1. Hall of Fame coach Chuck Daly distilled the concept, "Spacing is offense and offense is spacing."
2. What does that mean to players? During one segment of practice, I like to coach 3 on 3 to the split.
3. Great spacing opens driving and passing lanes and limits doubling and 'digging' at the post. Spacing forces defenders to cover more territory. Offense has more room to operate and focus. "You don't sit three to a desk" in school...it's too distracting.
4. "Spacing line." I teach the 3 point line as the "spacing line".
If you're the 1, do you want X2 near the lane line or closer to the corner?
5. The biggest downside to 'screen based' offense is the changes in spacing demanded.
Part of spacing includes knowing both what to do and what NOT to do.
- "Don't cut to an occupied post."
- "Little guards, don't cut to the treeline." (where the bigs are)
- "If a driver gets the ball, vacate her path to the basket." (Cut to move defenders)
Bonus bite: "The basketball is like a magnet." Defensively, the ball should draw you, but offensively, staying too close to the ballhandler will hurt your team.