How important is it for us to install a Zone package?

[Quake Griffin]

discuss.


i think it's vital for the 2nd round in which we'll probably see OKC or SAS.
and I'm not ashamed to admit it.

[azncorruptedo17]

o.O what do you mean "install a zone package?"

Do you mean "how important is it for us to play zone D?"

[Quake Griffin]

yea.
i don't see us do it much.

the zone we ran against OKC clearly wasn't practiced or embedded and thats why it failed us after a while...giving up an easy dunk and a layup and 1 to serge.

but as keeping TP and RW out of the lane is priority #1 for the second round of these playoffs.
and i think the best way for us to do that is zoning them up.

thoughts?

[azncorruptedo17]

yea.
i don't see us do it much.

the zone we ran against OKC clearly wasn't practiced or embedded and thats why it failed us after a while...giving up an easy dunk and a layup and 1 to serge.

but as keeping TP and RW out of the lane is priority #1 for the second round of these playoffs.
and i think the best way for us to do that is zoning them up.

thoughts?

if anything, we'd have to play 3/2 vs OKC and SAS (maybe get away with 2/3 with SAS). I wouldn't want to 2/3 zone OKC, martin/durant/westbrook will kill us from the outside.

The key is for BG/DJ to stop getting into early foul trouble, and for DJ to just flat out not suck. We'd have to have a 4th quarter rotation of EB/CP3/Jcraw/BG/DJ (or LO), but having DJ out there is a risk in itself.

Damn barbosa for tearing his ACL... KG/LB for DJ/EB woulda given us the 'ship for sure.

[og15]

yea.
i don't see us do it much.

the zone we ran against OKC clearly wasn't practiced or embedded and thats why it failed us after a while...giving up an easy dunk and a layup and 1 to serge.

but as keeping TP and RW out of the lane is priority #1 for the second round of these playoffs.
and i think the best way for us to do that is zoning them up.

thoughts?

You can't use zone for too extended a period of time in the NBA. You can use zone principles, but zone is best used in short stretches to maybe slow down a team, and get them to change up their offense, then as they start to adjust, you go back to man to man.

Sitting in the zone for too long generally becomes a problem for teams because it gets figured out, teams say "why in the world are we passing around the perimeter and not screening the zone", "why aren't we attacking the basket just because there is a zone".

I do agree that it wouldn't hurt to have a solid rotation zone as an option defensively, DJ should technically be a good defender for covering space and rotating in a zone, but who knows. The 1-2-2 with the SF or box and 1 is a nice zone to go to in order to prevent penetration. Technically it can be hurt in the corners by playing sort of a win/triangle/high post on one side of the floor, then drawing defenders to the wing and opening up a corner shooter, so I don't like a zone vs SA.

Is it important, I wouldn't say it's necessary, but it could help for sure.

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What I would actually like to see vs OKC is a 2-2-1 zone press with Paul and Bledsoe on the court together that falls back to man to man. Probably have Barnes/Blake and DJ for more quickness and athleticism, but you need guys to not gamble n and to let the defense do the work, not take chances. Also need guys to know where to be and who's rotating, etc, and trust each other. Throw that out for a few minutes a half and see what comes of it.

Heres an example I've posted before with the Celtics: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hECMJ5uljUI

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Again, if everyone is buying into it and knows what they should be doing, a half court trap like the Bulls do could also work:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OhNo9bqU7-A

CP and Bledsoe's ability to pressure ball handlers needs to be used to slow other teams down and give them little time on the clock. The question is how much practice time is available for any of this?