Five viewpoints

I find it helpful to look at basketball from different viewpoints. Here's one way to explain the game that I plan to use with my next team. My goal is to explain why they have to learn specific skills.

I am going to tell the players that we have to be able to break up, break down, break out, share the ball and share the court. Here's a short and somewhat simplistic explanation.

Break up
Whatever they want to do, we don't want them to do. This is a hard concept for young players who think that they have to stop everything. This doesn't work as witnessed by the success of the fake left and go right move or the quick fastbreak. Players have to take away at least the first option of the other team and of their check.

Break down
On offense you have to be able to break down the defense by beating your check off the dribble. This leads to a good scoring opportunity or forces the defense to rotate. These are both good things. I now think that it's important to be able to do this off the dribble, i.e. crossovers etc. Too many players get the ball and can only make a scoring move off a pivot. They can't beat someone if their first move doesn't work.

Break out
It is very difficult for the opposing team to relax if we break out of our end really well. We have to develop several skills to succeed at this. 1) Turn and go immediately 2) Run wide 3) Throw the long pass 4) Beat the early pressure with the dribble

Share the ball
This is true no matter what type of offense you run i.e., motion, set plays, etc. The players still have to be reminded of this.

Share the court
This principle reminds the players that they should be doing doing one of two things; setting up a shot for themselves or helping a teammate. I sometimes tell players that they should be either outside the three point line or wide open for a shot. Otherwise they are hurting a teammate.