I'm curious what impacts the -5 and +5 defensive settings have on a game.  For you coaches who have experience with these settings, what kinds of changes do you see in the box score from these settings?  I assume that at -5 you will outrebound your opponent more often and cause them to force up more jumpshots and limit points in the paint, but that you also don't see as many steals and fast break points.  At +5 you take away the 3, but get killed on the boards.  Am I about right?  I would love to hear from some coaches who run -5 or +5 defenses exclusively.  I know there are a few of you out there...

You've got it about right.  But don't listen to the conspiracy theorists -- a -5 accomplishes what you listed to a slightly greater degere than a -4, which is slightly more than a -3, etc.  There's no magic to the extreme settings -- they're just part of a spectrum. 

Let the unhinged diatribes begin...

mduncan, that is pretty close. but at +5, you say, get killed on the boards... the effect on rebounding of the +/- settings is not that pronounced.

Thanks for the answers guys.  Keep 'em coming.

IMHO + defenses result in committing more fouls 

Posted by dacj501 on 1/24/2011 6:36:00 PM (view original):
IMHO + defenses result in committing more fouls 

i think this defies conventional wisdom, which is simply that-  causes more fouls. but i really am not sure how this goes. i feel like your bigs get more fouls packing it inside, but also, guarding players closer results in more fouls, so i feel like + defenses can cause more trouble in your back court. i feel like i should know this better but really i don't, i wouldn't be all that surprised if i had it totally backwards.

It confuses me too, and I'm also constantly wondering whether I'm better off playing + when my guards have a speed advantage, because their guards can't get around them, or whether I'm better off at -, because my guards are fast enough to get out on them when they pull up and still contest the shot.  Thoughts?

jeff, in the press, i felt i should play the - because my guards were fast enough to come out and contest the shot. i am extremely confident that was the right way to go, because i studied it intensely. but the press is much different because of all the trapping and double teaming. i remain unconvinced in the new engine and in non press defenses, which i am still figuring out.

i will say this though. if the other guards are prototypical 3 point shooters, i.e. great per, solid spd, but not as good ath and bh and without lp, then playing + on them is clearly better, i think. however, if they are like, good but not fantastic per, great ath/spd/bh, and possibly some lp (in the old engine is when i really paid attention, so honestly i am not sure how true this is today without lp, but it was very true in the old engine), and you play a + on them, they will run around you and in short, they will **** you up bad. especially if you dont have equally great spd and ath/def to go along with it.

i build my d1 motion/press teams who won 5 times in 9 years around this premise - i would have 5 or 6 guards with 90+ spd/bh and high ath, but only 1 or maybe 2 would have 90+ per, the rest were 60s 70s and 80s. if people played a decent -, i had enough 3 point shooting to punish them in a pretty big way. if they played a +, we were so fast, with such good ball handling (and very good passing to boot), we would just blow by them and our fg% would be astronomical. this was back in a time when so many big 6 school had a half dozen players all 90+ in everything that i don't think it was our talent advantage that really made us so successful, but the offense of our guards, which was virtually counter-proof. i am not honestly sure how much motion played into this ability vs flex or triangle, but i know for a fact that i was better off seeing a +2 from my opponents than a -2 with the above setup. in triangle i always have more pass and less bh and never played it in d1 when you could have 90s in both, so its hard to say if the reason my guards struggle against the +2 more than the -2 there is because i am less bh oriented or if its a motion/triangle thing. i think its a combination of both. well, enough rambling, but hopefully that gives you some insight :)