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Teams that like to play with brisk pace are spearheaded by point guards that love to explode right off the gates and run down the floor before anybody else on the court, including their own teammates. The defence is usually caught napping and that gives way to drive-in lanes, open floor spaces and uncontested bonus buckets.
Fastbreak offence catches them off-guard, even before all five defenders have taken position enough to counter the onslaught. The offence often has a man advantage and always has more open space than it would in a half-court set.
For an individual to go coast-to-coast and score with precision at supersonic speeds requires superhuman levels of ball-control and court vision.
Who were the most effective ballers last season when it comes to pushing the ball in transition? I'll take you through the best in the business.
#5 Kevin Durant, Victor Oladipo & Devin Booker - 5.4 points per game
Durant and Oladipo like to run when they have the ball in their hands. They would weave through traffic, dribble the ball ahead of themselves and pull the defence towards themselves in order to open the floor for the trailing teammates. The same description can be used to describe Booker's transition routines.
Although the trio scored the same number of transition points per game last season, Oladipo led the three in terms of transition points per possession at 1.15, with Durant (1.11) & Booker (1.06) close behind.
This is understandable knowing that Booker resides in a team that relies heavily on his ability to run down the floor and get a bucket relatively frequently than the Warriors or Pacers rely on KD or Dipo for the same.
Durant has been taking care of transition plays ever since his OKC Thunder days, and so it's no surprise that he is as proficient as anybody else in the league in controlling the ball in at high speeds and filling lanes.
Oladipo has been given the wheels to push the tempo of the Indiana Pacers. Their style of offence has bestowed him with an identity of his own, which would not have been possible had he remained under floor-general Westbrook at OKC. He can see the floor clearer, pass better and run faster, along with finishing strong at the rim.
#4 TJ Warren - 5.5 points per game
Tony Buckets, as he’s known, is arguably the single most underrated player in the NBA.
After signing a $50 million contract extension with the Phoenix Suns, he held true to his name by averaging 19.6 points per game at near 50% shooting efficiency. His transition scoring can be put into perspective by the fact that he left behind greats like John Wall, Klay Thompson & Steph Curry in this field. He ranks highest amongst the candidates in this slideshow in terms of transition points per possession with a 1.28 next to his name.
He was surely the second best player on the Suns roster behind Booker, but not on this list. Still, the team just won 21 games last season and that is enough to overshadow all the other stats, but let's not talk about that here.
TJ was 6th in the NBA in 2pt field goals made per game, behind only Anthony Davis, Giannis Antetokounmpo, LaMarcus Aldridge, LeBron James, and Russell Westbrook. He is truly one of the best finishers, cutters & transition runners right now. And being just 25 years old, he still has his best days ahead of him.
#3 LeBron James - 6.5 points per game
LeBron James was the driving force behind the Cavs finishing 4th on the transition scoring list (with 21.3 transition points per game) last season.
With the rebounding machine in Kevin Love by his side throughout the season, James could focus on running more and converting or drawing a foul as early as possible.
James is not consistent with his fast-paced game, although his athleticism is magnificent. He was amongst the slowest players in the league last year with an average speed of 3.88 miles per hour.
What makes the opponents sweat is his potential to spread the floor and make accurate passes at such high speeds. James ranked No.4 at transition assists with 2.2 per game in the past season.
Keeping in mind that he has now joined the team that had the best transition offence in the past 2018-19 NBA season - with the league’s most points scored in this way (23.4) - it will be fun to see how high he sets the bar for transition offence this year.
#2 Giannis Antetokounmpo - 6.7 points per game
It's not exactly breaking news that the Greek Freak is as deadly a transition player as they come. There are a plethora of domains that emerged from Giannis' performance last season that are untouched. And the one which is fairly cogent is his transition game.
His highlight plays often underline Milwaukee's fastbreak opportunities on both ends of the floor. He drew around 22% of his offence from transition plays last season, pulling 5.6 transition possessions per game (second in the league).
With precision passing added to his arsenal, the Bucks' go-to man stands out as the most obvious factor in the Bucks’ positive play in transition. Even when he wasn't as skilled a passer as he is now, he was still a terror on fast breaks. His propensity to jump over people and/or take long euro steps on his way to the bucket makes him self-reliant when he's running ahead of the pack in transition.
The only thing that held back his team last year was pace, and coach Mike Budenholzer is hell-bent on eliminating that anomaly this season.
#1 Russell Westbrook - 6.8 points per game
Yes. It's Brodie at the very top when it comes to ridiculous individual transition offence.
He had the most number of transition possessions (6.7 per game) in the league last year, although scoring just 6.8 transition points per game. This incongruity can be attributed to the infamous 'No help for Russ' Thunder roster where Westbrook often finds himself trying too hard to make things happen, particularly when he’s outnumbered during fast-break situations.
He drew an impressive 23.2% of his offence from transition plays. Between freakish athleticism and the sheer fury with which Russ plays, he is the floor general and the go-to man for the Oklahoma City Thunder, even after acquiring Carmelo Anthony & Paul George last season.
Westbrook's speed-demon tendencies get the Thunder ample amount of fastbreak opportunities but the efficiency often takes a hit. His speed oft-times results in a head-on collision with an obstruction, more than it ends in a hammer dunk.
Keeping the burden of carrying the team aside, Russ is still pretty effective in running down the floor, though many still accuse him of pulling down uncontested rebounds and stat-padding.
