This offseason, we are bringing back our NBA How To series that we ran last year. Looking at how things get done on the basketball court, we are going to start this year’s series of posts looking at offensive rebounding.
Offensive rebounding might be one of the most important actions that take place on the basketball court. When a team gets an offensive rebound, they give themselves extra opportunities to score the basketball. There are a few different ways to grab offensive rebounds, and we are going to look at them here, using some of the best offensive rebounders (in terms of offensive rebound rate) as an example:
Working For Position:
Kevin Love finished 7th in the NBA, posting an Offensive Rebound Rate of 13.6. While not being the most athletic player or the highest jumper, Love is able to grab offensive rebounds by using body position. Kevin Love is always working for position as the ball goes up in the air, and at times, he is even working for position before the shot goes up:
NBA players looking to secure the defensive rebound rarely box out anymore, and this allows a player like Love to establish rebounding position every single time the shot goes up and the basketball is in the air. As defenders turn and stare at the rim waiting for the basketball to come off, Love is slipping in front of them. Another thing that Love does is that he fills lanes well. As one of his teammates attacks the rim, Love makes himself available for the pass, but if it doesn’t come he doesn’t give up, he simply uses the position that he got in to follow up the shot and secure the offensive rebound.
Yesterday we took a look at how guards use footwork on the outside to creating scoring opportunities. Today, we are going to look at how the big men do it. In my opinion, good footwork on the inside just might be more important than footwork on the outside. The reason being that big men are so reliant on their post game to get their shots off, and this is really a series of pivots, pump fakes, and jab steps.
On the inside, footwork is important when setting up hook shots, when executing a drop step move, on up and under moves, and when a post player faces up. We are going to look at each move individually with some of the best post players in the league showing us how it is done.
The Hook Shot
The hook shot is reliant on footwork, because if you don’t time your steps correctly, have the proper feet position, or turn in the correct direction, you aren’t going to have a pretty move. Someone who is very effective with the hook shot is Pau Gasol.
Gasol makes the catch in the post, and it is obvious by the way his defender is playing him that he is trying to keep him out of the middle. This is because Gasol likes to take that hook after making a move to the middle, however, he can hit the hook shot with either hand, and that is what makes him so tough to defend.
In my opinion, good footwork is something that gets taken for granted when watching the NBA. Good footwork is key for a NBA player because it is what players use to create space without using their dribble. Both big men and guards use footwork to put themselves in better position to score, even if they do it very differently. Today we are going to look at how players use good footwork on the outside to create open looks and scoring opportunities.
On the outside, there are a few different ways that guards can use footwork to get themselves an open shot (or a drive to the lane). Footwork is important in just about every aspect of the game on the outside, whether it be a player jab stepping with the basketball, a shooter squaring up their body when catching and shooting, or a ball handler hitting a step back jumper. In each instance there are a few different players who really succeed at this aspect of the game:
Pivot Moves
In the NBA, you don’t see many players utilize the pivot move too effectively (on the outside), but one player who does is Kobe. You often see Kobe using fantastic footwork to spin in and out of trouble and get himself in position where he can get shots off.
On this play, Kobe Bryant pump fakes getting Kenyon Martin up in the air. Most players are content jumping into Martin’s body, drawing the foul and getting the two foul shots. Not Kobe. He is going to try and find a way to pivot out of the play and find a way to get the shot off. On this particular play, Kobe’s left foot is established as his pivot foot.
When run correctly, a fast break is really tough to defend in the NBA. Even the teams who are the best at stopping the break allow more than 1 point per possession on fast break opportunities, according to Synergy (The Miami Heat were the best team at stopping the break, and they allowed 1.05 PPP on 51.5% shooting over 1050 possessions). The fact that the fast break is so difficult to stop is what makes it so important. If you can get a stop in transition, not only are you taking an almost guaranteed two points off the board, but you are killing a team’s momentum (If you are on the road, you immediately take the home crowd out of the game as well). There are a couple of different ways that you can stop the fast break, but it starts with fundamentals:
Getting Back Into The Paint
The one thing you are taught when in high school or college is that to stop the fast break, you must first put your head down and book it to the paint and then turn and face the oncoming offense. When you run back to the paint, you are going to beat the basketball there more often than not, and getting in front of the basketball gives you a better chance of stopping the basketball:
The Orlando Magic are ranked 4th in defensive points per possession (according to Synergy), and that is due to the fact they all run to the paint when getting back on defense. In the play above, J.J. Redick doesn’t even look towards the basketball as he gets back on defense, he just runs to the lane, turns around, and then locates the basketball. Because he beat the basketball to the lane, he is able to square up the play, wait, and take the charge.
If teams are having success scoring in the post, one way defenses try to stop them is by double teaming the post. Double teams are the most effective way to keep someone from scoring in the post because you have two defenders now covering one. If the double team is effective, it can take a decent passer and turn him into a below average one. However, if a team knows how to handle a double team, they are able to take advantage of the defense’s willingness to have two players covering one.
Handling double teams is really a team effort. Not only does the man getting double teamed need to be able to make a good pass under duress, but his teammates need to provide him with a passing lane. In my opinion, the two teams that handle double teams very well are the San Antonio Spurs and the Orlando Magic. Both teams have very good big men (in Tim Duncan and Dwight Howard), so they see (and beat) plenty of double teams. Despite both teams being very successful, the Spurs and the Magic handle double teams in very different ways:
San Antonio Spurs: Cut On The Double
Whenever Tim Duncan gets double teamed, the Spurs like to send a cutter diving through the lane. In theory, it makes sense, because when a double team takes place, most teams are worried about rotating on the perimeter, so when a cut happens, it is hard to adjust to. They are able to be successful with this because they have a big man who is willing to let the double team come and make a pass over it. Also important is his teammate’s ability to time their cuts just right.
