.
They led the league in isolation possessions per game (15.6) and also, points per possession on isolation (1.12). During March of last season, Harden and Paul were generating around 1.24 and 1.13 points per possession, respectively, when isolating and scoring.
For other teams, less ball-movement would mean stagnant offense and blockages during play execution, but for the Rockets it has meant less wear-and-tear on the body, bestowing them with ruthless efficiency.
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