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Modern day Basketball
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In
my previous post I was touching the term modern day basketball. I wrote
about how in this year’s Eurobasket in Poland we could see many
examples of a basketball game that has evolved into a much faster and
more fluid game, with more mobile players. So lets try to dive deeper
into ‘modern day basketball’.
With this in our mind we can move on to the core of modern day
basketball. The game is much faster and everyone on a team needs to be
able to run and move. There is no place for a big guy if he can’t run
and move. Then the other team will just involve him in for example ball
screen defense and his team will have troubles because he will be out
of position and probably too slow. A player needs to move according to
the basketball game, even if he is tall the demands are; running the
floor, setting screens, diving and cutting and on defense handle ball
screens as well as inside and perimeter defense. Even a tall player
must be able to play defense on a guard for a couple of seconds without
getting destroyed.
What about shorter players? Is there not room for them anymore? The
answer is of course that there is room for them, but the demands on
them are getting tougher. A shorter player needs to be really quick if
he wants to play on a higher level. When comparing two players with the
same basketball skills, speed and quickness, smartness and so on I
would bet most coaches would take the player who is taller because he
would for example get higher on rebounds and it would be more difficult
to shoot over him. Some people might think this is unfair but I would
say it’s pure competition.
But it’s not only the physical demands on the players that are
significant of modern day basketball. As the game has become faster the
reaction time and the time for decision-making has decreased. This is
why in modern day basketball you very seldom see fakes anymore. There
is simply no time to make fakes, either you are open to take the shot
or you have to drive to the basket or to find the next pass. The modern
players read situations before they occur and react in a flow.
Today almost every player on a team can make an open three-pointer, I
would go that far and say that there must be something very unique for
a player to not have a three-point shot in his repertoire. That could
be for example a big guy with a great screening and post-up game and
where the player can use a hand-offs when he is out on the perimeter to
stay in a threat. The fact that almost everyone can make an open
three-point shot puts pressure on the defense. They must go out and
guard all players, which all modern day players can do, no matter if
you are 180 cm or 215 cm. The defense has improved and for an offensive
player to get an open shot he just has to be open enough to make a
quick draw and shoot it. If he is not open, he will not get open by
faking. Then he should already have gone to the basket or dribbled or
passed the ball.
Passing is another very interesting subject when talking about fakes or
what I prefer to say “no fakes”. In the Gold medal game in the
Eurobasket ‘09 the winning team Spain showed great passing skills. They
passed off the dribble. They made extra passes in the air. The ball
moved so fast, there was definitely no time in the world to fake a
pass. In modern day basketball to set up a good pass demands more of
the player with the ball. At the same time as catching the ball or
attacking with a dribble the angle for the next pass must already have
been set up. This can be done by the player’s body movement, how the
player uses his center of gravity and where his eyes are. A good tip
can be to lean up and look up when using a bounce pass and the other
way around, eyes down and lean down when passing in the air.
Now I have talked a lot about the individual part of the game. How the
players look, how they move, what skills they have and these areas are
of course importing when trying to get a picture of a modern day
basketball player. But there is another important aspect I would like
to also mention. The way team plays have changed and the style of
basketball in the modern day game is much more demanding for the
players on both sides on the floor. The offense has changed and the
static post-up game is gone. Instead the big players are involved in
Hand-offs, Pick & Rolls and then getting in the post again, maybe
facing up. They set screens and are constantly active. Looking at a
game on a high level there could for example be five screens from one
player in the same offense!
But the game has changed also the smaller players and the demands on
guards and perimeter players on their ball-handling and passing skills
have definitely increased. The traditional style of playing was built
up with a point guard taking the ball up the floor and then setting up
the offense. But with all the great defenders in the modern day
basketball who can put intense pressure on the guard it’s more or less
insane to rely on one player only to start the offense. Instead players
on position 2 or 3 and sometimes even on position 4 take the ball up
the floor ‘acting’ as playmakers in certain parts of the game.
The players have become so much better in defense. They play more
intense which in many cases have increased the pressure of the team
defense. One example where you get into a lot of trouble is when you
let the ball go inside. Way to often the offense gets open shots from
outside or hurt the defense in the paint with easy baskets or foul
shots when the ball has been inside. Many teams denies the pass inside,
maybe not during a whole game even though some successful teams do
that, but definitely when the game is on the line it’s very uncommon
that a team lets the ball be entered to the post.
Players develop their game, both in offense and in defense. They look
at games on video, their own performance, they look at their opponents,
they look at players in other leagues both in Europe and in America and
they pick up different parts of the game that could fit into their own
game. In this way players push each others to become better and better.
Teams develop in the same way, different teams change things in offense
or in defense to work with the players they have or players they play
against. New ways of playing, new ways of solving situations that
happen out on the floor push coaches to keep up with the game.
This constant development of the game is what modern day basketball is
all about: to keep your eyes open, to follow trends of how the game is
developing and then to take that back to your club and team, work with
it, use it, and maybe find new ways of doing it. Then you are also
developing the game and maybe on day you are one of many creators of
‘the modern day basketball of the future’.
Leman coaching - www.lemancoaching.se
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