Ball Side - Help Side

Individual efforts become a defensive key when you want to have a good team defense. As a coach you allways want to keep everything under control, set rules, make your players follow those rules... But at the same time you ask them to be aggresive, to make decisions, to read the game... And sometimes that means giving them freedom to break the rules.

In the video we can see a quite common offensive set used by the Philadelphia 76ers (and many other teams all around the globe) and even if we don't really know what's the defensive rule, quite often the ball's opposite side defender will be responsible for helps. We could say the most frequent help when defending that set would come from the free throw line defender, who would take a couple of steps back to avoid the pass to the curl. Instead, it is the low post defender (from ball side), Kevin Garnett, who reads the situation and thanks to his athleticism and awareness steals the pass.

The main idea is that even if we have clear defensive rules (and one of those is often "never help from ball side") sometimes, with some players, in some teams, a freedom degree when reading the game will make your team better. That's why I dare giving an advice: try not to use the words "allways" and "never" very often.

Real Quick: Memphis - Switching Men in Ball Screens

I'm gonna start a series of short, quick, posts with videos in which I'll show details of the games I'm watching these days.

Let's start with this defensive situations I saw in Game 1 of the Grizzlies - Clippers series.

As you can see, Marc Gasol and Cunningham switch men to defend the ball screen. That way Gasol doesn't need to follow the screener (who tries to set a quick screen with the advantage he gets over Marc on that run) and it's Cunningham who takes care of the ball screen defense, while Marc Gasol guards Griffin.

Crossover / Double change in front

Once again, and while we wait for the begining of the Finals, I bring some of the Rondo's tricks.

Now we see his crossover, right in the middle of the key, with a great change of pace and direction, to leave the defender behind (defending the ball with his body by advancing his left leg) and to force Shaq's foul after a shot fake (you'll remember this fake from my last post)

In the second half of the video, a "simple" double change in front. You should focus on his balance when he goes towards his right hand and then towards his left hand. The way he bends his legs to keep control, and to be able to change direction quickly. Let's not forget about his left hand pass for the opened player in the three point line...

Shot Fake + Spin = Rondo

As Coach D'Antoni would say, "OK guys, real quick" (this is a recommendation, if you like baskeball, you'll like Seven seconds or less) It's one of the books I've read during our season here in Spain, and I've enjoyed it from the first page until the end.

So, let's go real quick. Everybody is talking about the Celtics and their PG Rajon Rondo. He's performing great (in my humble opinion he's been doing so for a couple or three seasons actually) and he's showing nice "tricks" as the one I bring today (there will be more, I promise).

He drives fast towards the basket (we'll let the crossover for another post), he stops, fakes the shot (bye bye, Varejao and Parker) and spins to score the layup. Quickness, balance, bball IQ... Beautiful, isn't it? It happens, Playoff Time.

Hand Off Fake

Here we have an interesting situation from the Boston Celtics.

They read the defense and get an advantage. They use the same pattern very often in sideline out of bounds plays, and this way they have a different option to score.

Basically they create a clear out for the pointguard to play the one on one. Help side defenders are waiting to defend a pick and roll or off ball screens, and helping against the penetration is difficult.

What a Playoff between Boston and Chicago we have watched…

Have a nice weekend, I’ll keep watching the Spanish Junior Championship, a nice tournament with some of our sport’s future stars…

NBA Practice

Have you ever asked yourself how an NBA practice is? Here I show you some interesting pictures, where we can take a look at the November 25th Detroit Piston’s practice. They had a home game the 26th against New York.

They start by 10 A.M. with “Arnie Time”. As some of you will know Arnie Kander is Detroit’s Strenght and Conditioning Coach. They spend 40 minutes with him, doing, I suppose, a general warm up.

