Big men are taught from day 1 to keep the basketball up when they get an offensive rebound near the basket.  The reason they are taught this is so that guards can’t come in and swipe the ball away as they go back up after securing the offensive rebound.  In the Lakers’ game yesterday, we were able to see what happens when a player brings the ball down and what happens when a player keeps the ball up:

DeAndre Jordan Bringing The Ball Down

The first play comes from DeAndre Jordan, who does a great job of getting the rebound, but once he does he immediately brings the basketball down.

The reason why you don’t want bigs bringing the basketball down is because they are bringing the ball to everyone else on the court. Bigs’ biggest advantage on the court is their height, and if they bring the ball down, all of that negates it. What makes it worse is not only does Jordan bring the basketball down, but he takes a dribble too. Take a look at this still:

Jordan is bent over as he takes his dribble as well.  All of this is basically inviting Kobe Bryant to take the basketball away, and that is exactly what he does.

Andrew Bynum Keeps The Ball Up

In the third quarter (and on the same basket) we saw an example of what bigs should be doing when they get an offensive rebound, and this time it came from Andrew Bynum:

Bynum secures the offensive rebound, keeps the basketball up high and is able to hit the put back with nobody really bothering the shot or getting a hand on the basketball. Solid fundamentals here from Bynum.