Basketball Playbook

[Magilla_Gorilla]

Someone help me out here. I never played organized basketball, only pick up games and the like at the YMCA.

I did play football through Middle and High School and am familiar with having to learn a playbook. At the high school I went to our coach fashioned himself as somewhat an Offensive genius and had a playbook that was verbose to say the least.

Each offensive player, aside from lineman, was responsible for knowing all of the other offensive players responsibility on any given play. It was alot to remember, but it wasn't too hard. Especially if you played both offense and defense.



So where I am going with this...


How difficult is it to learn the basketball plays? As far as I can tell, our scheme isn't exactly difficult. We're not running the Princeton/Georgetown, and we sure as hell aren't running the triangle - yet all I hear about is players not knowing the plays. And not just on our team, but from players on teams all around the league.

What don't I understand about the intricacies of organized basketball and the play books utilized at the NBA level?

[suckfish]

The bulls offense is simple, precisely why it isn't very good. I know where Gordon is going to cut from watching the offense in it's early stages, hence why teams cheat and beat cutters to their spots preventing uncontested shots.

You have the baseline play with the two bigs setting picks for the SG and SF, often referred league wide as the 'Power' play. A lot of NBA teams use it here and there, we use it too much IMO.

If you want them explained in detail Coldfish is your guy.

Really the players should know the offenses, they aren't difficult and they have had long enough to learn them. You should be able to roughly pick them up just from watching a bunch of games.

In terms of offenses I have always love Jerry Sloan's over in Utah, they use the UCLA high post offense and have done for donkeys years dating back to the very early stages of Stockton and Malone, probably before that too. From a scouts perspective they are one the easiest teams to scout simply because Utah as used the UCLA high post offense for a longtime.

Still it's pretty effective, especially when you have guys well suited to the system-Stock/Malone, Williams/Boozer. You'll see how many easy postups and wide open baskets Utah create purely from good cuts, it really is the purest form of basketball in the NBA.

It involves Williams cutting off the high post screen (rub) a lot, you will see come off it down to the low block often posting up his defender, if theres a miss match they will exploit it. Off that high post rub Williams will look to set a pick for Boozer on the weakside block cutting across the key. Matt Harpring makes a living off the weakside down screen nailing that jumper from the foul line..

Oh the bulls? Sorry. Jazz rant over.

[coldfish]

Thanks for the props suckfish.

Magilla:
First off, on football. I obviously have never played pro-football, but I have read enough to know that pro-football is incredibly complicated in its plays. Every move is an option, usually based on the defense.

For example, a middle school receiver route will be something like, go out 5 yards, then cut towards the post. For the pro's, you will get:
Go out 5 yards, if the cornerback is underneath you but there is safety help, go deep corner. If there is no safety help, run a fly pattern. If the corner is deeper than you, cut inside. If it is a zone, cut inside and sit down between the CB and ROLB zones. The QB and WR have to read the same thing, obviously. Those times when the QB throws to no one are almost always a misread.

....

Now to basketball. I have never seen an NBA playbook. I have read articles and information on the triple post though and read a bunch of general stuff.

From what I gather, the NBA employs the same series of reads that you get in the NFL. The issue is that the plays are continuous. It isn't one decision, but a series of yes / no reads that all 5 guys have to read exactly the same.

One glaring example you will see with the Bulls is when Wallace gets the ball in the post. If you watch carefully, you will see tons of decisions being made.

First action is that someone cuts around him, the first decision is if they go above or below Wallace and its based on defender position. Now Wallace has to decide if he wants to pass it to that cutter. If not, he dribbles into the lane, where he makes another choice: shoot or pass. If he passes, the offense is effectively "re set", unless he is open, then he shoots. Now, all of the other players are supposed to be reading Wallace's decisions and also their defender and reacting accordingly to create passing angles and maintain proper spacing.

When you see two Bulls get close to each other off the ball, that's usually a misread. That's bad spacing and it allows 1 defender to deny the ball from 2 offensive players. When I say Tyrus makes mistakes on offense, its usually this.

In summary, the Bulls basic plays are probably pretty simple. That being said, executing them continuously at game speed requires some level of intelligence and understanding as you have to be reading the movements and positions of 9 guys to decide your own.

.....

Next thing. The offense is designed to create certain opportunities. It is the player's responsibilities to take advantage of them as they are given. For example, when Luol cuts around Wallace in the above mentioned play, he is the first option and his goal is to get a layup. If he gets the ball on that cut, it is his JOB to shoot it and make it at a reasonable percentage.

Going back to football, think of a running play. If you have a certain play where the RB is given the ball and the lineman are supposed to seal the hole between the guard and the center with the FB hitting the MLB, it is the RB's job to take advantage of that opportunity created by others and run through that hole if there. If he cuts it outside, he screwed up. Sometimes it may work, but it usually won't and he is hurting his team.

Why is this relevant? Ben Wallace and Chris Duhon.

The goal of many of the plays is to create an open look on the outside, or a layup inside. When a player gets those looks, it is his responsibility within the offense to take and make those opportunities. Not doing so is breaking out of the offense just as much as Tyrus drifting around and screwing up the spacing is.

[Rerisen]

Good points CF. I think it is very hard for people to identify the mistakes of players who mess up by *not* taking a action, versus the easy target of those who do take an action but just fail at it.

If you see Tyrus running around looking confused, or Gordon missing a open curl, that is far easier to count as a screw up than seeing Chris Duhon pass up the only wide open shot in a entire possession. Worse, that same possession might end with Kirk or BG taking a late shot clock heave, and people will interpret them as the ones who screwed up.

Likewise, if two bigs collapse on Deng as he slashes to the lane and he fails to convert, people blame him for not being a finisher, never realizing that Ben Wallace being no threat is the reason that Deng was double teamed in the first place, and that even if Luol had dumped him the ball he would have likely kicked it back out or thrown up a horrible bungling attempt at a shot.

People understand implicitly that great players make their teammates better. But then it also must be true that bad players can make their teammates worse. Or even being terrible on just one side of the ball (offense) can do the same even if a player is average taken as a whole. Deng, Kirk, and BG certainly suffer from this in any number of lineups the Bulls often put on the floor.

[Mr. Tibbs]

from my experience playing pg in hs...which probably isn't saying much compared to an nba playbook...it sorta depends on the player as to if its easy to pick up plays. Honestly i almost always felt like i wasn't running plays right but i loved being a point guard because most the time it was the other guys job to really do stuff and i'd just wait for the open man or create when i had the opportunity.

I was also the kind of guy where i would ask to run plays in other peoples positions (in practice) just so i could get a feel of what they were gonna do...so i'd say it depends on the person..but no matter how hard something is, enough practice will always get it done eventually.