Then they go through a more specific warm up, consisting in “full court shooting” – “3 on 3 rush drill” that they finish with some free throws and a break for water. It’s very common to have a “basketball warm up” after the general one, to let the players focus on the practice and feel the basketballs, make some shots…

Afterwards, they start the main course of the practice, with a defensive drill “Random P/R defense” where I think “P/R” means Pick and Roll. Different pick and roll defenses, and more intensity. Then, as many other teams often do, they run their plays without defenders, you can see they have many (“chin” “thru” “fist down” “up” “turn” “loop” “floppy away”…) but I’m sure there are many more (you can’t go through all of them in a single practice, and you often focus in the plays - or some of the plays - you are more interested in for the next game). They spend 20 minutes in 5 on 0, and then they run two of the plays with defense, that day they tried “thru” and “chin”.

They put an end to their practice with New York sets’ defense. The coaches have analysed their rival plays, and they give some keys to stop them.

There aren’t many differences between this practice and the ones from European best teams’ practices. Of course every coach has his preferences, but this kind of practices are very common in Europe and in Spain, specially in a morning practice of the day before the game.

Blogroll: Fo Fo Fo

If you like the NBA and NBA history, if you want to watch nice pictures, and read about the best NBA players, the "oldies" (but "goldies") don't forget to take a quiet look at Fo Fo Fo

Tributes to the classic players, stories not to be forgotten, and a fresh and personal style that worths more than a quick read. It's a pleasure (but be careful, you might end up hooked!)

If NBA history were a subject at schools, it would be a must to read Fo Fo Fo.

Back To The Basket Moves

I've been asked during the last months to bring more back to the basket moves. And from now on I'll try to show in a regular basis some interesting moves from different players from different leagues.

Today we'll watch Tyrus Thomas, one of the young players from the Chicago Bulls (one of the younger teams in the league). I'm watching them more often that at the begining of the regular season, because I think that they are approaching now to the team idea they had some time ago. They have a tremendous potential, they are a very physical team (they are the fifth best team in blocks) and I'm sure they have a very interesting future.

In the video we have Thomas against a smaller player, posting up, and finishing with a good move that starts with Tyrus dribbling with his left hand towards the axis and ends with a spin over his left shoulder towards baseline, to score with his right hand, avoiding the block from the Knick's player.

Let's take a look.

Sideline Fastbreak: Atlanta Hawks

Can you run the fastbreak after the opposite team score? Yes, you can. And the Atlanta Hawks show one possible way to do it.

The Hawks are fighting for the Eastern Conference's fourth position (24-16 now), and they are playing interesting situations, for example their sideline fastbreak.

When we were kids, our coaches used to say (and youth teams' coaches still say it very often today) that the ball MUST go by the axis of the court to run the break.

But most teams place their defenders right there to stop the PG, and that way, stop the fastbreak. So what can you do? The Hawks give a good answer, by letting the ball fly by the sideline instead.

As we can see in the images, Mike Bibby pops to receive the inbound pass, and he gives a nice long pass to find his teammate on the offensive court. From that point they can run a ball screen situation when the inside player arrives, but they can also have good options to finish the break. It's a very interesting option because you give also a lot of space for the center in case you want to isolate this player to start the offense.

Now, click play and watch it!

Playing Against Double Team: Punishing The Defense

Here we have one of the best teams of the last decade. Under coach Gregg Popovich the Spurs will be once again fighting in the postseason. The Ring? quite difficult, but now they are second in the western conference, and playing good basketball...

Everybody knows that you need to double team Tim Duncan if you want more options to beat the Spurs, and the Spurs know that they need to beat the traps if they want more options to win games.

We see today how an ordered offense can play against double team situations, and not only that, but how they can punish defense telling them "hey, be careful if you really want to double Tim, we will score every single time... and maybe a three!"

The ball goes inside, the players move, the ball is swinged, and the argentinian Fabricio Oberto sets a GREAT screen that allows an easy shot for Mason (who had passed the ball inside at the begining of the play).

That's teamwork, let's take a look at the video.

Fastbreak Pass

Let's finish the year showing one of the Tim Duncan's great skills.

The pass. Watching some posts passing is like a nightmare, but Duncan (as others before, let's remember Sabonis, for example) is a great passer, which adds another dimension to his game.

In today's video, we see the Spurs' post opening the fastbreak. He grabs the rebound, dribbles fast and gives a great bounced pass with one hand for his teammate to score. See how he prepares the pass making the last dribble a little bit higher than the others, how he extends his arm, and his wrip's flexion at the end of the pass...

