The Importance Of Post Position, And Why Players Should Fight For It
The FIBA World Championships started on Saturday, and one of the major themes from the first day of games was the importance of post position for offensive players. There were two performances that illustrated this point very well. They were Ante Tomic’s game against the United States and Yi’s game against Greece.
Good Position Before The Catch
Getting good position in the post before the catch makes everything easier for the player posting his man up. Getting closer to the basket before even getting the ball, limits the amount of moves a post player needs to make. Also, it allows for an easier attempt because the post player is closer to the basket.
Here, Ante Tomic (#11 from Croatia) is allowed to set up on the block before he gets the pass, and with Tomic being 7’2″ (According To DraftExpress) that position is all he really needs. After making the catch, Tomic only needs two dribbles to set himself for the turnaround jumper. Push Tomic another five feet out, and that is a tough shot. But at his size and position on the court, he is able to get off an easy shot.
In this clip, Yi gets such deep post position, that the defense’s only option was to try and front the post. However, a nice entry pass gets Yi the ball right at the rim where the defense is forced to take a foul.
Getting the ball in a good position to score isn’t the only positive result that comes from fighting for position in the post. Posting up naturally puts the offensive player in better position to try and grab the offensive rebound:
Here, Yi tries to get a quick seal in transition. Despite not getting the basketball, Yi’s post puts him in position to grab the offensive rebound. He gets it, and is able to follow it up with a strong dunk.
Getting In Position After The Catch
A post player isn’t going to find himself making the catch right on the block every single possession. Post players are going to have to make catches farther out than they like and fight for position with the ball in their hands. In my opinion, this is what separates the very good post players from the average ones.
Here, Tomic makes the catch all the way out by the three point line due to the solid initial defense from Lamar Odom. After making the catch, Tomic is able to get himself to the block by simply backing Odom down. Once he gets to where he wants to be, Tomic makes his move and hits the turn around jumper.
This clip features a real good battle for position between Odom and Tomic. Odom again does a good job of forcing Tomic out by the three point line to make the catch. However, once again, Tomic is able to fight for position with the basketball and get himself to the block without much trouble. Once he gets to the block, Tomic gets a basket with a nice drop-step move.
In this clip, Yi makes the catch out in the corner, away from the basket. Instead of settling for the jumper, Yi sees that his defender is giving him some space. Yi uses that space to get himself to the block, and once he does, he makes a nice move to get the basket.
The Importance Of Position
If a defender had to choose between letting an offensive post player catch the ball on the block or having him catch it out on the wing, they will choose the wing 100 out of 100 times. This is because no matter how good a player is at creating position and getting to his spot after making the catch, the more a big man handles the ball, the more prone to turnovers he is:
Here, Tomic makes the catch away from the rim and tries to fight his way into the paint. Unlike all the other clips above, Tomic is going up against Tyson Chandler instead of Lamar Odom. Chandler keeps Tomic from reaching his spot on the court, and the result is a traveling violation being called on Tomic.
In this clip, Tomic makes the catch on the outside and wants to work his way into the paint by backing down Lamar Odom. However, you see what happens when a big man dribbles too much. Eventually Tomic loses control of the basketball and turns it over.
In addition to turning the ball over, forcing the post player to make the catch away from the rim also throws his timing off. Here, Yi makes a very nice move, but he finishes one step further away from the basket than he would like to. Because of that Yi misses the turnaround jumper.
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Position is very important for a post player. In an ideal world, an offensive player in the post would like to fight for position and make the catch on the block every single time. However, that doesn’t happen and it forces the offensive player to try and fight for position and get to his spot with the ball in his hands. While the good post players will have some success with this, the defense would still rather have the post players making the catch away from the basket. This is because bigs are more turnover prone the longer the ball is in their hands.
A huge thank you and hat-tip goes out to M.Haubs of The Painted Area for giving me the idea for this post.
