Defensive Ideologies in Basketball and Why Defense Is Important

By: James O’Dell

In the game of basketball there are two parts of the game. Those parts are offense and defense. Some coaches in the world try to argue that one part of the game is more important than the other and I also have a belief that one part of the game is more important than the other. I agree that offense is important, all parts of the game are important even the parts that take place off of the court. However, my mindset with defense can be explained in a sentence like so, “You will have a tough time winning if you have a rough time scoring.” What does this mean exactly? Well I am not saying that basketball teams are able to shut out their opponents, because that is basically impossible, but defenses can make the offensive part of basketball a very terrible time.

Because offense is a main focus for many basketball programs in our nation it is not a surprise that a lot of teams choose to focus on defense rather than offense. In an episode of a podcast I was listening to called Coach Unplugged, they had a coach from the NCAA Division II level. I believe he explained defense in a way that I really agreed with. He had stated something along the lines of defenses fail not because of the type of defense or the type of offense, but how the type of defense is being played. I believe that this type of mindset is great. I also believe that another way to say this is the effort level of the defense that is being played.

When you think about the word effort, a question that you should ask yourself is, how do you define effort? I define effort as the grit, and integrity that you possess while completing a task. Especially on the defensive side of the ball, good defenders possess a lot of grit and integrity. Integrity is a is a synonym for undivided. Why is being undivided important? If you have read my Principles of Coaching article then you would know that I believe that communication is necessary for success. A part of being undivided on the defensive side of the game is having proper communication. Being undivided on both sides of the ball is important. That is part of being a team that is performing as a unit and not as individuals the thing about offenses in basketball, especially in my mind it is also important to allow some players to perform as individuals in certain situations like isolation or pick and roll. However, it is necessary for defenses to perform as units for success.

One thing you have to understand about defense is basketball is a great game. What do I mean by this? I mean that the game is so versatile and players that play are good at the game so there will almost never be shutouts. Defenses will never be perfect and points will be scored in every game. As a coach you need to understand that even if you believe you are walking into a “tune up” game, you should not underestimate any team’s offensive side of the ball. From a coaching mindset I always think to myself “I do not want to be part of the great upset story” if I am going against a team that I am “supposed to beat” I would make sure to prepare your team and let them know that they should not treat that game as an easy one and if they do, they will be the next comeback story. What I am trying to get across is that defense will never be perfect and the easiest way to avoid losing games you should not lose is to over prepare.

Defense has to be played as a unit. That has already been explained but the most important thing about defense is to be patient, yet aggressive. What do I mean by patient yet aggressive? I mean that you cannot be too aggressive on defense in regards to trying to force turnovers. Being patient means waiting for the right time to attack or attempt to steal the ball or force turnovers. If you are playing patient yet aggressive, it is likely to help with fouls. As a player, one of the worst situations you can be in is foul trouble. Foul trouble forces you to play conservative without attacking like you normally would, or even like the game plan that your coaches have made require you to.Therefore making you a liability because you cannot commit fouls or you will be removed from the game. This is also a bad situation for coaches because foul trouble forces coaches to think outside of their original game plan. However, if you possess qualities of transformational leadership then situations like so will not harm as much as they may seem to.

From a coaching standpoint talking about different rotations and combinations of personnel, it would not be a bad idea to create a defensive oriented set of players to play in clutch situations where you need to maintain a lead. What I mean by this is taking five of the best defenders on your team on each position and putting them in the same lineup to hopefully make scoring more difficult than if they were playing against your base lineup. Leading to my next point is to play good defense you have to have other skills as well. Playing exceptional defense means nothing if you are an offensive liability and will cause turnovers on the offensive side of the ball every other touch you get. As a coach you have to keep in mind that your best defensive players may be offensive liabilities and you may have to game plan with that or incorporate them in your offense in a way that does not put them on the ball. From a player standpoint, if you want to be a defensive minded player, that is great. Just make sure that you have more to your skill set than good hands and good speed. Work on your free throws, layups, passing, screens. Everything that you can. Turn your weaknesses into strengths.

