Defense

After I sent out the video clip of an introduction to defending the side pick and roll on Friday, (Here is the 4 minute sample video link if you missed it. There is nothing to buy to see the video:

NBA defending side pick and roll

I was pleasantly surprised by one of the responses I received. It was from Del Harris, former head coach of the Lakers, Rockets, and Bucks.

He had more to add to what the video introduced and he gave me permission to post what he had written.

The remainder of this post are in Coach Harris’ words.

I think George Karl is one of the 3 great coaches in the NBA game today and thought his asst did a nice job for a 4 minute presentation. I just felt compelled to add what he did not have time to add in the event some younger coaches thought that this may be all there is to it.

This (the video link above) is a good intro into turning the wing pick and roll down and certainly no one can cover all the contingencies in 3-4 minutes. One of the basics that should be noted, though, is that the execution by the defender on the picker must be emphasized. It is not satisfactory for the defender to lay back well off of the ball action. He needs to be no more than a step and an arm length from the picker and in an excellent defensive stance. He cannot be in a standup position. He has to be able to get down and move his feet. If the ballhandler is still able to get the split or to execute the short bounce to the picker on the short roll, (often now called the pocket pass), the defender on the picker must close up to whatever it takes to prevent the split or the easy catch and shoot/drive by the picker after a pocket pass.

There are at least three things that the team defense must be ready for which emphasizes the point we make that “it takes 5 men to defend a well executed ball screen (pick/roll or pick/pop).” Of course, one is that the ball handler can pull up and shoot, so the ball defender should be close enough to challenge that shot, but if not, the picker defender must do that. Along that line the most common mistake the ball defender makes in this coverage is to get to an extreme position in turning the ball down. A good defender can make the ball go sideline by getting no more than square to the sideline as he moves up into the ball handler when he hears his teammate yell that they are turning the ball down (regardless of what they name that coverage). The coach makes a good point about the mistake of always looking back to see the picker. Even worse most players want to get next to the picker and actually screen themselves instead of moving up into the ball handler.

If the ballhandler beats both men and tries to get to the rim, the weak side low defender must attack the layup. But the most common results are the pass to the roll man and the short pocket pass to the picker in the general elbow area (15-20 feet from goal).

On the roll, the picker defender who is in a good defensive stance will try to play 2 men as long as he can (the ball and the roller). Hopefully, the ball defender will be able to catch up and get between the ball and the goal and then each thus gets back to his own man, but that does not always happen. If the picker defender sees that the ball defender will not recover, he will communicate that he has the ball and the ball defender will make a late switch to get between the roller and the ball, if possible. In any event the weak side low man must get to the roller and take him, and yell for the original ball defender to go to “p[ass off the small defender”—meaning he is taking the roller and the man must go weakside and find a man to put his body on.

Of course, one can utilize options other than the “late switch” noted here. One can rule that theball defender will continue on with the ball and trap the ball with the picker defender. The weak side low man must take the roller and, of course, the other two defenders rotate to cover the weak side low and/or outside shot areas, depending on where the fourth/fifth men might be located.

If the short pass is made to the pop man on the pick and pop move on this, it is little problem if the pop man is not a good shooter.

The defender on him can just help with the ball man and recover back to his own man, though the weak side top man at the nail should at least stunt a little at the non-shooter, but not so much as to leave his own man who is probably a better shooter.

Assuming a player will not pop unless he is an adequate shooter, then the weak side top man must rotate to the popper and the rest of the defense rotates up a man as well, with the original defender on the picker/pop man going weak side low to pick up.

Much communication is required as is the constant case in all defensive maneuvers. Regardless, of how much time a team spends on this, or any other technique for defending ball screens, a team must have a plan B, and usually a plan C as well, when playing a pick and roll team. Some teams are so adept at the pick and roll game that they run as many as two or three in a possession and 50 to 80 in a game in the NBA. In fact the pick and roll is now being over-used in my opinion and the colleges are falling right into that trap. Too much pick and roll stifles ball movement and the penetration game. By that, I mean that if a man is always running at the ballhandler and bringing another defender to the ball, there are limited options for the ball handler to see the gap for penetration to get to the basket or to get inside the defense to create inside shots or kickouts for his teammates.