"Playmakeresque" as my friend Jeff would say...

Raptors: Ball Screen Defense

I'm watching some of the Raptors' games after Coach Triano took the team.

There are some interesting defensive situations. Against Portland they used this defensive option, switching in ball screens, and avoiding the miss-match by adding an extra switch between the help side post defender (Chris Bosh) and the point guard (Jose Calderon).

That way, they didn't gave Portland the advantage of an inside ball for Greg Oden to post up against the spanish leader.

Let's take a look at the video.

Game Plan

Today I'll show you how Utah punished Milwuakee's Point Guards some weeks ago.

Jerry Sloan had an idea in his mind: whenever Ridnour and Sessions were playing together, Utah would post them up. Miles (6-6) and Korver (6-7) against Ridnour (6-2) and Sessions (6-3). Too much for them.

UCLA cuts and direct cuts to the block to get advantage of their height against the small Buck's playmakers. 6 times they played those situations, scored eight points and got fouled twice, a very good reward...

Let's take a look at the diagrams and also at the video... Have a good weekend!

In Defence Of Jose Calderon (by Jeff Wong)

NBA TV analyst Kenny Smith recently opined that Jose Calderon is a "good backup point guard," nothing more. I disagree. Consider:

• Calderon proved last season that he's not only a capable starter, but a very good one.
• He has improved his game each season (see career stats and Player Efficiency Ratings).
• In the previous two seasons, even with a healthy T.J. Ford in the lineup, Calderon played key fourth-quarter minutes.
• So far this season, as the undisputed starter, he ranks first in the NBA in free-throw percentage (PERFECT) and assists per turnover (4.79), second in assists per game (9.6) and third in assists per 48 minutes (12.7), as well as top-40 in three-point field-goal percentage (0.422) and efficiency (19.24).

Further, we have this glowing review by NBA coach George Karl:

"He's a true point, he cares about the point," Karl said. "We talk about Chris Paul and Deron Williams and they deserve to be talked about and this kid's not very far behind them.

"Calderon is very John Stockton-like," Karl said, comparing the Raptor to the retired Utah legend. "Eighty per cent of his team's decisions are made by his pass. As an open shooter, he makes big-time shots. He puts his team first."

Why should anyone still doubt Calderon's ability? Perhaps the problem is his defence. Everyone from media to fans to Kevin Garnett have questioned Calderon's ability to defend his position. Is it really that bad? Has he improved in this area over the years?

Here are select categories of his opponent's 48-minute production in each of his three full seasons:

Season One (2005/06, rookie year):
eFG% = 0.521
iFG = 27%
Pts = 21.3
PER = 18.3

Season Two (2006/07):
eFG% = 0.491
iFG = 23%
Pts = 19.4
PER = 16.2

Season Three (2007/08):
eFG% = 0.505
iFG = 28%
Pts = 18.3
PER = 16.8

While there is overall improvement since his first season - opponent PER 16.8 vs. 18.3 - that's still above-average production from his man. In fact, some other categories - points, field-goal attempts from inside and effective field-goal percentage - have worsened since Season Two. Why might that be?

It has been said that defence is a function of effort. While no one would doubt Calderon's willingness to defend, he may not have as much energy to execute. Considering that his average minutes jumped from 21 in Season Two to 30.3 in Season Three, that's understandable. And currently, he plays 36.4 minutes per game, ranking 30th in the NBA. Perhaps this is another reason for the Raptors to acquire a better backup point guard: to leave Calderon more energy to play at the defensive end.

Defence also requires a knowledge of the opponent, which is gained through scouting reports and playing experience. With three years under his belt, shouldn't Calderon be better at this, abounding with energy or not?

Yes, Jose Calderon deserves to be grouped with the best starting point guards in the NBA. He will get more respect when he improves his defence. What exactly is wrong with his D? How might he improve? Please comment.

Jeff Wong, one of the best Raptors' analysts has written in The Score or Hoops Addict. Now he colaborates with some NBA blogs, and he runs his own: Pete Marasmitch