Man-to-man Defense

Man-to-man pressure defense enables us to get pressure on the ball at all times ("on-ball" defense), while still protecting the basket ("helpside defense"). I love watching a well-coached team that plays great man-to-man pressure defense. Here's the way we teach it.

Force to the sideline and baseline OR Deny Baseline. It depends on the coach.

Some coaches teaches their players to deny the baseline and force the ball handler into the paint where the helpside is located.

But then some coaches teach their on-ball defenders to force the ball toward the sideline and then down to the baseline. Once at the baseline, we do not allow penetration along the baseline, but try to trap there. Forcing the ball to one side immediately allows you to establish your helpside defense. When the ball is at the top of the key or in the middle, the low defenders must play fairly "straight up" and you must defend the entire court. But once the ball goes to the side, our weakside defenders can move into a helpside position (see below) and deny the pass into the post, and help prevent dribble-penetration. When the ball is in the corner, we only have to defend one half of the court and can load all five defenders toward that side. With the long skip pass to the other side, there is usually enough time (while the ball is in the air) for the defense to quickly rotate back.

How do you force the ball to the side? The on-ball defender at the top of the key, or on the wing, must close-out on the ball-handler with his sideline (outside) foot back and the middle (inside) foot forward. Have the defender put a little more of his/her weight on the front foot, so that if the ball-handler makes a quick dribble move toward the outside, the defender can push back off that front foot more quickly.

Some coaches deny the point to wing pass, but it might make more sense to let the pass go to the wing if we really want to force to the side. Once the ball is on the wing, we want to deny the pass back out to the point, and force the ball even further into the corner. Now realize that most often the pass to the low post comes from the wing. And once the ball gets into the low post, most of the time bad things happen... they either score or we foul. So it is very important to teach your post defenders to front the low post as the ball moves to the wing and corner areas. We must deny that pass into the post. But what about the "over-the-top" lob pass? First of all, this pass is a difficult pass to consistently complete... it is often thrown too high and out-of-bounds. But when this pass is made, the opposite low post defender (in "helpside") must immediately rotate over to double-team that pass, while the opposite wing defender (who should already be inside the paint in helpside) rotates down to cover the opposite low block.

Baseline dribble-penetration.

We also want to deny dribble-penetration along the baseline. If the on-ball defender gets beaten, the low post defender (who is fronting the low post) should immediately rotate to the baseline to stop the ball. Meanwhile, the opposite low post defender must immediately rotate to cover the vacated post player while the opposite wing defender rotates down toward the basket. Once we have the ball stopped at the baseline, we will try to trap here and get the five-second count, or get the ball-handler to make a bad desperation pass outside... something that we can intercept.

Keeping pressure on the ball, on-ball defense.

We want defensive pressure on the ball at all times. This will cause offensive turnovers and give their outside shooters difficulty getting the shot off. Assume the stance described above, forcing toward the baseline, and focus on the belly-button. Don't get your feet crossed unless you have to sprint back. Avoid “reaching-in” and taking a swipe at the ball, as this causes the defender to lose his/her balance and defensive stance and the offensive player can now beat him/her off the dribble. Reaching-in also leads to fouls. Keeping pressure on the outside harasses the offensive player and makes it difficult for him/her to see the floor and his/her teammates. An important part of denying that pass into the low post is keeping pressure on the ball, so that it is really difficult to make that pass. But won't playing up tight on the ball-handler allow him/her to beat the defender with a dribble move? Yes and no... read about "help and recover" below. The principle of help and recover is very important in denying dribble-penetration, once again pointing out that man-to-man defense is a "team defense", not just individual man-on-man. Also, our helpside low defenders should be in position to stop dribble-penetration, but at the risk of leaving an unguarded low post player... so we must teach our outside defenders how to work together with help and recover to keep the ball outside

Defensive positioning off the ball - Deny, Helpside, Help and Recover

See Diagram A below. First, pretend there is an imaginary line up the middle of the court called the "helpside line" (red line). And then also imagine a line drawn from the ball to each offensive player (green lines). We like to have our defenders one pass away from the ball in "deny", playing "on the line" This is especially true if we want to deny a pass back out from the corner to the wing and from the wing to the point. Depending on your own coaching philosophy and the opponent's strengths, you may or may not want to deny the pass from the point to the wing.

Defenders whose man is two passes away are in "helpside", and are "up the line" sagging into the lane (paint) area. This helpside positioning almost looks like a zone away from the ball and puts our defenders in a better position to help prevent inside passing and dribble-penetration. Helpside defenders should never lose sight of their man and should use their peripheral vision to always see the ball and their man. Some coaches call this the "pistols position" pretending that your index fingers are pistols, with one pistol pointing at the ball and the other pointing at your man. Some use the term "ball-you-man" to emphasize this point. Once the ball gets down in the corner, all helpside defenders should have one foot on the helpside line.

