The Short Corner: Allein Maliksi has gone under the radar for far too long

Here’s a spoiler for the rest of the article: Allein Maliksi is one of the best scorers in the PBA and deserves attention in the Best Player of the Conference race for the 2021-22 Governors’ Cup and Mythical Team consideration for the season.

He’s been in the league for more than a decade now, but he remains largely underrated and underappreciated. So little attention has been given to him (relative to his level of skill) that the commentators don’t even pronounce his name in a uniform manner.

He has been huge this conference, and people are starting to appreciate his game more. In all honesty, this isn’t a new development. Though Maliksi’s been ridiculously hot through this conference’s elimination round, he’s always been among the best scorers in the league.

What makes him special – and to an extent undervalued – is how he gets his points. In a league that glorifies its on-ball superstars, Maliksi has been consistently lighting up the scoreboards by playing off-ball. In general, off-ball scoring is underappreciated and often goes unnoticed. Legends like Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan were as dangerous off the ball as they were on it, but their off-ball talents get overlooked in favor of their strong isolation play. Scoring is scoring regardless of how it is done. When done right, off-ball scoring can be just as impactful and dangerous as on-ball scoring.

In this breakdown, we’ll take a look at why Maliksi’s game is special, why he’s so effective, and how off-ball scoring has made him a Mythical team-level player.

A Look at the Numbers

Who the fuck wants to look at graphs while having a hoop convo?

— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) October 15, 2019

If like Kevin Durant, you don’t want to read graphs in a hoops conversation, I would advise you to skip this section and head straight to the film portion of the piece.

Since 2018, Maliksi has been arguably the best scorer in the PBA on a per-minute basis. The best handful of guard/wing scorers in the league is located on the northeast area of this chart (again, big men aren’t included), where you can find Maliksi’s name alongside guys like Ray Parks, Kiefer Ravena, Mikey Williams, and Paul Lee. His combination of scoring volume (4th among the listed players) and efficiency (2nd in True Shooting Percentage among guys here) provides his team with an undeniably elite weapon on the offensive end of the floor.

What allows Maliksi to score at his level of volume and efficiency is his ability to be a three-level scorer, or a player who is a threat to score at the rim, in the midrange, and from the outside. He’s able to take and make shots in every area on the floor which means that teams have no room for error when guarding him. In short, he’s deadly from practically every square inch of a basketball court. Here’s the breakdown of his offense from this conference:

As previously mentioned, Maliksi excels playing without the ball in his hands. He plays with a great understanding of spacing and is empowered by coach Norman Black’s screen-happy offense, which has led to arguably the best (non-Mikey) scoring season in the Governor’s Cup so far. He complements his off-ball scoring with good scoring as a ball-handler in the pick and roll and by being one of the PBA’s best mid-post operators.

Note 1: NBA averages by play type are added for context due to lack of public PBA tracking data; expect PBA averages to be lower.
Note 2: The NBA tracks catch and shoot plays and movement shots together under spot-up plays, I separated them, just because.

In the 271.4 minutes that he’s played on the floor, Meralco has an Offensive Rating, a measure of scoring per 100 possessions, of 119.8. This is roughly three points better than the league leading Magnolia Hotshots. In the 256.6 minutes that he’s sat on the bench, the Bolts offense falls to a paltry 92.2, a rating that is seven points worse than that of the Alaska Aces, who sit at the bottom of the table. The Bolts see a 27.6 point swing in their offensive efficiency the moment Maliksi finds himself sitting on the bench, and they transform from the best offense in the league to the league’s worst.

So, why not just play him the whole game? Heck, why didn’t he play 40+ minutes per game for any of his past teams? Well, the human body isn’t designed to play a high level of basketball for 48 minutes. Also, he is historically prone to fouls. Despite being a perimeter player, his foul rate (fouls per 48 minutes) of 5.8 was higher than Raymond Almazan who is known for being in nearly permanent foul trouble. In fact, he’s ranked in the top 20 in foul rate in four of the past six conferences.

