Posted by jeffdrayer on 12/26/2014 6:15:00 PM (view original):
The giant downside no one ever mentions about FB is you can't go slow down. There are 3 things you can control in games: your distribution, your defensive setting, and your tempo. With FB, you immediately rob yourself of the opportunity to fully manipulate one. Unless you're already an elite team -- in which case you're probably not changing your offense -- the path to getting there is often paved with several seasons of wanting to go slow down; against better teams, against deeper teams where you might have a great starting five but inexperienced bench, etc etc. No one ever raises this issue, but I think choosing FB means giving yourself a huge liability right when you need it least.
this is true but the offensive advantages of fastbreak are even greater at lower levels of play with spottier talent and crappier opponents. and, as you said, its not an issue if you are already an elite team. i think the biggest criticism really comes at the "good" level where you are like 15-40 team and need to slowdown against higher tier opponents - that is when i miss it. i don't find myself missing it so much at lower levels, just like i don't traditionally run a slowdown press at lower levels. both aim for depth and if you don't have it, it is going to hurt more than other sets, but that is really a requirement of these sets, is to make sure you maintain ample depth/stamina. and the advantages can be pretty profound at lower levels of competition, how far you can go on so little offensive talent, that i think the slowdown thing is acceptable. its really when you are trying to get over the hump to be a consistently good team, and you need to be able to at least half way keep up with the big boys, where i find that lack of slowdown particularly unpleasant. mostly, this is d1, the top teams pressing so much in d2/d3 might make what you are saying very true at the lower levels there too. but i think at least for d1 lower levels, the lack of slowdown is very tolerable.
(the rest of this is general not a reply to mr. drayer)
real quick, to quantify, fastbreak is on the order of half as fatiguing as press is. this comes out in additional possessions just like press does, which is inherently a significant advantage if you are the superior team (more possessions = better team more likely to come through). you can definitely run a simple 10 man rotation with 2 walkons with fb/man and certainly with fb/zone, its not challenging you to go 12 deep every season like the press does. a lot of people talk about needing depth and stamina so i just wanted to quantify what that means a little more tangibly. you do want to push for at least being 2 deep per position (or 4 deep for 2 spots) but 11&12 is not required.
someone earlier said fb lets you be successful with ratings that aren't as traditional, and also it was brought up in relation to the top 25. at least in d1, fb teams won't be hurt in the top 25 by their ratings. at a championship caliber of play, primary scorers in fb still need those traditional high lp and per numbers (especially per). its really the supplementary players, or higher scorers against lower caliber competition, where you can get by with less lp/per. but you definitely want to push for your star to be really awesome in the traditional sense, offensively. the upside then is the distro in fb is the most generous of any set, you can very easily run with 2 guys at 20 ppg, i haven't had that ease elsewhere. maybe thats just me, but i have had numerous title contenders in the FB run by 2 guys right at 20 ppg (at least 5).
in summary, the goal in FB is this. you have the ability to really focus on offense in a couple players, and FB lets you get a TON out of them. then, you can really focus on other areas of importance, like defense, rebounding, and guard skills. naturally, ath/spd are highly valuable in these other areas, and by getting quality defenders and rebounders, you just naturally will have guys who can pick up what offense remains after you primary scorers take their cut, because those guys really don't need to be traditional offensive players. its nice if they are, but its not required. the value of FB is its flexibility, you can build a better offense than other teams with less offensive talent, and then focus your remaining talent into defense and rebounding and passing to get a little ahead in those areas, too. the penalty of FB is the depth requirement, and about 1 turnover a game, maybe 1.5 turnovers a game. its also ultra flexible on type of offense, its at least as good as motion for a driving, foul shot based offense and in the higher levels, its at least as good as flex for a heavy 3 point shooting team. you can really do it anyway you want, its all about getting the talent focused in the right areas - getting a lot of offensive talent in a couple guys who can lead and killing it on defense elsewhere (and reb/passing).
12/27/2014 12:09 PM (edited)