Defence - Chaser

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Basketball Systems, Skills & Drills

Defences
Chaser

Don Kelbick
breakthroughbasketball.com

Instead of learning a box-and-one and triangle-and-two, play man to man with one chaser or two chasers. Four defenders play normal man-to-man rules, the chaser denies the ball to one attacker, does not help on other attackers (can hide a bad defensive player as the chaser), and does not switch even if other defenders can. If the chaser is guarding an attacker who is good at driving the basket, one option is to over-emphasize the help when he has the ball, another is not to let him get the ball. If the attacker is the point guard, work him up the court to tire him out, then start chasing (denying) when he makes an entry pass.

Herb Brown - to deny and stop an attacker, the defender will "marry" him and help only when both of them are on the weakside.

Avery Johnson - 911 situation - defending a hot player who can't be guarded one-on-one, if he gets the ball trap on air time with the defender of the passer, rotate, then his defender denies a return pass on a pass out of the trap.

Jeff Van Gundy - the first thing in defending a great player is to take away his easy points - limit his layups, free throws, transition opportunities, second shots, and open threes. Don't double-team just to stop a player from scoring 30, and don't say "make someone else beat us", double-teams mean you're giving up open and uncontested shots to other players. Double-team only because it gives you the best chance to win, then if the star player catches the ball on the wing, a) your post goes to the ballside block, the other 3 defenders zone up, trap any drive ("Plant"), or b) the nearest defender from the top double-teams ("Fire", see 911 above).

Doc Sadler - against a penetrating point guard, pick him up after we score and face guard, don't let him touch the ball, trap him on a ballscreen. Against a shooter, make it hard for him to catch, make him a driver when he does catch, force middle towards help.

Jeff Van Gundy - to get the ball away from a great point guard, have X4 run slowly at him, it's not a double-team, X4 leaves when the ball is being picked up to pass or, if run in the backcourt, when 1 backs his dribble up to stretch a double-team. Deny 1 for at least one more pass, or for the entire possession. A body-to-body total face guard is incredibly impactful, it throws players off.

Bob Hurley - attack the best player, deny and trap. Against a star guard, trap in the backcourt, double team every pick and roll.

Brenda Suhr - Jordan rules
- ball on the wing - force middle, trap with nearest defender
- ball in the middle - force left, trap
- trap all ballscreens, make him a passer
- trap him in the post, from the top.
Can also run a 3-2 zone and trap the star whenever he catches the ball.

Herb Brown - on a wing isolation, they prefer to force the ball back to the middle (uphill), toward help (alternatively force sideline where they have brought their nearest big defender to provide help).

Ian MacKinnon - trap an early match-up on the first dribble, or on any ballscreen. If the match-up sets an on-ball or off-ball screen, his defender squeezes. If the match-up gets a pass and the passer screens away, switch the screen to zone up on the match-up.

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