My next point that has to do with defense is having confidence in not only your game plan, but your players as well. I will be the first to admit that when I played I was not a good teammate. I would often not trust my teammates on both sides of the ball and I was under the mindset that I had to do everything myself. Because of that, I now see that I am a lot of the reason that we lost the games that we did. I did not buy into my coaches game plan and I did not trust my teammates. Especially on defense it is important to be confident. As coaches and players we all put time into getting better at the game and enhancing our skills. We have to trust in the work that we put in and trust that our practice reps and film study will translate into the real game. As a coach, it is your job to instill that confidence in your squad and to make sure that they are confident throughout the game in all situations. It is especially important to trust in your program and to be confident when you are not in the lead. It is no secret that the team winning the game has more confidence than the team losing. Your job as the coach is to not let the team beat themselves and to keep them motivated. A great way to get motivated is to play good defense and shut the opposing offense down. By doing that, you will create confidence by the defense you are playing and it will hopefully turn into points on the other end of the court.

As a coach, it is important for you to be confident in yourself and decide with your staff what the best defensive sets are for your team. In my opinion, I feel the best way to decide what defenses are best for your team is to use transformational leadership qualities and utilize the strengths of your unit. Different coaches prefer different kinds of playing styles. Do not be afraid to be different and creative. Odds are if you are a coach, you have earned that spot. If you are going to instill confidence in your team to play good defense you have to be able to instill confidence in yourself in the way that you are coaching and the game plans that you are producing. I would also have a couple different sets that you can use at any time because it is no secret that the game of basketball is fast paced and things can change in a heartbeat. It will also make game planning and personnel rotations easier with different defenses to put against different kinds of offenses. Not only does it help with game planning it makes it harder for opposing coaches to game plan against you.

Thinking about defense is one of the most important factors that can either make or break the kind of defense that you play. Communication is that factor for me. I truly feel that the level of communication of your defense decides how well your defense plays. Playing defense without communication is a big challenge that a lot of teams put on themselves. That is unnecessary and leads to a lot of mistakes on the court that would not have happened otherwise.Proper communication leads to a more well rounded defense that is harder to score on. As a coach I believe that you should prioritize proper and beneficial communication for your team to build trust among the team and to play more as a unit on the defensive, and offensive sides of the ball.

Communication is important in all defenses but especially in man to man defense, communication is the key to success. Man to man defense is a lot different than the zone defenses in basketball. Most teams run man to man to put more pressure on the ball and on the offense in general to hopefully force the offense in to tough situations that in return generate more turnovers, which means more opportunities for your team to score. Man to man defense without proper communication is useless because modern offenses against man to man defense involve a lot of screens. Proper communication lets the offensive movements be known to the team so they can make changes on the fly if need be. As a coach, I believe that scrimmaging, and the shell drill are good ways to practice communication and defensive movement as a unit. Especially in defensive minded practices, I highly suggest scrimmaging to get the most game-like feeling that you can so your players can really practice communication and playing as a unit.

However, do not downplay your strength of communication in the other defenses either. It is just simply an opinion of mine that because man to man is more individualized than zone defenses in basketball, that you have to have proper communication to play good man to man defense or your team’s lack of communication will get exploited by good teams. The fact of the matter is that no matter how good your communication, or how good your team is at the defense that you run, you will still face challenges against every team because that is how basketball is supposed to be. A good defensive mindset is a “next play mentality”. There are going to be times as a coach that you watch your players play excellent defense and a shot that should not have gone in, goes in. You have to appreciate the level of defense that you play even if it was not successful. Each possession is a battle in it’s own. Teams win games by winning more possessions than the other team. Each team gets the same amount of possessions in every game. The better defensive team will make it difficult to win more possessions.

If you retain anything from the post that you have just read, I feel it should be these few key things. Basketball is a game of possessions and it is the job of the defense to prevent the opponent from winning more possessions than your team. The key to a well performing defense is well performed communication. Without proper communication the team cannot play as a unit. If the team cannot play as a unit, they will most likely struggle on the defensive side of the ball. Maintaining a “next play mentality” on both sides of the ball will lessen the chances of low self esteem in game therefore allowing players to play at the level of confidence that they need to in order to succeed. Because basketball is the way that it is, no matter how good your defense is, or how well your players play it, your opponent will always have some amount of points on the board, the objective of defense is not to shut the opponent out. Of course coaches would love that, that just is not possible. The goal of defense is to keep it to where the opponent cannot win as many possessions as your team.