What do you all look at to let you know if you've made someone's press be counter effective? I typically assume I'll win the fast break pts battle and lose the pts off turnover battle. So if diff in fbp > diff in pot I claim that as a win. I also look at foul differential. Not sure if that's a smart way to look at things though. What do you all look at to calculate the effect of a pressing team?

Not sure I have interpreted your question properly, but here's how you beat it...
Deep bench, great bh/pass at multiple positions who also have speed.

Whatever Stewdog says. He would have to get my vote for the unchallenged master of the FCP 

My question for stewdog and gillispie1 is what gameplanning can you do against a press? It sounds like either you have the players to beat it or you don't, but that you can't gameplan your way into a win (as opposed to facing a man team where you can tweak your lineups to put your best scorer on their weakest defender, etc.). Is that accurate?

How much of a negative impact does the press have on rebounding?

My previous answer was a short one to explain the types of things you want to look for in building a team that will beat the press regularly. It might be worth to consider building a team this way if you have a lot of great coaches running press in your conference. But if your issue is gameplanning.... Unfortunately I don't think gameplanning will by itself help you win. You will not beat a press if you gameplan perfectly but don't have the players.  As in real life, the players are the most impt part.

Thanks for the novel gillispie. Agree with most of it (though I do think speed plays a role in beating a press on O & D to a greater degree than you see this). I will not write as much... I will do a few bullet points. If you need more explanation, I will check back here in a day or so (busy life)

* Tempo: (Very important. But its an art figuring out the right tempo to play. You must know your OWN team as well as theirs)
- If you are equally as deep as them (quality of players and stamina of your team), run uptempo. Wear them down. 
- If your BENCH is superior (not starters), run uptempo. Wear them down. Also consider using a great scorer off the bench in this scenario instead of starting him.
- If you are not as deep OR your bench is not as good (one of the two applies), go normal speed. 
- If your starters are superior but your bench is weaker, slow down. Try to keep your starters in as long as possible. It could be your only advantage. 
- If they are just a better team top to bottom, slow it down. Less possessions= greater chance of randomness= greater chance at a win vs a superior team.
- Understand their press will wear YOU down quicker than normal in addition to getting them tired. Consider both sides before you simply think you'll wear them out. 

* Lineup: (Some teams need to use the same lineup every game. Some teams have flexibility to change. Know your team and theirs. I love recruiting for flexibility)
- types of players I would prioritize vs. the press: BH/ Pass guys (esp at pg, sg; but if you're 50/50 on a SF or PF- go with the higher bh/pass in these guys as well).
- If you have 2 bigs- put the weaker bh/ pass at the 5 instead of the 4 against the press. I don't care re. his reb or D or Ath (I do care his speed a little more at 4 than 5)
- If you can effectively run a 3 guard set or 3 big set... go smaller vs. press teams and run the 3 guards. BUT ONLY IF THEY'RE GOOD & you can do either. 
- Priority 2: Ath/ speed guys. They will force fouls more often than slow bums. 
- Priority 3: FT shooting (esp if you have a PG who's similar to another PG and you're comfortable starting either- go with the high FT guy)
- Against the press, I prioritize bh/pass/ ath/speed more than outside shooting, lp, reb, etc. Slight preference for FT shooting vs press as well)
- Don't worry about matchups in the press. DO in M2M. In other words, Put your top bh/pass/ ath/ speed shooter at PG and have him shoot a lot more even if the other team has a great defending pg. This is not a smart strategy vs. M2M. Multiple players guard you so it doesn't matter as much if his top defender  is at the 1 or 2. The defensive abilities (ath/ D/ speed) will be averaged. 