Help and Recover.

This is necessary because when you play tight pressure defense on the ball, there are going to be times when the on-ball defender gets beaten off the dribble. To help stop dribble-penetration, the adjacent perimeter defender gives help, trying to deny the dribble move. Here is a tip... if you are playing against a team with a very good penetrating guard, rather than playing a "full-denial", defenders one pass away can play a little up the line and step or two toward the ball in order to help stop the dribble penetration. On the other hand, if one of the help defenders is guarding their star outside three-point shooter, you would probably rather keep that defender in a deny position and not leave his man to give help. It helps to know your opponent.

Defending post players.

We want to make every effort to keep the ball out of the low post, as most of the time when the ball gets down there, the opponent either scores or we commit a foul. One way to motivate our players is to explain that by keeping the ball out of the low post, they reduce their chances of getting into foul trouble and sitting the bench. So I believe it is wise to front the low post, either 1/2 or 3/4 front (from the baseline side), or full front (if the post player is not very tall). Your post defenders must work hard with good footwork to accomplish this. Some coaches prefer to full-front the low post, while others are concerned about giving up rebounding position and the lob pass over the top, and prefer to 1/2 or 3/4 front. As mentioned above, our helpside defenders rotate quickly to defend the lob pass into the low post. Equally important in denying the pass into the post, the on-ball defender must pressure the ball and make it difficult to make the pass into the post.

We would also like to keep the ball out of the high post (elbow or free-throw line area). Here we will 1/2 or 3/4 front the high post. The technique here is for the defender to keep his feet between his man and the basket but have one arm and hand wrapped around in front of the high post player in the passing lane.

Double-teaming a dominant low post player. See the two diagrams below. Against a star post player, 1/2 or 3/4 front with your post defender from the baseline side. If he/she receives the pass, have your opposite wing defender (who should already be in the paint in helpside) drop down and double from the lane side to prevent the move to the lane. This is preferable to double-teaming with the opposite post player, as that would leave the remaining offensive post player unguarded. Using the opposite wing to double may make you susceptible to the opposite wing kick-out and three-pointer, but this may be preferred if that wing player is not a good shooter. If he/she hits a few, it's back to the drawing board!

Defending cutters.

Another important aspect is to deny the pass to a cutter moving through the lane. Here the defender must try to keep between his man and the ball, denying the pass. One technique the defender can use is to "bump the cutter" off his/her intended pathway by getting position and riding the cutter away from the basket. “Bumping” may not be a good term as it may imply “hitting” the cutter, or something “dirty”. Rather, it means getting inside position on the cutter, or at least an arm in front in the passing lane, much like the ½ or ¾ fronting of a post player. The defender tries to beat the cutter to a certain spot on the floor, which really is no different than two players fighting for rebounding position… both are entitled to that spot on the floor, it just depends on who gets there first. So the defender must use good footwork and establish position over the cutter... you cannot simply push or hold the offensive player. Examples of cuts to defend against are the "give and go" cut, a cut from the weakside wing (either with or without a screen), flash cuts to either high or low post, back-cuts, etc.

One special circumstance... defending the curl cut. See the diagrams below. A good quick guard will sometimes run down low and curl around a post player in order to lose his man. I believe the best defense here is for the defender to "chase" the offensive player around the screen as closely as possible. Sometimes I'll see the defender instead just drop back outside thinking the cutter will be coming back out to his original spot or the perimeter. The right-hand diagram below illustrates the error in this thinking. A good offensive player will read this and pop out to the corner instead for the skip pass and open three-pointer.

Defending against screens

You must have a plan for defending against screens. Of utmost importance is communication between defenders and calling out the screens before they are actually set.

Inside post screens should be switched, since you usually do not end up with a size-quickness mis-match here (see below). On outside perimeter screens, you must decide whether you want to switch these screens, try to fight over them, or slide through (under) them. Switching on the outside could occasionally lead to size and quickness mis-match, especially if a post player steps outside to set a screen for a guard. Here are some ways to deal with various screens.

On-ball screens.

You can try to fight over these screens rather than switching, especially if there is a "big-little" mismatch (such as when a post player steps outside and sets the on-ball screen). Otherwise, you could simply switch the screen if no size or quickness advantage is given up.

Off-ball screens.

Oftentimes, if the defenders communicate well, the screened defender can simply slide through this screen). It is also easy to switch these screens, as long as a mis-match does not occur.

But if the offensive player coming around the screen is a very good shooter, then it is best to fight over the top of the screen (or switch it).

Inside Post Screens.

As stated above, it is best to switch inside screens. Here you are usually not giving up a size or quickness advantage, and switching gives us the best chance to deny the pass into the low post.

Here is a simple rule to use. The defender fronting the low post always takes the low cutter, while the other defender always takes the high cutter.