In the end the best defense against the ball screens is to switch the switchable ones. If you cannot do that, you can choose for various alternatives relative to the talent of the opponents in the action and that of the defenders in it. You will want to have a trap option normally. You may want to have a more aggressive option for your athletic picker defenders and a more containing one for the slower big players.

The easy way out is to have only one way or two ways. That way you do not have to teach and coach as much and can blame it on the players for just not getting the job done. Or you can take it on yourself as coach to be able to make the proper adjustments in your game plans or during a game at at time out to throw a wrench into the action that is beating you at the time.

Multiple defense does not mean that you have to have three separate styles of man to man and 4 different zone defenses. Not at all. Being multiple means that you can prepare your team to make adjustments to defend whatever actions are beating you at the moment. You don’t ever have to use a zone or you can use a zone 100% of the time and still have a multiple defense system. Many have misunderstood the meaning of being multiple.

Del Harris, GM Texas Legends
Author, On Point -four steps to better life teams
I told Coach Harris that I as a thank you for his giving me permission to post his thoughts, I would help to spread the
word about his book “On Point.”

You can read a free sample by clicking here: On Point Sample

This is what Coach Harris had to say about the book:

“Every coach should have his point guard read my book. It came as a result of my speaking at the Nancy Lieberman
Award in Detroit in 2010. I wanted to say something that would make sense to the hundreds who would be there who were not the women’s NCAA D-1 best point guard in America, getting the award named for Hall of Fame PG and all time greatest woman player. I came up with the idea of noting the qualities in terms of abilities and attitudes that made for great point guard play. Then I showed how we all could mine those elements from within ourselves on the various Life-teams of which we are and would become a part.

The book will not only be good for the PGs to read but will absolutely make the coach a better coach. I wish I had known all that I have written when I was in my 20s , 30s or 40s. I am totally confident that what I have written is truth and it is backed up totally by biblical principles.”

Best regards and blessings to all, Del

For another sample and if you are interested in purchasing the book, you can click this link to see it on Amazon:

On Point: Four Steps To Better Life Teams

These notes were taken from the Universtiy of Washington women’s Packline Defensive Philosophy.

It was posted in on of the Xavier Men’s program’s newsletters.

I have pulled notes from their philosophy that you can apply to any man to man defense and some philosophy that can apply to any program.

I have provided a download link for the entire pdf of the UW packline defense at the end of this post if you are interested.

Program Standards

The Husky PACK LINE is a proven winner for us. It meets all the standards we have for anything that we do within our program philosophy wise.

1. Can it put you position to BEAT the BEST teams on your schedule?
2. Can it win on the Road?
3. Do you improve as the season progresses?
4. Can you advance in post-season tournaments?

GUARD YOUR YARD

This gives our players the confidence to apply ball pressure and the individual accountability that we are only asking them to be really effective in containing the dribble three feet in either direction. With the other 4 players properly positioned, the ability to GUARD YOUR YARD is a non-negotiable skill in our attack.

Move on the Air Time of the Pass: the instant the ball leaves the fingertips of the passer it is a non-negotiable factor that all five of our players are on the move to their next responsibility on the court.

Defending on Ball Screens

(For more details about their system, download the entire pdf from the link at the end of ths post)

We can call any combination of the mentioned actions to create a variety of options as to how we will defend the PNR action. Communication of the call is key and must be executed properly by both of the defenders involved in the action. The decision of how to defend the PNR will depend on the strength and weaknesses of the personnel involved in the offensive action. That comes through scouting as well as in game adjustments.

Armed with these varieties and an easy manner in which to communicate them, we have had success over the years making calls on the spur of the moment when we get a “call” on a set play or see an action being set up in a last second situation.

To recap actions of defender guarding the ball:

A. Second— over the screen
B. Third- under the screen
C. Fourth- under the screen and teammate jamming the screen
D. TRAP- again we have a call that varies throughout the year for this

To recap actions of the defender guarding the screener:

A. Hedge- force ball handler two dribbles toward half court before recovering
B. Plug- force the ball handler side-line to side-line
C. 4th- jam the screener as not to allow her to move screen down and stay connected to her
D. TRAP- stay with ball handler and trap with teammate until stolen or ball passed out.

