Can Someone please explain the Lunacy of not putting players on the lane when shooting FT's late and in the lead?

[glassmanJ]

the dumbest thing to me in college or pro bball is a team with the lead and their player shooting FT's and the other four guys are at the other end with no one to even attempt a rebound or to slow up the dribble. i;ve seen it three times in the last week where the player missed the FT and no one there to even try to get the rebound. you're giving up the possibility of winning the game outright with a rebound, or a putback score, or even making the ball bounce around and waste time. instead you give the losing team free walk up the court from a free rebound. it's absolutely the stupidest defense. put all your players on the line. how many times in history have to seen a fast break off a missed rebound? very few as every one is bunched up and defenders right there. just plain dumb

 

[PushupMan]

Had not really thought about this strategy, but I can see what you’re saying -especially the chance to get another possession on an offensive rebound. Maybe some coaches like the idea of having four fifths of their half court defense set, and to guarantee that their team is not going to get beat on a fast break.

If you’re a team that is vulnerable to getting beat on the fast break, the strategy makes some sense.

 

[glassmanJ]

If you’re a team that is vulnerable to getting beat on the fast break, the strategy makes some sense.

but the fast break comes off of rebounds with the clock running and the offense spread throughout the floor so long rebound bounces get outlet passes or a defender at the top of the key breaks loose, but NEVER on free throws. everyone is bunched in the lane and there is one defender from each team outside the 3 point line so no chance of a fast break at all, never happens and never seen it off a FT. there's no one on the perimeter to break free behind the D.

watch every game from now one, watch every free throw with men on the line and see if any ever turn into a fast break. maybe a run out but never a fast break with a quick shot. at minimum, you put two guys there, one shooting and the other two back. the other team has two put 4 on the line with one back to ensure they get the rebound. two men with them in the lane disrupts everything. it makes the other team have to think of every possibility. what happens if we don't get the rebound. who do we foul. what if there's a scramble and we lose 4 seconds. what happens if it's a jump ball.

you eliminate every single one of these scenarios and many more but not putting someone on the line and you only eliminate very few by keeping men back.

but teams that don't put two in the lane and instead bring four back on defense are lunatics. putting two in the lane increases your chances of getting the rebound astronomically. it went from zero only to being a 3 in 7 chance, or 42.85%, but let's round down to 20% because of D closest to the rim, and then up to 100% chance.

think about that. if you were a gambler and wanted to win the game, would you do something that greatly increased your odds of getting a loose rebound and thus winning the game, or you stick with the zero percent chance of getting the rebound.

additionally, if the ft is made, you;ve got two guys there to press a bit and slow their upcourt advance, maybe even pressure them. even create a turnover. pressure causes cracks. loosy goosy defense does not. never seen a turnover from a team bringing the ball up court with with players and no defenders near them but i've seen thousands of turnovers when some pressures the ball handler.

instead coaches sit 4 guys back at their defensive arc and wait for the D to attack, giving them all the time to overlook the D, see what's going on, allowing them to make an informed decision, allowing them to calmly run their play and do what they want to do. that's what you get when you put no men on the line with your shooter. calm team coming up the floor to attack with full vision, no pressure, no cause for concern. stupid, stupid, stupid. means you do not want to win.

instead, put two guys in the lane, and your odds of winning go up 50% imho. simple odds increase to win if you do. and it's basically, lazy coaching, saying let's have our team not try, not give effort, not try to get the rebound. it's a loose fffing ball and you're giving it away to them for free with no time coming off the clock, no pressure and no reason to think you are making them work at all or even think about their next action, it's being handed to them on a silver platter.

and that's considered a sound defense. and it does not allow you to intentionally foul as easy if needed. so again, watch every game in the future and see if there is any fast break on a normal free throw attempt. then watch the end of games where it's a free throw contest and the winning team won;t put any players on the line allowing the other team to come straight up the floor uncontested until they approach the arc. absolute lunacy and have no idea why anyone would play this way. also tends to lead to open deep threes from the other team because the defense picks up too late and too deep.

 

[Guardman]

I've seen this a LOT in the past 2 weeks. Never to this degree before. I have my own ideas about the reasons. But right now I just want to observe if this little trend turns into something bigger.

 

[glassmanJ]

i didn't even mention that many times it also allows the losing team, if the ft was made, to roll the ball all the way to half court before someone touches it and starts the clock. free advanced of the ball. jsut plain dumb. again, let's the losing team have all the power and control over the up coming situation where they dictate the action. point is, control the action, don't let the other team do it.

and here's the final proof that i am 100% correct and it's just plain idiotic and stupid to coach this way... i, and every single one of you, has never seen a single coach in the history of me watching basketball on any single level, pull their players from the free throw line at any other point during any other game that's ever been played. if it was such a smarter strategy, why not do it on every single free throw attempt during the game? if it meant you could drop your guys back into a set defense that is supposedly much better than the defense you've played for the first 39 minutes and 40 seconds, then why wouldn't you play that exact same defense the entire game?

and the answer is, well, we can get the rebound and possibly score again. btu when your up three points with 20 seconds to go, all of a sudden, coaches say, well, for the first 39 minutes and 40 seconds, this way of playing has worked perfectly and we are in the lead about to win so let's change the way we've played the entire game and mostly the entire season and approach this last play completely different from how you've been taught your entire life to approach the game of basketball. on on offense you're supposed to be patient and on defense you run around like mad. but in the final 20 seconds, with the lead, let's switch to a stationary defense that allows the other team to set up exactly what they want to do.
so let's play the game hard and smart for just over 39 minutes which put us in the lead and has us winning the game, and now let's change up everything we've done to get here, like fighting for the rebound on every single free throw that was taken in every game we've played before this, now let's do something completely different.

and i still haven't brought up how it's a mind fu%k for the shooter to all of a sudden have all his team mates run away. think about this, if they have two free throws and make the first, every players on every team on every level always comes up and dabs the shooter congrats and they reset. but when there's no teammates in the lane, his routine is completely different, his mind is looking at a lane without his teammates which is rare, his entire routine is different from the previous 39+ minutes of play, and thus you put your shooter in a spot he's not use to thus increasing the pressure on him and thus leading to more missed free throws.

i guarantee you now this topic will reach the radio and eventually national conversation because i've explained it so well. there's absolutely no reason to think that pulling your guys back on free throw attempts at any point in the game increases your chances of winning or successfully defending the last play. it takes your team out of the mode that they've been playing in their entire lives and forces them into something more conservative and unnatural. So please CPK, i pray you're smart enough never to do this. it absolutely makes no sense if you want to win the game. why not do it the entire game if this type of defense works so well? explain one single benefit, you cannot. it's just pure copy cat, lazy coaching.

and not a single one of you reading this will ever watch a free throw attempt the same again and every one of you will have this same conversation now with your friends any time you see it come up and it will over and over and over again.