I just had a quick defensive question I was wondering about. What is the relationship between a double team and positioning? For example, suppose you were double teaming a center, so presumably your C and PF would be on that guy the whole game. Now suppose you set your positioning to +3 or +4 to cover the guards. Would that weaken your double team, since your players are playing more off to the perimeter and their center could stay in the post? Or would your perimeter guys play tighter on their perimeter guys while your C and PF stayed in to shut down the center?

Thanks!

Edit: I should add that I play a man-to-man defense, if that matters.

I am not at all sure that it is the C and PF who do the double

see for example the other recent double team thread - we dont know whether its a box and one

or maybe its a guard dropping down and doubling

long ago when I did it more, I looked at who gets the open looks when there is a double team and could not divine an answer from that info

Interesting. I just looked at the other thread (I assume you mean "Double-Teaming in a Zone - Effective?") and it said that in a double team, the team shifts to a "matchup zone" against the DT player. To me, that says that a C will usually be covered with a C and PF (since he'll rarely leave the paint) and a PG will usually be covered by a PG and SG (since he'll rarely leave the perimeter), with the other 3 positions being more variable.

That said, the other thread also covers zone instead of man and it still doesn't cover my question about positioning. Any advice on that front?

Well in regards to positioning, one thing that I usually do is play a -3 or so and double team their best perimeter shooter. Now obviously this won't always work (if the team has more than one excellent perimeter shooter, etc) but for the most part I've had success with it. I assume it would work the opposite way as well