You have the ball!

I discuss the concept of Direct Responsible Individual (DRI) in my other blog, The Delicious Uncertainty. I will, somewhat reluctantly, illustrate the concept with a mistake I made for years as basketball coach.

Here's the situation. The ballhandler is dribbling down the court and throws a pass to a wide open player. The ball goes out of bounds because the player wasn't looking. I yell at the player who wasn't looking. Over and over again.

Not that many years ago, I realized the player running down the court didn't control the situation. The ballhandler does. Why would you throw a pass at someone who isn't looking at you? YOU have the ball.

Here's an example of the right way to react. I was coaching the juvenile girls at Compagnons de Cartier in Quebec City. By the way, that was one of my favourite teams ever. My point guard came to me one day and complained that our big inexperienced post didn't catch the pass when she was closely guarded. The right answer came to me immediately. "Don't throw the pass unless you're sure she can catch it".

Here are some ways I apply the principle.

1. Only throw a difficult pass if it will lead to an easy basket or if you have no other choice.
2. You have the ball. Your job is to throw the ball at players who are looking at you.
3. Point guards have to call the offense, make sure everyone is set then throw the first pass (to someone on our team...). A 90% success rate isn't good enough.
4. Great players throw lots of early, easy passes. We forget this when we think about their great passes.

PS
A friend told me she sometimes throws the ball deliberately at someone so they will look at the ball in the future. The truth is both are important. The ballhandler has the ball and is ultimately responsible for balls lost because someone wasn't looking. Looking at the ball is another post.

Early offense

The only good reason I see for using an early offense is to get an early scoring opportunity. The first time I saw early offense was at North Carolina. They ran the early offense shown here but called it secondary fastbreak. I ran this for a couple of years at Champlain St. Lawrence and the Collège de Limoilou.

Running an early offense could be another way to get open. I would rather look for another way to score. There's only so much practice time available.

Offensive phases

Think of offense as having the following six phases. Each phase has to be practiced at some time.

1. Breakout: Get up the court as fast as you can. To me, this means the player who gets the ball has to pivot and go north and south. Inexperienced players do a U-cut which is much slower.
2. Fastbreak: All five players head down the floor at full speed in designated lanes. There can be a trailer or a second trailer (super trailer).
3. Numbers: Running fast generates good scoring options - 2-1, 3-2, trailer or super trailer.
4. Early: Some teams run an early offense if they don't score a fastbreak basket. This generally easier to do after a made foulshot or timeout.
5. Set: Get into your offense if you don't have numbers. This can be a structured offense or some type of motion.
6. First two passes and reversal: The defense has it easier until the defense either reverses the ball using a motion offense or makes the first two passes in a structured offense like Flex.

Have fun!