Clarence Gaines, former scout for the Michael Jordan-era Chicago Bulls, recently tweeted his Seven Defensive Principles — stuff that he garnered from years working with Phil Jackson and Tex Winter. Obviously a lot of it can be useful for your rec league squads. However, one truism I noticed may be more applicable in the NBA than in rec leagues, or anywhere else…
3, “Stop Penetration.” The ball must be stopped. We will push sideline and baseline (outside).
In high school varsity, I was taught to never give up the baseline. Why? Because you’ll always have help middle. That’s typically true if you’re looking at chess pieces on a board and all the chess pieces are “normal”.
However, in the NBA, you have super-athletic shotblockers who can cover a lot ground. So, in the NBA, you do try to force your man baseline, although this is not necessarily always the case, depending on any particular matchup.
Read the whole article: Twitlonger: On Defense: “Determination to outplay your opponent, to shut him down, get rebounds, hustle do
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