Obviously incorporating the other three defenders is a huge key, you must first master the two
player defending of the various offensive actions.

We will work two or three days incorporating
ball actions with non-ball actions in our 4 around 0 Shell Drill before introducing the three remaining defenders.

We are relentless in our teaching the precise LANGUAGE and the manner in which the teammates communicate them to each other as well as the manner we communicate them to players.

Not talking on defense is a non-negotiable for us and is not tolerated from DAY ONE

Players 1 and 2 are on offense and will convert to defense. Players 3 and 4 are defenders. Coach has the ball. Tosses the ball to 3 or 4. 1 turns and SPRINTS back as the FULLBACK. 2 then must SPRINT back to get AHEAD of the BALL and try to slow the attack.

In diagram 2, we have added player 5 on offense and player 6 on defense to simulate 3-on-3 play.

We will slowly begin to add players and manipulate the number of defenders to get the advantage/ disadvantage situations in which we drill.

To add to fun of the drill, after the coach passes the ball to the offense we will turn and using a blocking pad try to impede the progress of the last defender.

Great drill for teaching transition offense and defense simultaneously. Also stresses importance of making FT’s, taking advantage of “numbers” situations.

Divide team into two colors. Try to get even number of guards and forwards if possible but not critical. We score the drill as a normal game with 1s, 2s, and 3s.

White team player attempts a FT. Two Blue defenders play the make/miss. The white player who attempted FT retreats into a 2 on 1 defensive situation against the two blue players.

They play the possession until a basket is scored or the defensive player comes up with the stop.

Once the possession is complete without stopping the action, two additional white team players come from the baseline to join the original white team player as they attack the two blue team players who are retreating into a 3-on-2 advantage/disadvantage situation.

Complete this possession then without stopping add TWO blue team players and they attack in a 4-on-3 situation… this continues until you have built it into a 5-on-5 situation. At the completion of the 5-on-5, start again with BLUE team player attempting a FT.

We like to play until each player on each team has attempted a FT or to a certain number of total points. The main thing is that each team has equally number of opportunities to score.

To download the entire University of Washington pdf: click here

These are some questions for your coaching staff to use to plan the upcoming basketball season. You can use to develop a defensive system and to tweak the system so that it fits your changes in personnel and the changes in your opponents’ personnel from year to year

Philosophy

• Defensive Adjustments for a team or an Individual?
• Scouting or System?
• Do we want to have any “junk” in our system?
• What are the strengths of our players and how can we best utilize those strengths while hiding their weaknesses?
• What is the optimal number of possessions per game for this group?
• Can we defend for that number of possessions at that pace?
• How is our ability compared to the best teams in our region of the state tournament? our conference? our area?
• How do we need to play to advance as far as possible in the state tournament?
• What is our depth like?
• How does our depth affect our style and pace of play?
• What will our substitution pattern be?

Conversion Defense

• How many players are we going to send to the offensive glass?
• Do we need to add any rules that will improve our conversion?
• Do we like the drills we have to teach conversion defense?

 
Man Defense

• What hurt us most last year defensively?
• How do we defend dribble penetration better?
• What screening actions created problems for us?
• Where do we want to pick up the dribbler?
• How do we want to defend the post?
• How do we want to defend ball screens?

Zone Defense

• How much zone do we want to play?
• Would it help us to have an even front and odd front zone so we can attack them both offensively during practice?
• Do we want to be able to trap out of our zone defenses?
• How do we best teach rebounding out of our zone?

1/2 Court Trap

• How much do we want to play it?
• How big are our trappers?
• How do we want to rotate out of the trap?
• Do we want to stay in the trap or go “one and done”?
• When do we want to look to play it – dead balls, FT’s, end of half…
• Do we have a better trapping line-up than others?

Presses

• How much do we want to use the press?
• When do we want to press?
• How aggressive do we want to be with our press?
• Do we have a better pressing line-up than others? Who are our best trappers?
• Do we deny the point guard back once they pass out of the trap?

Inbound Defense

• Do we want to play strictly man?
• Do we want to trap the inbound pass?
• How do we want our inbound defender to play UOOB and SOOB?