Just last week, we looked at how teams run the pick and roll. This week, we are going to look at how teams go about defending it. Defending the pick and roll is difficult because it requires more than one player doing his job correctly. If one defender isn’t on the right page, is a little late in his rotation, or blows an assignment then the offense has a wide open look. There is a number of different ways to defend the pick and roll, but they all start with trust on the defensive end.
Hedging
Orlando is one of the best teams against the pick and roll, and in my opinion they are the best at hedging screens. This is because they have bigs in Dwight Howard and Rashard Lewis who can show and get back to their man quickly. The goal of hedging is to force the defender to either pick up his dribble or turn towards the middle of the court. Doing this prevents the ball handler to get the rim and makes a pass harder. Let’s look at one of their defensive possessions:
Rasheed Wallace sets a screen for Nate Robinson. Rashard Lewis, who is defending Wallace shows on the screen.
Lewis prevents Robinson from getting around him and towards the baseline and as that happens, Jameer Nelson is working his way through the screen. While that is happening, Marcin Gortat sinks into the middle to help defend the roll man. The goal here in Orlando’s defensive strategy is to keep the ball from getting to the roll man.
Whenever a point guard can grab a rebound, he puts his team at an advantage. When a point guard grabs a rebound on the defensive end, he is able to start a fast break on his own since the ball is already in the points hands (no outlet passes are needed). When a point grabs an offensive rebound, he has one of two options, pull it out and restart the offense, or attack, taking advantage of the defense being out of position.
In my research, it was interesting to notice that there are two different types of point guards that succeed when it comes to rebounding the basketball, depending on whether or not it is an offensive or defensive rebound.
Defensive Rebounding/Bigger Point Guards
The point guards who dominate the defensive boards are the usual suspects. The PGs who you tend to think of when you think about point guards who can rebound (because if you are like me, you think about this a ton). Guys like Jason Kidd, Tyreke Evans, and Deron Williams who know how to use their size to their advantage when crashing the boards (All these guys grab over 10% of their respective team’s defensive rebounds).
Jason Kidd is thought of to be the best rebounding point guard in the league, and the numbers back that line of thinking up. Part of the reason is that he is such a smart player, he knows how to read the ball off the rim and position his body to get there.
Here, Kidd reads that the foul shot for Tony Parker is going to end up short, so he rushes in to cut off Parker. The ball bounces right to Kidd and he starts up court.
Every team in the NBA runs the pick and roll a few times a game. This is because, when run correctly, it is a pretty hard play to stop. First we are going to look at what teams run it well, and break it down step by step.
Types Of Pick And Rolls
In the NBA, there are two different ways that the pick and roll can be run. The first is the standard pick and roll, and the second is a variation of the pick and roll called the pick and pop.
Standard Pick And Roll
The pick and roll is the standard play that everyone knows and loves. You have a big man setting the screen for your point guard. After the screen is set, the big man rolls straight to the rim, giving the guard three options. He could pass to the big man:
In the NBA, teams like to use zone defense to switch things up from time to time, especially if a team gets going offensively. Coaches like to throw a zone out there for a possession or two, just to break up the rhythm of the offense (the offense now has to react, realize the zone is being played, and then attack it. Slows things down considerably).
However, zones in the NBA look a lot different when compared to zones you see in college and what you see in the international game. Zones in the NBA have a lot more flow and movement to them (that is, defenders are moving more than you would see in say Syracuse’s zone), and the primary reason is the defensive three second rule that is in the NBA (as defined by NBA.com’s rule page):
a. The count starts when the offensive team is in control of the ball in the front-court.
b. Any defensive player, who is positioned in the 16-foot lane or the area extending 4 feet past the lane endline, must be actively guarding an opponent within three seconds. Actively guarding means being within arms length of an offensive player and in a guarding position.
c. Any defensive player may play any offensive player. The defenders may double-team any player.
d. The defensive three-second count is suspended when: (1) there is a field goal attempt, (2) there is a loss of team control, (3) the defender is actively guarding an opponent or (4) the defender completely clears the 16-foot lane.
e. If the defender is guarding the player with the ball, he may be located in the 16-foot lane. This defender is not required to be in an actively guarding/arms dis-tance position. If another defender actively guards the player with the ball, the original defender must actively guard an opponent or exit the 16-foot lane. Once the offensive player passes the ball, the defender must actively guard an opponent or exit the 16-foot lane.
In the NBA, it can be hard to score against an opponent’s half court defense. Because of that, teams want to get out and run at just about every opportunity they get. However, if you try to get out on the break no organization, chaos ensues and you end up looking like the Golden State Warriors.
Despite the way the fast break looks, there are a lot of strategy that goes into them and there are a lot of key decisions that need to be made quickly. There are a couple steps that teams need to take to make sure they are effective when running fast breaks:
1) The Outlet Pass
In my opinion, a good outlet pass is the key to a fast break. If the rebounder can get the ball out to the point guard on the run, you got the makings of a fast break because the point guard doesn’t have to slow down to make the catch and he can put pressure on the defense. A bad outlet pass can force a point guard to break his momentum to make the catch, and that allows the defense to get back on defense.
In my opinion, Kevin Love is the best outlet passer in the NBA. He can start a fast break on his own, just by making a terrific pass out to one of his quicker teammates:
