Tuesday, April 9, 2013

The most important focus of a coach

I do not like the three-point shot. I think it is very bad for the game, making it almost entirely one-dimensional. Fans like it; it may be good entertainment, but it is not good for basketball. Watch warm-ups and see what the players are practicing if you want proof of that.

That being said, the 3-pointer is not going away, and since it has come to be disproportionately important in the game, any coach who wants to survive has to make defending the three the main focus of his preparation. Three-point shooters are a dime a dozen these days; three-point defenders and defenses are not.

Teams are so focused on the 3 these days that many of them do not even have a Plan B if you take away that part of their game. All they know to do is keep blasting away, and the risk/reward ratio is so tilted in favor of the three by the rules of the game today and the current officiating practices that you really cannot blame them. So any team that cannot defend the three is going to be dead meat against most teams.

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