mindset
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This phrase and concept is so important that it is used as at title rather than as an explanation under “One-on-one” or “Taking the shot.” The concept is very simple to understand, but few good players understand the importance of it.
If you decide to go one-on-one, do it immediately after you get the ball, or don’t do it at all. There is a very good reason for this. The longer you hold the ball and look around or jockey for position, the more time the defense has to get in good help-position to stop you and clog the lane. If there is an opening to go one-on-one, your best chance is immediately, not after you hold the ball for several seconds.
The same concept applies to taking a shot from outside. If you are free and in your range, take the shot. If you aren’t, don’t take it. But don’t stand there deciding and then shoot. Anytime you have stood there deciding, decide not to shoot. Why? Because tentative shooters are poor shooters. If something about the situation causes your instincts to delay, something about your instincts is likely to disrupt the smooth flow of your shooting motion.
Players shoot at their best when they get the ball, and they know as it comes that they are going to shoot. When this happens, your rhythm is right, and “all systems are go.” But if something about the play makes you reluctant, your rhythm is likely to be off. If you need further proof of this, watch some games. Players who hold the ball and think and decide usually miss.
A good rule to follow is this: when in doubt, pass. Or, if you have held the ball, pass.
Seldom does a team lose for having passed up open shots. You lose by missing shots, by shooting too fast, by taking bad shots, by shooting tentatively. Passing up a shot rarely hurts and often it helps. If ever you pass up a shot and you think, I should have shot that one, your rhythm will be in gear for the next time. When you get the ball, you are very likely to have the confidence and the smooth flow that will enable you to put up your best possible shot.
Most certainly, never hold the ball deciding and then shoot because a fan yells “Shoot!” Make your own decisions. Go one-on-one when it feels right, and take the shot when it feels right. But do it immediately or not at all.
If you are thinking now, But it takes me a while to recognize the situation. I can’t know as soon as I get it what I should do, you are not a good player yet, and you really don’t deserve to be taking shots or going one-on-one. For a team to win, contrary to fan opinion, it is not necessary that each guy be taking shots and going one-on-one.
If you are playing in a league with no shot clock, all you need is a little patience and movement, and eventually one of the team’s best players will get a good shot at the basket. The more you play, the sooner you will recognize situations and be able to decide when you have a good opportunity and when you don’t.
If you are at the stage where you still have to hold the ball and look in order to decide whether or not you have an opportunity, you don’t deserve to be shooting and trying to score yet. You can use yourself better by concentrating on moving to keep your defender busy, screening for your teammates, handling the ball well, playing good defense and rebounding.
The players who take the scoring initiative should be those who know at the instant they get the ball that they have an opportunity. If they do have one, they should take it immediately or not at all.
From Dick’s book Stuff
Players often fail to realize that fouls are errors. Not just because five of them will put you on the bench, but because they allow mediocre players to score points on unmolested 15-foot shots.
Someone dribbles down the court, you reach out, get called for a foul and think, Oh well, no big thing. It is early in the game or second half, they only get to take the ball out and the game goes on. The problem is, several minutes later, after several of the team members have a similar “harmless” foul, some mediocre player who doesn’t have a single move in his repertoire gets bumped on a rebound and goes to the line for a one-and-one. And you don’t even feel responsible as the awkward guy struts up to the line and hits two. When you foul, you are in the habit of thinking, Oh well, that’s only my first, instead of, I just gave them two points.
During the course of a half of aggressive play, there are likely to be several unavoidable fouls, but not usually enough to get the other team in the bonus situation unless there are careless, needless-error fouls, too.
The next time you make one of those early “oh well” fouls, remember that you may be giving the opponent two points they otherwise never would have gotten. Don’t be smug simply because it isn’t obvious to the fans that you gave those points that eventually lost the game.
Good players know the importance of not fouling. Except in very few cases, fouls are errors.
From Dick’s book Stuff
Dance is a word used to refer to a simple four-step routine that should be an every-time habit of all defenders when a shot goes up. No thought should be required. All four steps should become reflex, auto- matic. They are:
- Hand up, yell hey!
- Turn around and block out
- Move toward the basket
- Fast break
The process could easily be put to music, and the rhythm should lead to consistent execution. Hand-block-seek-go. Hand-block-seek-go. Hand-block-seek-go.
There is never a need to do one without the other. When your hand goes up, your mouth yells hey! and your body turns to block. These first two steps are one fluid motion. The next motion, oddly, is often omitted. Players fail to go toward the ball, especially those who usually do not grab the rebounds. They get in the habit of standing and watching, and they lose many tipped balls they could get during the course of a season. All five players should be on the move toward the basket until someone gets possession of the ball. You cannot hope to react to the ball if you are standing while it is tipped around. You need the momentum of going toward the ball to be able to grab it when your opportunity comes.
The final part of the hand-block-seek-go is left out even more often than the seeking of the ball. Players act as though they need a kick in order to realize it is time to break to the other end of the court. The moment you see one of your teammates get possession of the ball, you turn and sprint. If the defense is back, you may decide to slow down. But it is foolish to start slowly. A fast start is very possible and often successful, and it need be nothing more than a habit, an extension of the defensive rebounding dance.
From Dick’s book Stuff
Your coach has to help you counter changing defenses by giving you offenses to run against various defenses, or by giving you an offense that you know you can run against both a man-for-man and a zone. But you still have to recognize the changes, and besides, a team often may try to fool you by showing one “look” while actually being in another defense.
The best way to counter any confusion over what defense your opponent is using is to run through the lane to the other side (or send someone through to the other side) and swing the ball. You might want to call this a cut and a swing. If you have an offense that includes a quick cut and a swing of the ball, then use it and you will know immediately what they are playing. Are they going through with that cutter, playing man, or are they letting him cut and picking up, playing zone?
A defense can be cute when a point guard or any player is standing around in a nondangerous position with the ball and doing nothing. But regardless of what defense the other team is in, if you send a cutter through and swing the ball and threaten, that team will show you immediately what they are up to, or, if they are still in the process of disguising, there should be openings all over the court.
“Should be?” you might be saying, “but what if there aren’t?” If you cut from one side and quickly swing the ball and threaten from the other side, and you still don’t know what they are in, then it has to be a zone—or else you don’t know the meaning of “threaten.”
In fact, if you know how to threaten, every defense is a zone. This thought might not initially make sense, but it is simple when you think about it.
Every time you get the ball, if you can beat one man enough to force another to help out, then whether the other team calls it a zone or not, they are playing you three to four—a zone—or else they are leaving a man open, in which case their defense is neither man nor zone, it is “poor!”
In other words, if you can threaten a defense, it doesn’t matter what they call their thing, they are in a scramble to prevent you from scoring.
Don’t try to recognize a defense by studying it from afar. Call an offense or make a movement with a cut in it, and pass the ball and threaten. You can never go wrong by taking the ball forward and engaging two defenders. When you have a 4-on-3, you don’t care what defense they are in.
From Dick’s book Stuff
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