Special Situations

• Who would be our best denial defender?
• Does any team on our schedule potentially warrant a special defensive tactic?

These notes were sent to me by Steve Smiley. The notes were taken by Jim Ponchak.

Our Defense Never Rests!

55 Defense is a full-court half zone, half man press

• On ball side it is man with a hard denial
• On weak side it is a zone
• All traps are on the sideline
• You never trap in the middle

 

 

 

Skills

◦ Influence the ball from side to side
◦ Trap – need 45 degree angles
◦ High level of conditioning – players can usually only handle playing 5 to 6 minutes at a time

• The 2 and the 3 are assigned a side of the court that they stay on
• If their men switch sides of the court, the 2 and 3 release them to the other side and stay on their side
• Running 55 forces the other team to prepare for you

• Not concerned with lateral passes

• The 1 can never trap. 1 is a safety, great anticipator, the thief, always in the ball lane, 1 never gets in front of 2 or 3

• 4 relieves the 1, watch ball as you get back

• 5 is the hardest worker, traps all over the floor, willing to run, hands are up touching on top as he covers the inbounder, wants the ball to be lobbed, bounce passed, or deflected

 

• 2 is on the man side of the zone (ball side), picks up the 1st pass to the left of the 5, responsible for trapping and tracking in his lane

• If the 2 winds up on the weak side, he is in the middle behind the trap

• 3 is the same as 2 on the other side of the floor except he starts out in zone on the weak side, responsible for the 1st pass to the right of 5

• 5 makes a C move to trap the inbounds pass

• Players in the middle read eyes and feet of the man with the ball

• Don’t trap in the middle

• Traps are always on the side

• If the 2 gets beat up the sideline, he c moves to track down the player in his lane
• “House on fire!” – ball beats the defense

◦ 5 picks up the post player on the weak side of the floor

◦ 4 picks up the post player on the ball side of the floor
◦ 1 runs to the top of the key
◦ 2 and 3 run to the ball if it is in their lane or the top of the key if it is on the weak side
◦ 1 should call for a switch if he sees that 2 or 3 is beat
◦ Players chasing the ball down from behind should slap up at it with their inside hand

Drills

◦ 5-on-5 Full-Court
▪ Have all 10 players run in a tight circle in the lane
▪ Coach drops the ball and yells, “Shot!”
▪ The offense picks the ball up and inbounds it, it is now live 5-on-5
▪ The 2 must create contact on the ball side
• Hit the cutter with an arm bar
• See the ball, feel the man
▪ Check 3’s positioning to make sure he can’t get beat deep
▪ 3 gets closer to his man as his man gets closer to the ball
▪ If 1’s man cuts to the ball, 1 yells cutter and passes man off to 3
▪ If the inbounder runs the baseline, 3 denies in man and 2 becomes the zone defender as the ball side and weak side get switched
▪ 5 C moves to the 1st pass and uses short choppy steps to slow down as approaches for the trap
▪ If 4’s man cuts, he calls cutter and passes him off to 1
▪ 1 lets 4 know he has made the switch
▪ 4 drops back on deep man
▪ Emphasize talk and contact with arm bar
▪ Defense needs to get their arm over the offense’s arm so the offense cannot bring their arms together

Diagrams of Drills

Defensive Beliefs

These are some of my beliefs about playing a pack style defense.

Regardless of the style of defense that you play, I hope these thoughts might help you to define and refine your defense.

When you try to stop everything, you stop nothing.

The number one goal of our defense is to allow a low defensive field goal percentage.

Control the dribbler. Determined to keep him out of lane.

Keep the ball out of the lane by gapping (that keeps us from having to rotate and miss block outs).

Gapping is more important than gambling for steals.

Be a high energy defensive team every night and outlast the opponent every possession

Make them shoot contested shots 18’ and out, then block out, pursue the ball, and chin the rebound

Defense involves continually performing one responsibility after another, until we have the ball.

Players who do not play defense as hard as possible do not play.

Any player with desire and determination can learn to be an adequate defensive player.

Playing hard will make up for a lot of defense mistakes.

We use both our defense and our offense to control the tempo of the game and the number of possessions.