You can start reading again, Mr. Durant.

Mid-Post Bully

Though the biggest part of his game is his ability to score off the ball, Maliksi isn’t a slouch with the rock in his hands.

One of his biggest weapons with the ball is his ability to score efficiently in the midst. Let’s begin this section with a few facts:

1. The average PBA player that isn’t a big or an import stands at 6-foot-1.3.
2. Allein Maliksi is listed at 6-foot-4.
3. Maliksi has one of the best jumpshots in the league and has incredibly nimble feet.
4. Maliksi plays as a wing despite being as tall as some bigs.
5. As a wing, he usually has non-bigs guarding him. He is usually taller than non-bigs.
6. Since he’s taller than most of the non-bigs, he has a decent size advantage over his defenders.
7. When Maliksi isn’t moving around looking for space or running off of screens, he’s jockeying for the post position.
8. Maliksi will take advantage of these mismatches and drill turnarounds and stepbacks from the mid-post.

Being taller than his man allows him to have a clear view of the basket. This lets him pick a shoulder to turn to and drill a jumper practically uncontested. If the view isn’t as clear, he can always apply fakes to shake his man like what he did here to the rookie, Mike Nieto. He is basically the size of a PBA power forward with the ability to move like a guard:

The height advantage doesn’t just help him score. Maliksi is able to see over the top of the defense and find teammates for easy layups. Being able to blend scoring with passing adds an extra layer of difficulty for the defense.

Pick and Roll Scorer

Maliksi isn’t a Ravena or Bolick, who can slice up defenses with playmaking on the pick and roll. Instead, he uses the screener to create an advantage against his man and score.

In this clip, the screen knocks Kevin Racal off balance. This allows Maliksi to gain an advantage and causes Racal to fall behind him. As Racal tries to give chase and regain balance, Maliksi quickly steps back and drains the midrange jumper. His ability to change directions and change velocity on the move, coupled with his shooting and size, make him dangerous in the pick and roll. Despite being more of an off-ball scorer, 68-percent of his two-pointers were unassisted. That is mostly a function of his pull-up game and his post-up game.

The advantages created from using a screen on-ball don’t end with just the midrange. A solid portion of his three-pointers was self-created (14 percent of them). Here, Maliksi uses the Cliff Hodge screen against Don Trollano. Again, he creates space by moving backward as his defender moves forward and he reorganizes his body to drill a tough three.

Despite being good with the ball in his hands, Maliksi isn’t great. The passing isn’t quite there and the ball-handling isn’t at the level where you want him to have the ball in his hands for most of the shot clock. He tends to pick up the ball when blitzed and he struggles to make live dribble passing reads. The neat thing is, his limitations on the ball are largely overshadowed by how good he is without it.

Habitual Mover

By virtue of the Meralco offensive scheme, Maliksi is constantly in motion on the floor. He runs around looking for openings and occasionally, he finds himself for layups. Meralco is a team with a lot of good passers, and those passers are more than happy to find him when he’s open. Instead of floating to the corner for an open jumper, he notices that Arwind Santos is locked in on helping on the drive here. He stays put in the dunker’s spot and Bishop finds him for the pretty reverse layup.

His cutting also blends well with his threat to score on jumpers. In fear of the torture chamber that is Allein Maliksi in the post, Allyn Bulanadi overplays Maliksi in an attempt to deny him the ball. Maliksi responds by using his hands to break free from Bulanadi and cuts to the rim. Reynel Hugnatan makes the easy pass for another lay-up.

Knockdown Shooter

Over the past three conferences, Maliksi has averaged 2.2 three pointers made a game on 40.5 percent shooting. Among players that played in all three of those conferences, only Marcio Lassiter is at this level of volume and efficiency from deep (2.2 per game on 41.3 percent shooting), but Lassiter needed 10.7 more minutes per game to get his triples. In short, he is ridiculously good from beyond the arc.