Distro: 
- Against the press, you will not get double teamed. Lean on your top scorers more than normal if you have 1-2 that stick out. 
- Against the press, some coaches shoot less threes. I don't adjust this at all and haven't seen this as a huge deal, but others do prioritize this for more fouls. See Gill's comments. The reason I could rarely see this hurt me is my guards are almost always quicker/ more athletic/ better defenders and you usually struggle to score by taking it to the hole against my small guys. My ath/ speed will be hard to beat and I won't foul you as much as a weak press team that doesn't have an advantage in ath/ speed. This is an OK strategy if you have a speed/ ath/ D advantage. Not sure it is universally. Again, know your team. 
- Great bh players will score at a higher percentage than normal. Adjust accordingly. 
- Have a great scorer on the bench could help vs a team with a weak pressing bench could be the advantage you need.

Hope this helps.  
It is hard to beat a GREAT pressing team that is 12 deep, athletic, fast, etc. 
It is actually EASIER to beat an average team that runs the press than M2M or ZONE, IMO. They will foul, give up easy baskets, etc. 

Posted by paynebrow on 1/26/2016 11:09:00 PM (view original):
How much of a negative impact does the press have on rebounding?

its moderate, a board a game or so compared to a man team. maybe as high as 1.5 board a game. thats a fair point, the hit to rebounding and fg/3pt defense (shooting %s) are really both the constant negatives of press, that help offset the turnovers. but like the fg / 3pt weakness, there's not a ton you can do - these are really constant weaknesses, the press team is going to pay the same cost basically no matter what you do. the thing to focus on is what varies from game to game, which is primarily depth issue s(fatigue/fouls), and also turnovers.

Posted by paynebrow on 1/26/2016 11:09:00 PM (view original):
How much of a negative impact does the press have on rebounding?

Press teams rebound slightly less efficiently than M2M. 
But they get TOs and steals more... so It would affect me zero. 

Lock and save this thread!  Gems from Yoda and Obiwan!  coaches who seek to become jedi should memorize what they have said here and then forget the words but remember the ideas.....build your teams this way

Now, I need to go back to my teams and consider them afresh in this context

Does the defensive set you play impact your ability to beat a press team? For instance, I play zone and often play slowdown against press teams (though perhaps I should be varying my tempo more based on the info in this thread). Seems like zone gives you the ability to 1) slow the tempo more dramatically than other sets and 2) not give up as many FT attempts. So in my mind it gives you a small advantage against press teams. Don't know if others would agree with that though...

Even if true, this is obviously in the "building your team" category - it's not like you can change sets from one night to the next when you face a press team.

I think that the scheme you play on offense may affect the calculus of tempo comparison that was discussed above.  It may burn more or less of the stamina of your team and your players - and therefore is part of what you should consider in the depth/tempo decision

I would NOT pick a scheme based on this.

Posted by mroylanc on 1/27/2016 3:13:00 PM (view original):
Does the defensive set you play impact your ability to beat a press team? For instance, I play zone and often play slowdown against press teams (though perhaps I should be varying my tempo more based on the info in this thread). Seems like zone gives you the ability to 1) slow the tempo more dramatically than other sets and 2) not give up as many FT attempts. So in my mind it gives you a small advantage against press teams. Don't know if others would agree with that though...

Even if true, this is obviously in the "building your team" category - it's not like you can change sets from one night to the next when you face a press team.

well, zone burns your fatigue at a slower rate, which makes it harder for press teams to get you into trouble in that area. so, that is somewhat of a factor in the whole rotation / fatigue issues area. but, i definitely wouldn't say that zone teams have a meaningful upper hand on man teams in being able to beat the press.

with respect to your specific points, zone does not give you the ability to slow the tempo more dramatically than other defenses. tempo is an offense thing, not a defense thing. the fatigue impact of the defense, does play into the tempo decision, but not in that way that you are suggesting. and actually, rather than on the slow down side, i'd say that zone makes it more likely i'd run uptempo into a press, to try to give them foul/fatigue problems. zone is not only better in terms of fatigue, but zone defenders pick up fewer fouls than anyone else - so you can more survive those uptempo games where fouls and fatigue can be major issues. keep in mind this is nuanced stuff you are asking about here, not the main driver of decisions.

