Add... the 1-3-1 & 3-2 zone have potential.
The weakness in a zone or those zones are corner jumpers.
How to beat the zone is to force the zone to colapse, move the ball to the open shot.
To prevent this and be effective in a zone defense, players must anticipate, rotate, and CLOSE OUT on players quickly.
The help defense HAS to be there as well as communication. Our squad should be able to excel at this with time.
Anticipate, Reaction, Timing = the art of playing individual defense and the trick is where to keep your eyes. Clyde says keep an eye on your defender and the ball (which is a guards mentality).
What the true trick is is keeping your eye on the offensive players Number or Belt line. This prevents being faked by the pump, body movement, or ball fakes as the mid-section can only be manipulated so much as opposed to watching the ball, where many things can be made to happen and fake defensers out. Basketball 101.
Anyone playing, try this on defense. Keep your defender moving towards their weak side, keep'em in front of you, arms extended, and keep your eyes on his/her midsection. Let your peripheral vision and senses (like sound) work to know where the ball is while playing your man.
That's the simple way of knowing "Who knows how to play defense". When I see a player constantly getting pump faked, or poor timing on shots and blocks, it indicates poor defensive fundamentals, and unfortunately I have to blame coach.
By centering on a players midsection you train your impulse and reaction time to be quicker and mirror a players movements. When we see good defenders that's what they do.
Simpley put, in reality a defnder withou the ball should be QUICKER than a player forced to dribble. There is no excuse to be beat around when playing d except for screens and picks.
Add, to determine "what position a player should play", it should be determined by "who or what position he can guard" NOT necessarily if he/she can shoot.
Sometmes I don't think MDA realizes this and inadvertantly creates poor matchups for us.
lmao @ u thinking we can play 1-3-1 with no centre.
lmao @ u thinking we can play 3-2 zone when we have capable perimeter defenders....unless u meant 2-3 zone....
small teams dont play zone.....they play box in 1 or a man (a lot of effort).
i love a zone, but thats when we had mozgov in the middle.
lmao @ u thinking you know how to teach NBA players to play defense. These are professionals....that host basketball clinics for kids....the beltline? jersey number? lmao....these guys study film and play toward player tendencies as well as just playing off of instinct. Many players (kobe,melo) if you jump a split second too late, its a score.
"That's the simple way of knowing "Who knows how to play defense". When I see a player constantly getting pump faked, or poor timing on shots and blocks, it indicates poor defensive fundamentals, and unfortunately I have to blame coach."
^^
really? the coach is responsible for TEAM defense, and STRATEGY.....not individual defense. The team trainers IMO are more responsible for developing player reaction/timing/and defensive fundimentals.
I feel if the world comes to an end, it would somehow be mike dantoni's fault.
"Simpley put, in reality a defnder withou the ball should be QUICKER than a player forced to dribble. There is no excuse to be beat around when playing d except for screens and picks."
stupidest thing i ever heard. bruce bowen, shane battier, ron artest and whoever else would get beat off the dribble from john wall or derrick rose if they are all in their jersey. Most players are ambidextrous, so there really is no weak side, just honest d. There is no excuse? Mismatch, faster players, offensive moves aka crossover/spin etc. Its about developing a strategy AFTER the initial man gets beat, the rotation to the open man, the switch, THIS i can blame coach for.
"Add, to determine "what position a player should play", it should be determined by "who or what position he can guard" NOT necessarily if he/she can shoot."
sooooooo.....
who guards howard? kobe? durant?
all the elite players that essentially beat themselvs on bad games by forcing it. What about all the complaints about Mike consitently changing the lineup to find something that works? damn, its like this guy cant do anything right.
Im a long time poster here, i honesly read almost everything posted here, i have turned my opinion around because of the knowledgeable fans here to an opinion that a defensive coach is NEEDED (and thats only because i feel we will neve rget a centre with dantoni) BUT, its not fair to put EVERYTHING on coach, just because you want him fired.