Basketball Defense Philosophy

As I mentioned in Offense Philosophy, it is up to the offense to recognize how the defense is playing, and to react accordingly. Often times, the offense recognizes and then acts; the defense then reacts, and the offense counters. That should be the philosophy of a good offensive player and team.

So what does the defense do? A defensive player, or team, should try to dictate the action. A defender does not want to be in the position of reacting all the time to the offense. The defender wants to be in the position of making the offensive player do what the defense wants and expects. The perfect scenario for the defense is to make the offense go to its weakness, and to know that is where the offense is going.

For example, let’s say that the defender knows that the offensive player he is guarding is great driving with his right hand. The defense also knows that the offensive player is very weak driving to the left with his left hand. The defender takes away the right hand, and forces him to the left. The defender does not worry about fakes to the right. He knows there is no place to go to the right. The defender knows the offense is going to the left. The defenders mind is fully set: He doesn’t just anticipate, he knows where the offense is going. No surprises. He is not only ready to guard his man going left, he has also made the offense go to its weakness. The best of both worlds.

I have often said that playing defense is about 10% technique, 20% physical ability and 70% desire. To be a good defender, a player needs to have pride in playing defense. Defense starts with the mindset that, as a defender, you have to stop your opponent from scoring. No excuses. The defense will do whatever it takes and there is a desire to stop an opponent and take pride in doing it.

Too often, I see players take an attitude of outscoring an opponent, rather than taking pride in stopping an opponent. It is an attitude of if he scores, I’ll just score back on him, and everything is okay. I see this particularly with the good, more gifted players. Rather than dominate an opponent defensively, they are content to outscore their opponent. Remember, a player doesn’t play good defense by playing good offense.

One last thing to think about before we get specific about the different aspects of defense, is that basketball is a game of habits. Good habits are important in shooting, passing, dribbling, etc. So too are good habits important with playing defense. Contrary to what many players think, a player cannot just turn it off and on and ultimately, be a good consistent player offensively or defensively.

Along with this line of thinking, one of the main problems for rookies entering the NBA is on the defensive end of the floor. Most are not used to guarding good players. Through their growing up years, their coaches, in an understandable attempt to keep them out of foul trouble, usually match their best players against lesser opponents. Players learn to rely on superior physical ability rather than building good habits. At a young age, I wish coaches would challenge their best players by having them guard the other team’ s best players. If players want to advance, they need to develop good habits, for at some point, they will have to guard players of equal physical abilities. We are not trying to learn how to guard the poor player and we want to be able to guard the good player.

Lastly, I am fond of man to man defense. In fact, I hardly know anybody who is a bigger proponent of man to man pressure defense than myself. That does not mean that other defenses, zones in particular, are poor defenses. It is just that I believe that the defense should dictate the action. I see zones being reactionary. In particular, I do not believe coaches should play zones with players pre-high school age. Zones do not teach good habits. In fact, zones foster poor habits, which is not good for the developing player.