Posted by tianyi7886 on 9/27/2011 6:24:00 PM (view original):
This is how I view D1 recruiting in terms of the 3 defense.
Zone: Might be the easiest because zone can run on a 8 or 9 man rotation. When you lose battles and have to take walkons, you might still be competitive.
Press: Good in the sense your players can be one dimensional. Stack up ath/spd/def and you should have a good press team that is fairly competitive. You can take players that most of teams wouldn't want, such as a potential 90/90 ath/spd guard w/o any per/bh/passing skills. You can take bigs with mediocre rebounding and poor blocking, which makes recruiting easier. Run fcp/flex and you can get away with the deficiencies in alot of categories.
M2M: Seems to be the most popular among top level teams. Probably need more rounded and generally better players. Need more depth than zone.
Just my 2 cent, mostly from observation.
You're right on all points, I'd just add a few things.
Zone: everything you said, plus it gives you a ton of options with your lineup, more so than any other defense like I mentioned previously. Ability to switch from a 2-3 to a 3-2, which is a wrinkle that the other defenses don't have when it comes to gameplanning. I also think IQ's are a little less important in the zone
Press: I would disagree with mediocre rebounding and poor blocking. I think shot blocking covers some holes in a press, think of it as a big who is the back end of a press and a guard slips by and goes to the basket. Poor blockers give up fouls or baskets (sometimes both) while good blockers can save some baskets merely by altering shots without fouling, or blocking. Good rebounders can swipe a few boards off the glass where the numbers are even or not in your favor. Again, think of a 2-on-1, 2-on-2, 3-vs-2, or 3-vs-3 against a press that's been beat. A good rebounder will get more of the less likely rebounds than a bad one. Your numbers suffer with blocking and rebounding, and it's less important than the other defenses, but it's still a factor that I wouldn't ignore totally. I'm not gonna play an 80/70 rebounder/shotblocker at center unless I absolutely have to
Man: The best teams generally run man because the best players almost always have 90+ defense no matter what, and if you've already got defense that good, why not run a man? It makes sense, but like I mentioned previously, I think the other defenses are overlooked because of this. It's, in my opinion, the biggest problem with the game right now. Not a lot of guys in real life would correlate to 95+ ath and 95+ defense even though the two are largely correlated with each other. There's a difference between being a good DEFENDER and being a good ATHLETE. A good athlete will prevent baskets but still get into foul trouble or make dumb decisions on when to switch, trap, etc. That's why I think IQ should be at a different equation than simply playing time and work ethic, more of a rating with potential than a set sliding scale combined with work ethic.