Individual concentration, awareness, anticipation, recovery, and communication are vital.

Defense is successful when each player concentrates each possession on recognizing, anticipating, and executing.

A defensive attitude is essential. The players need to feel that they are difficult to score against and must take pride in the defensive aspect of the game.

Great defensive teams cover up mistakes.

You recover as soon the ball is picked up. Help as far outside the lane as possible. Same on screens.

Teams don’t get beat the help they get beat on better recovery—so we must practice and stress recovery.

Ball is more important—talk the switch—no penetration.

STANCE knees bent—feet wide) Tail down, Weight on balls of feet. Heels slightly up.

POSITION Do not go for a steal and take yourself out of a play. That is false hustle and it hurts our team.

VISION AND AWARENESS (see the ball and man—sink to see). Be ready to help on the ball.

Trace the ball with other hand. Hands off. Don’t foul the game away or put yourself on the bench with foul trouble.

Know the man’s strengths and play the appropriate gap. Our scouting report will make what that exactly is clear to the players.

FORCE OUTSIDE. When the man with the ball spins, or turns his back we trap him.

When the dribble is picked up, we apply pressure—“Up” is our call so everyone knows the ball is up. Make the ball uncomfortable.

Forward pivots, hands above shoulders on block outs.

You can only do two of the three from: deny, help, recover. We choose to not deny and place our defenders in the help gap to begin with.

Foul only for profit. Switch for profit.

Great defensive teams take charges and don’t reach or swing.

Take the charge in front of the basket, in the lane, and on the baseline. It is impossible to get a charge call in the middle of the floor.

Help across and down—never from the basket out.

Guard two places at once by using defensive fakes.

Give quick help with early recovery. Helper sees own man.

When we recover, we recover to the ball or to a gap, not to a man (unless he has the ball or is in the post)

Don’t deny past the level of the ball.

These rules that Coach Don Showalter uses for his pressure defense came from Creighton Burns’ newsletter

Creighton also credits Championship Productions.

If you are interested in subscribing to Creighton’s newsletter, email me and I will forward it on to Creighon.

Coach Showalter’s teams start out and press regardless of personnel. Here are some ideas, rules, and tips for how you can implement this system effectively with your team.

Deflections Are Huge – Chart deflections in practices and games. It doesn’t have to be a steal, just a deflection (even if it’s with a fingernail). Aim for 20 deflections or more in a game. This number will tell you whether or not the press is working pretty well. For Coach Showalter, deflections are more important than steals. While your team may not have a ton of steals one game, they may get a lot of deflections. This tells you that the other team has been thrown off a bit.

Ball Pressure is Crucial – “Press” means ball pressure. Be Patient – The press may work for long or short spurts, but it will work. You must be patient with it and if you are, kids will understand that they won’t get out of it. If your team thinks they will be getting out of a press as soon as a basket is given up, then they are done. You can’t press with that team. Coach Showalter’s teams are going to press regardless of what happens. Overall, they will play harder and adjust.

Stay With It – If ball pressure is constant all game long, you’ll have many intangibles in your favor if you stick with it. For instance, the constant pressure forces your kids to play hard. So how exactly do you get them to play hard? Well, they are pressing, and if they don’t play hard, they will get embarrassed.

Set Good Traps and Don’t Reach – Remember, you aren’t going to steal the ball on the trap, but rather out of your trap. The players who are trapping are often not the ones going to steal it. Also, keep in mind that fouling negates hustle. Therefore, keep your hands up and don’t reach. Always run to your teammate when trapping and sprint to the trap (hands up, hands off).

You Must Sprint Out of Traps – Turn the shoulders and hips to the area where you want to run to. It’s not as simple as it sounds, so coaches must watch their players to ensure they are doing this effectively.

Look to Tip From Behind – You can get 3 or 4 baskets a game just from doing this.

Anticipate the Next Move of the Opponent – Don’t let the offensive team break the press the same way two times in a row. This should be your mindset. Keep the opposition off balance and uncomfortable.

Be Aware – This is said a ton in practice. Be aware of where your man is and what’s going to happen.

Make Opponents Take Jump Shots – Be there when they shoot it and be there when they miss it.