What allows him to be so effective from deep is his diversity as an off-ball player. In my opinion, there are three levels of shooting off-ball. First, there is stationary shooting. This is simply standing in a spot and being able to drill open shots from a standstill; nearly every non-big in the PBA is expected to be a somewhat decent stationary shooter. Second, there is movement shooting. Movement shooters are players who are able to move around the floor and look for openings with good passing angles. They are able to maintain balance while catching on the move and organize their bodies while going into their shooting motions. Third, there are off-screen shooters. These are the players who coaches specifically run through screens in an effort to get them cleaner looks. Great examples of off-screen shooters are Reggie Miller, JJ Redick, and Rip Hamilton.

Maliksi has these three levels of off-ball shooting in his bag. The proof is in the playtype breakdown shown earlier. There, we see that 21 percent of all his possessions stem from catch and shoot plays (stationary shooting), 13.4 percent of his possessions come from plays created by perimeter movement (movement shooting), and 20.4 percent of them are from off-ball screens and handoffs (off-screen shooting). He has every shooting tool in the book, and coach Black maximizes these tools with the offense that he’s set up.

Movement Shooting

In his original position, there is no clear angle for Bishop to pass the ball. There are two defenders between them in a straight line. To get the ball, Maliksi takes advantage of Matthew Wright turning his back on him and flashes to the middle of the floor. He catches the ball from a sprint at 3.8 seconds and he’s able to gather himself and shoot the ball in 0.9 seconds. This, in essence, is what movement shooting is. It’s creating passing angles for yourself and taking what the defense is giving you.

This next possession happens even faster. From a sprint, Maliksi catches the ball with 9.5 seconds left in the shot clock and releases the ball 0.6 seconds later. In a bit over half a second, Maliksi kills his forward momentum with a 1-2 step and releases the ball over the outstretched hands of Scottie Thompson. This level of shooting is incredibly rare in the PBA, with only a handful of players capable of replicating this play. The insane thing about Maliksi is the efficiency at which he hits these types of shots. In the 11 elimination round games, he’s made 43.8 percent of his triples from movement plays.

His ability to hit shots on the move greatly aids Meralco’s transition attack. When defending teams are improperly positioned in transition, Maliksi can cause a lot of damage as a trailer. He’s capable of decelerating and easing himself into his shot as much as the defense would allow him. This is impactful playing off of the strengths of Chris Newsome, Chris Banchero, and Bishop, who are guys that opposing teams want away from the rim.

Screen Navigation

This section is 50 percent praise for Maliksi and 50 percent praise for Norman Black. Meralco is a very screen-happy team, in part because they have a shooter capable of running through them and converting shots. Maliksi scored 1.28 points per possession from off-screen plays and hand-offs. It’s important to note that the average possession in the PBA results in 1.07 points. Coach Black utilizes Maliksi to devastating effect by running him through a variety of screens and handoffs.

My personal favorite is their utilization of exit screens against stationary zone defenses. In this one, Alaska is in a 2-3 zone. Maliksi is in the weakside corner and he runs to the strongside corner. To help him get a clean look, Reynel Hugnatan sets an exit screen, a baseline screen for a cut to the corner. Exit screens are highly effective in the PBA for two reasons: first, the screener is usually a big who teams don’t mind freelancing in the perimeter. Their man usually cheats off of them which creates an extra layer of space for the player screened for. Second, it is an effective zone buster. Due to teams preferring to wall the paint, zone defenses are very common in the PBA. This leaves gaps in the corner as seen in the clip. An exit screen simply gives the shooter more time to exploit these gaps.

Meralco loves using Maliksi in weakside off-ball actions while the defense is keyed in on the on-ball players. Here, Cliff Hodge sets a weakside pindown while the Ginebra defense is focused on the two-guard pick and roll (!!!) between Aaron Black and Newsome. Justin Brownlee is too busy cheating off of Hodge in anticipation of a drive to recover, and Maliksi attacks his closeout well. Ignoring the fact that he missed it, this is great offense on the part of Meralco.

