Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Defensive Concepts

Lawrence Frank (Head Coach Detroit Pistons) 

“Your every day habits will determine your execution.”


To play on a good defensive team you must:
a. be a good individual defender.
b. be a good team defender.
c. be both a & b.
** If neither, you won’t play! **


Defensive non-negotiables:
1. Sprinting back on defense.
2. Protecting our paint.
3. Closing out hard and contesting the shot.
4. Playing aggressively without unnecessary fouls.
5. All five players blocking out and rebounding.
** No Layups
** No Freethrows
** No corner 3′s


If the ball gets into the paint, what are the consequences for the offense?
1. Charge
2. Steal
3. Deflection
4. Blocked shot
5. Hard “NBA” foul
** Never mention anything about scoring!


Transition Defense:
1 back = Dunk (or Layup)
2 back = Layup
3 back = Jumper
4 back = Got a chance
5 back = GAME ON!
- Win the first 3 steps!
- Stop the ball above the 3-point line
- Get the ball out of the middle 1/3
- Think “help”
- Open shots beat you in transition, but mismatches rarely will.
“Accept who they are. You job is to make them better than they were.”


Orlando "Tubby" Smith  Head Coach University of Minnesota

1. Wherever the ball is, be on the ball.
2. Contest every shot.
 3. Apply Constant Pressure.
 4. Quickly retreat to the ball line.
 5. Overplay/Deny penetrating passes.
 6. Allow non-penetration passes.
 7. Always see ball and man.
 8. Play up the court as close to the ball as possible.
 9. Attempt to intercept all lobs and bounce passes. Go for a steal with hand closest to the defender.
10. Say Ball and always pressure the ball. Pressuring the ball means to be one arms length away. Communicate with the correct terminology.
 11. Drives must always be stopped
 12. Defending the ball off a pass: when in the passing lane go for a steal with hand closest to the receiver—it leads to less grabbing. Passes away are defended  with one foot in the paint, sprint to the ball, sprint to the help. On pass from top—wing, get butt to baseline.

Brad Stevens Head Coach Butler  University

1. Commitment
  • Your players must be completely committed to the system
  • In 11 years, never had a player in the program that worked his tail off on the defensive end that wasn’t a great teammate/student
  • People that do their job on every play make you feel proud to be a part of the program
  • Starts with establishing the correct mindset
  • Referenced Doc Rivers from last year’s clinic: Believe or Leave
  • If your players believe, you can establish a Defensive DNA
  • Felt that when he had young teams, having a great defensive team gave him the best chance to win
  • Challenge your team statistically
    Example: Earlier this season, Butler was giving up 45% from the floor, but they found out that if they had gotten three more stops per game, they would be giving up 39%. Defensive FG% dropped 2 percentage points for every stop.
  • Your team is never too far away from being great, and never too far away from being bad
  • Uses the 10 day break during the season to be tremendously beneficial .
  • Really admires how davidson plays-They are unpredictable, yet they have a system that they believe in.
  • Your system must be built to defend everything, no matter what is being run against it. (i.e. something you didn’t cover in scouting)
  • At the same time, have a degree of unpredictability.
2. Positioning
  • First Step to proper positioning is your transition defense.
  • Your transition drills have to simulate what happens in the game
  • Goals for transition defense
    Stay in front of the basketball
    Protect the basket
    Pick up the basketball
    Find good shooters
  • Defending the ball
    First important question where are you on the floor?
    If you have an athletic advantage, you can pressure more
    If you are at an athletic disadvantage, you can pressure more
    If you are at an athletic disadvantage, you have to trick the offensive player in different ways to keep him off balance
    Butler plays a lot of 1 on 1–both bigs and guards.  Everyone must be able to guard 2 dribbles on the perimeter (Bigs will often switch onto a guard late in the shot clock)
  • Closeouts
  • Three steps then break down (chop your feet) with your arms up; closeout to his dominant hand
  • Closeouts are dependent upon personnel
  • If you’re closing out to a great shooter, close out to his shooting hand and give him less room to get his shot off.
  • If you’re closing out to a great driver, you don’t want to break down as much.  ”A great drive beats a great closeout every time.”
3. Prioritizing
  • Are you prioritizing what’s important?  The goal is to stop the other team from scoring
  • Scouting is a large part of the equation
  • Their system must be adjustable and flexible in terms of guarding different teams/players
  • Coach Stevens gave an example of how he used their trip to Italy to work on some different things, and “it took (Butler) three months to get back to our identity.”
  • Even though you (as a coach) are thinking about jumping to the ball/your identity all summer doesn’t mean your players are.
  • Learned that you need to start back over every year
  • Tony Dungy example from his new book: Concept of “regenerative leadership”  Older players spreading the culture to the younger players, and the younger players continue the cycle when they become older players
4. Awareness
  • Awareness can allow a marginal athlete to become a very good defender—more so than a great athlete with marginal awareness
  • The 4 levels of competency:
  • Unconsciously incompetent-You don’t know what you don’t know
  • Consciously incompetent-You know that you have no clue
  • Consciously competent-You know what’s going on
  • Unconsciously competent-You begin to see things before they happen.  You can rely on your habits because of how many times you’ve done it before
  • Coach will allow players to have “mature freedom” to make reads when they are in this stage of competency.
  • When you’re in the first two categories (unconsciously/consciously incompetent), you should be a great follower/listener.
  • 60% of awareness comes from what you have built through practice/drills/habits
  • 40% of awareness comes from who you are guarding or what the other team is running
  • Uses lots of 4 on 4 work in practice
5. Execution/Technique
  • Technique is easy to work on in individuals
  • Coach Stevens spent some time at the Indianapolis Colts off season
    Was struck by the consistency in their approach
    Quarterbacks spent 5 minutes per day working on their hand offs with no defense. (Attention to detail)
    Described Peyton Manning as “Elite in his preparation”
  • Butler ¡s big on drilling and technique
  • Be deliberate in your practice and approach
  • The strength and conditioning coach will drill the players in the off season around techniques that the players will be executing all season (i.e. hedging a ball screen) ”Deliberate conditioning”
6. Completion
  • The importance of “finishing plays”
  • Guys that really care and understand the concept of blocking out
  • Butler teaches blocking out based on the individual personnel of their players
  • Less mobile player’s responsibility is to keep the offensive player from getting the ball
  • A more mobile player (with a nose for the ball) may just hit his man then pursue the ball.

 

Lawrence Harvey "Larry" Brown  Head Coach Southern Methodist University

 
“I never remember losing a game because of constant back doors or lobs by the opponent. That’s why I want to make offensive players ‘drivers” by pressuring the ball. And, off the ball, I want to take away passes by denying. ”


“You can’t pressure the ball on the perimeter and then allow It to be easily passed to the post. Front the post when you pressure the ball. ”


“In the NBA you can’t allow the offense to run their plays. They will kill you. You must disrupt.”


“As a college coach I spent 30 minutes per practice on guarding the dribble."


“On defense I love to deny one pass away. Don’t let the offense change sides with the ball."


“Why would the defense double team in a late clock situation? You will give up a shot unnecessarily.”


“Work on *shell defense* everyday. Don’t get caught up in the offense’s alignment, mix it up.”


Mike Rice Head Coach Rutgers University

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