Obviously we all have varied game planning strategies, but another post got me wondering what everyone thinks are the best gameplanning moves against the various defenses another team could run.

What do you do if you find yourself against someone running man to man, zone, or press? What do you think are the settings changes and other adjustments which work best against each defense?

Well, it varies massively based on personnel and how the opposing coach has been coaching, so I don't know that I can give a definitive pat template without those things.

Apparently no one wants to talk about anything they do on defense...

I usually run a Full Court Press with a team I coach, so it prevents me from doubling up on a good player.  All I have to use are packing it in or playing out on the perimeter...  Typically I look at the shooters (of the other team) percentages, if they're bad, I say "yeah, go ahead and take the shot,' therefore, playing in the minus.  If they have a lights-out shooter(s), then I'll play more balanced.  If they have garbage Bigs that don't look like they have much distribution, then I might play +2, +3, or +4...

Press is the easiest...just load up on your best players and there's little they can do to stop you. 

In general, when running the press, I do the same as ldhmnh.  I tend to run more -, all things being equal, since I tend to sacrifice rebounding for speed/ath/def.

Like most coaches, against M2M I try to get good matchups, so (e.g.) I might flip my PG and SG or PF and C to target the weaker defender at the perimeter or in the  paint (or sometimes the 3).  Occasionally I will move a strong scorer to the second team if there's an especially appealing matchup there.

The tough thing with man-to-man though is that the opposing coach is trying to target your guys too, and you can never be sure before game time where a player will be.  Coaches can't adjust to each other's lineups once the game has started.  I have wondered whether sim football-style halftime adjustments would be well received here.  (Do they do that in GD too?)  For me that makes the game a bit too high-maintenance, and the chance you do get to pre-set tempo and positioning adjustments is enough, but others may disagree.

Against zone, it depends a lot on whether you're looking at a 2-3 or 3-2, with the former obviously vulnerable to an outside attack and the latter to an inside game.  But you want to check your opponent's play-by-plays too to see his tendencies -- I.e. if he likes to run a 3-2 with -5 positioning you don't want to pound the paint.

Vs. press as another coach said, I am usually thinking which of my players are likely to handle it the best and tweaking distro. accordingly.

All of that is from a lower-division perspective (career of D3 with a dash of D2).  I would think that at D1 it would be harder to find weaknesses to exploit.

Posted by point_piper on 9/18/2012 2:42:00 PM (view original):
Like most coaches, against M2M I try to get good matchups, so (e.g.) I might flip my PG and SG or PF and C to target the weaker defender at the perimeter or in the  paint (or sometimes the 3).  Occasionally I will move a strong scorer to the second team if there's an especially appealing matchup there.

The tough thing with man-to-man though is that the opposing coach is trying to target your guys too, and you can never be sure before game time where a player will be.  Coaches can't adjust to each other's lineups once the game has started.  I have wondered whether sim football-style halftime adjustments would be well received here.  (Do they do that in GD too?)  For me that makes the game a bit too high-maintenance, and the chance you do get to pre-set tempo and positioning adjustments is enough, but others may disagree.

Against zone, it depends a lot on whether you're looking at a 2-3 or 3-2, with the former obviously vulnerable to an outside attack and the latter to an inside game.  But you want to check your opponent's play-by-plays too to see his tendencies -- I.e. if he likes to run a 3-2 with -5 positioning you don't want to pound the paint.

Vs. press as another coach said, I am usually thinking which of my players are likely to handle it the best and tweaking distro. accordingly.

All of that is from a lower-division perspective (career of D3 with a dash of D2).  I would think that at D1 it would be harder to find weaknesses to exploit.

+1

Well if i'm playing against zone (2-3 at least I'm gonna try to shoot more 3's, if I'm playing against the press, less 3's (in an effort to draw fouls, which are more prevalent in the press), and if i'm playing against man, just sort of in between, and trying to exploit matchups (but don't go overboard with this, if you've got a great passing PG, don't switch him to SG just b/c the opposing guy is weak).

Sometimes I let my best defender guard the guy with the stinkiest jock strap, this is usually pretty effective...