We see a similar concept in this possession below. While the defense keys in on the Chicago action (pindown into a dribble handoff), Hodge sets a wide pindown screen for the Maliksi triple. Off-ball actions playing off of the defensive attention given to the on-ball action is a highly effective offense.

Throughout the season, Black has shown a deep bag of tricks. This baseline out-of-bounds play draws inspiration from the Golden State Warriors, as Hodge and Bishop shut the elevator doors on Jamie Malonzo and Maliksi drills the open triple.

The Bolts blend Maliksi’s three-level scoring well with handoff actions too. The Bolts often use handoffs to get him downhill for a layup or they use it in the same manner as an off-ball screen and pitch the ball to Maliksi for three-pointers.

Close Out Warfare

Despite a heavy emphasis on protecting the rim, teams don’t just let Maliksi walk into shots. Teams will close out on him hard (and occasionally run two bodies toward him). In turn, he responds with a bunch of moves to attack these closeouts.

He employs a good pump fake to get defenders to fly past him or clear the lane for an attack. A good fake causes the defender to jump for joy, which in turn opens up a driving lane for an easy layup.

Second, he abuses bad closeouts when defenders give too much space for clean looks in the midrange. Arwind Santos is just too far from him to do anything, and he just takes one dribble into empty space for a pull-up jumper.

Third, he can use his footwork and handles to beat them. Here, Wright goes on an adventure navigating through an exit screen that forces a switch. He uses Nick Demusis’ forward momentum against him and pulls backward into a stepback jumper.

Lastly, he can simply pass the ball while the defense is in rotation. His man leaves in order to double Bishop, which forces Mark Barocca to rotate on him and closeout. Newsome moves deeper into the corner for better spacing, and Maliksi makes the easy read for the triple.

Gravity in Motion

A common criticism of off-ball offense is that it’s reliant on your teammates getting you the ball or freeing you up with screens, though off-ball scoring and movement isn’t as reliant as you’d think. Screens are as much of a part of on-ball actions as they are off-ball actions. It feels like a mistake to paint off-ball scoring as screen-reliant when the game has turned into pick and roll warfare. With respect to the requirement of a teammate passing the ball, when off-ball movement is done right, the passing angles are clear and any player should be able to make the pass. Besides, it isn’t much different from post-ups, where an entry pass is required to be made.

Instead of off-ball scoring being heavily reliant on teammates, it actually provides a lot of help for them. A good illustration of that is this possession. Movement can cause confusion for the defense. Here, Maliksi cuts to the rim and brings along two Blackwater players with him. You can see Richard Escoto’s eyes looking at Maliksi as he starts to move. He immediately puts a hand on him to stay in contact while Rashawn McCarthy denies him the ball, and this leaves Nard Pinto wide open.

In addition to movement wreaking havoc, shooting in general provides spacing, which opens up the floor for everyone else. In this crucial possession, Henry Walker spots Maliksi way outside. After seeing this, he steps up in response. This took a defender away from the rim and the lane became free real estate for Banchero.

Off-ball scoring is an ability that blends really well with other great players and allows a player to be a strong contributor without taking much away from his teammates. His production didn’t dip with the addition of Banchero and Bishop; instead, he helped space the floor for his more ball-dominant teammates and took advantage of the attention defenses HAVE placed on them. His production ramped up with better teammates because of the mutualistic relationship between him and ball-dominant players. His ability to impact the game without the ball is a key driving force in the Meralco plan of attack, and it allows guys like Newsome and Black to play their games better. This is why Meralco has the best offense in the PBA when Maliksi is on the floor.

Allein Maliksi has flown under the radar for too long, and it’s time to give the man his flowers. He has an offensive game tailor-made to play alongside high-usage players and an elite off-ball scoring game that makes him an offensive powerhouse in his own right. Meralco plays its best basketball with him on the floor, and his impact shines both statistically and with the eye test. He’s done enough to be considered as one of the game’s elite scorers, and he should be on the voters’ ballots once the awarding season comes.

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