Double teaming a one man scoring machine Topic

Is this recommended? Playing a team tonight with a leading scorer over 35 pts per game and the 2nd best scorer is around 8. Should I double team him and is so always or just when he is the leading scorer. What are the pro's and cons. It is obvious he is the main man without doubt for my opponent... You guys have been great. Still tinkering with what you guys have said and very much appreciate it because I am really starting to really enjoy this game more every day...Thanks guys
3/30/2011 8:14 PM
Absolutely, positively, no exception, use the double team him every minute. Unless he's scoring those points while shooting bad.
3/30/2011 8:22 PM
You may also want to adjust your lineup as well. Move your best defender over to cover him. I'm not saying to move a Center to cover a Guard, or a Guard to cover a PF, but if the guy in question is a Guard and your best PG/SG is a SG, set him as your PG if his Ball Handling and Passing is good enough. If his leading scorer is a PF and your best bigman SF/PF/C is a Center, move him to PF to cover the guy.
3/30/2011 9:43 PM
Yeah, I would definitely double him.  Also you'll probably want to play about a +4.  Given how poor a defender your SF is (even worse than your already fairly bad guards...) I wouldn't necessarily recommend switching to 3-2, but just push the 2-3 way, way out.  Their rebounding is ok, but nothing great, and it shouldn't kill you to push the defense away from the rim.
3/30/2011 10:17 PM
Posted by dahsdebater on 3/30/2011 10:17:00 PM (view original):
Yeah, I would definitely double him.  Also you'll probably want to play about a +4.  Given how poor a defender your SF is (even worse than your already fairly bad guards...) I wouldn't necessarily recommend switching to 3-2, but just push the 2-3 way, way out.  Their rebounding is ok, but nothing great, and it shouldn't kill you to push the defense away from the rim.
I would absolutely, positively play a 3-2.
3/30/2011 11:46 PM
Why would you play a 2-3 +4? That just doesn't make sense to me. I would think a 3-2 +1 would be better against the perimeter AND be better rebounding than a 2-3 +4.
3/31/2011 12:19 AM
The zone randomly selects one of the players on the applicable line to select each offensive player on each possession.  Or at least that's what was relayed to me in a ticket a few months ago.  So putting a crap defender out there gives him a chance to be the first guy matched up on the elite scorer.  I don't see how that's remotely desirable.
3/31/2011 1:24 AM
before you do any of this look at his FG% and his 3ptFG%

IF his percentage is awful, you may not want to double him....
3/31/2011 3:43 AM
Would it make any sense to check his fouls per game?  Is it possible to run your offense through that position to possibly get him into early foul trouble?
3/31/2011 7:51 AM
don't double team him if you don't have at least two defensive players who are up to the challenge.
3/31/2011 7:58 AM
He has 0 defensive players who are up to the challenge.  And fd343ny, his 3pt% is just under 40%, so not blowing you away good but pretty darn good for taking that many shots...
3/31/2011 2:10 PM
Posted by dahsdebater on 3/31/2011 2:10:00 PM (view original):
He has 0 defensive players who are up to the challenge.  And fd343ny, his 3pt% is just under 40%, so not blowing you away good but pretty darn good for taking that many shots...
He DT'd him, held him to 24 pts on 20 shots (7-20 shooting, all 3p's) and won the game by 19.

And dahs, for a team taking such an enormously high percentage of their shots from 3p range, I think you'd be crazy to go with a 2-3 vs. a 3-2. (He actually went with a 2-3, balanced that adjusted to a +2 in the second half. But the DT and the fact that he was 50 pts better per man proved to be enough.)
3/31/2011 2:21 PM
I know you're a much better coach than me girt, but in this case he's taking a huge percentage of shots from beyond the arc, but almost all of them are taken by that 1 player.  My thought was that by double teaming him in the 2-3 you're pretty much leaving other perimeter shooters open.  But they aren't shooting, so that shouldn't kill you.  And you have 3 guys inside to rebound if he misses and prevent easy putbacks.
3/31/2011 2:25 PM

One of the reasons this game went like it did.... was the shooter sat down at 16mins in with fouls... didn't re-enter the game until 10 mins later. The game was still close until the final minutes even tho the shooter, who gets at least 75-80 distro, wasn't in the game. If he plays the entire game and doesn't sit this is a different outcome. Until the game punishes guys who shoot until their arm falls off, these teams will continue to be successful.... this kid is really just a decent player. He's in my conference, with a first year coach, (Allen, so could be a freehd 1 and done), and will beat some teams in our conference the next 3 weeks that are much better talent wise, recruited for, and coached, than he is... the engine just happens to be rewarding these players/coaches right now who want to put 100% distro to one guy and leave. 

Salem State is actually ahead in this game with 8:30 left and gets outscored 25-5 or so the last 8 mins... and the high distro kid doesn't score again I don't think. Not real sure what if anything that can be learned here.

3/31/2011 3:28 PM (edited)
zags, there is a penalty for any player who has taken more than half of the shots amongst the players on the floor.  The only reason that shooter is doing so well is because of the incredibly weak defenses he has faced.  You can take it to the bank that he wouldn't be anywhere close to .400 from 3-point land against a top-50 SOS.
3/31/2011 3:48 PM
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