on the second point, zone teams do not give up as many FT attempts, you are correct. the FT attempts themselves, really are not a factor in decision making, from a scoring standpoint. it is a minor advantage of zone that is offset by minor disadvantages. the part about zone teams fouling less does matter, in the fatigue/foul issue part of things, as mentioned above.

on a random note (well, not random, i just want to elaborate on this), i may be wrong about the speed thing. one of the co-coaches i coach with, who is a really good game planner, and successful with the press, also disagrees with me on the speed thing. tons of people do. also, i actually do think speed helps beat the press, more than it helps beat other offenses - i just think it is a relatively small effect, and that it is overstated and misunderstood in the minds of many coaches who play press.

generally speaking, my experience with the game in general, tells me that defense is based on aggregates, not individual ratings. really, that is true for the entire game. when players and teams are compared, the game is comparing their ability in some area, not individual ratings. that would be far more complex and nuanced, and for what gain? who is to say a player who has a masterful defensive mind and great technique, can't compensate for being slower? i don't believe this only based on theoretical reasons, but because of observation. this is a big part of why people hear me trying to get folks to talk about abilities, not ratings. abilities are really what matter, having great per if you don't have the spd/bh to back it up, its just not really worth anything, at the high levels of game play. 

i think speed works the same way. speed is a key factor in creating steals, for press defenders - although not like it used to be. but, its still just a rating as part of an aggregate, an ability. i don't think stewdog or anyone disputes that. the question really is, is the offensive player able to avoid those steals if they have higher speed? i think this largely comes down to, is speed a factor in turnovers in general? my take is that speed is at most a minor impact in turnovers, and very possibly not a factor at all. to those who think speed is important to beating a press, keep in mind that speed is a guard skill, and great guards with good bh/pass usually have good speed, too. a team who has those bh/pass skills to beat a press, usually has the speed. so is the speed helping more, to stop turnovers, or is it just a coincidence, because high speed players usually have high bh/pass as well? its just important to keep that correlation in mind, when considering or investigating this issue.

all im saying is, its really hard to isolate the effect of speed on beating the press, compared to the effect of speed on beating man or zone teams. speed is really important, and is tightly correlated, from a recruit generation standpoint, with other key ratings that DO help more against the press. so, its very, very hard to determine if speed actually helps more against the press than against other defenses, there's just so much muddying the water. which, is why i am not totally convinced i am right on this, despite the vast majority of my success coming with press teams. if someone wants to investigate this further, to try to understand it, i would suggest trying to break it down to different aspects of the game. if speed helps more in beating a press team, what specifically is it helping more in? does it help you defend against the press team better? (probably not, that would kind of make no sense, your defense goes against their offense, not their defense). does it help you avoid turnovers more? i think that is probably the key question for most people. does it help you be more efficient scoring wise, once you "beat the press" in the traditional sense, meaning you get into your half court offense and don't turn the ball over? so like, does speed make your fg% higher, more so when playing a press team, than when you play a man team? of course speed helps on offensive efficiency, but does it help more vs the press, than against man or zone? does speed help more in terms of pushing a rebounding advantage? anyone can try to investigate these things, and come up with their own conclusion.

just to share my conclusion down that line of thinking, the one area i DO think speed is more helpful, in beating the press, than in beating other defenses, is in foul drawing. i think we'd all agree that speed is a key rating in terms of drawing fouls. drawing fouls is better against the press, than against other sets, because it can really compound their rotation / fatigue issues - this is along the lines of what i was talking about above, with the value of foul drawing strategies against the press. so, i do think speed is more valuable in beating the press, in that sense. i don't personally think it helps on the turnover front though, which is where i think most people think it helps. of course, i could be wrong about all of this! anyway, just some food for thought. trying to think through the impact of ratings, in the smaller pieces of the game, its really a valuable exercise, even if you don't know the answer in the end. it definitely helps bring clarity to what ratings matter and why.