Above is a screen shot from Bigelow's website. I watched an epic Bigelow/Ron Lee matchup in 1971...two NBA first rounders from Massachusetts' Middlesex League. The moms love Bigelow's mantras and most of the dads are skeptics.
As coaches, we teach the game. If your opponent throws half-court trapping, multiple zones, "America's Play," and the kitchen sink at us, we can't have our thumbs in our mouths.
If we want to compete, then we need principled zone offense, intelligent defense, and poise under pressure. I know no substitute for practice, including offensive and defensive delay games. And I'm conflicted by whether I should rob fundamental skills time for game situation practice.
I can't approach the wisdom and depth of John Kimble's delay defense article; here it is.
We faced a delay offense trailing by two late recently and "lucked out" forcing a turnover with eight seconds left. Unfortunately, I had burnt our final (third) timeout after a made basket in the last minute to stop the clock and set the defense.
Facing delay defense we have choices...but they all begin with aggressiveness on ball and denial...and fouling. That exposes defense to screens and back cuts, but c'est la vie.
Here are a few excerpts from Kimble:
• Always anticipate all off-the-ball screens and automatically switch them.
• Jump trap all ballscreens.
• Jump trap all dribble hand-offs and crosses.
• Jump switch all hard dribble approaches.
• Substitute properly for defensive and offensive specialists on free- throw situations.
Incorporating specific defenses for each delay type isn't possible with minimal practice time (three hours/week). But choosing the best combination of defenders and sharing core principles is.
The follow-on is that players must understand the type of shots we want (and can get) with limited time and no timeouts. There's no there there yet.
Lagniappe:
Why ask why? The NBA plays the way they do based on data.
Paint touches and ball reversal, including "in-and-out threes" create higher points per possession.
