Against a zone offense I want to play with 2 guards (1 &2), 1 high post (4), 1 low post (5) and one player who plays just between the bucket and the corner (3).

Against a 2-3 zone I want the guard with the ball to chose a side. He will attrack one of the front two players of the zone. The high post can post up against the second and can be passed the ball. On the moment he gets the ball I want the low post to be in front of his man (the timing needs to be good on that one). So when the high post gets the ball, he can go to the basket, the middle man will step to him, he can pass it off to the low post or to the 3. If he is forced to get the ball on his outside hand, he steps out and the man passing the ball cuts inside by cutting over his man and rotates with the other guard. The other guard comes over the top and if the defender goes with the cutter, the high post and the rotating guard can play 2-1 to get inside to go themselve or pass it to the low post or the 3. My 3's have a good baseline drive and can shoot, so that's a good option too. This offense is also very effective against a 2-1-2 zone. It is all about timing and working hard to get in the spot you want to be. Last game we played it too. It was a very bad opponent, we won 105-8. But the trained the zone offense so we learned again from it.

I will let you know how it develops in the other games.

One college coach told me that attacking zones was very simple... " PUT EM WHERE THEY AINT " Make sure your players are in passing lanes.

I don't agree, if zone offense was very simple, why have we got so much problem attacking one, and when we play against the same team in m2m we are much better?

My goal in offense is creating a 1-0 situation and I only have one shooter, because of that I want to have a 1-0 situation near the glass. If you play in the spots where there is no one, you can only shoot. I want to play my offense and not playing the offense the defense wants me to play. I want to control the flow of the game, not give the initiative to the other team.

It sounds simple... but it really is.... being in passing lanes helps the person with the ball make a good pass... the person with the ball has to attack the zone, force two people to cover him or at least move towards him leaving another player open. Now, how do you break a zone... have a GREAT outside shooter (3s), Have a stud inside that can post people up and score over them IF he can get the ball... or a good point guard who can break down their coverages.

But, thats what makes this such a great game.... some like the Dribble Drive, some like 4 out or 3 out motion... some like the Open Post (like me) and a whole variety of offenses. Pick the one that you like the best and works well for your players.

He there,

I would like to tell you how everything goes right now to let you know if the tips and tricks you guys told me worked or not.

The player we discussed earlier has grown in his play. He became a true teamplayer and haven't asked several games how much points he scored. He only was concerned about winning the game. He broke down a zone defense to win a game and wants his team to play good. One thing that makes it all easier to do for him is that we are winning nearly all the games with big numbers. From 22 January on we play in a higher poule, I'm very curious if he can keep up this leadership in more difficult times.

Coach Sar gave me the tip to arrange a friendly game against the U18 team (I coach a U16 team) to finally get some real opposition. Well I did and we lost, but we didn't lose big, and for the first time we had to play our real offense, because the defense was better then the other teams we played against. It gave me the opportunity to see a lot of points that need to be improved. So it was a very good tip coach Sar!

In the competition we have won all the games and are winterchampions, as we call it. I'm very proud of it. The team is very aggressive (in a good way) in defense so I want to experiment more with traps. I'd like to pop up a new question about trapping. There are a lot of moments to trap. I heard a couple now, for example trapping the man who got the ball after the first inboundpass (in full court man 2 man), or trap the wing on the moment the ball is passed from the guard to the wing. My question is if you guys know any other traps (as creative and unexpected as possible) in man 2 man defense.

I'm glad to hear that things are going well and that you got some valuable experiences from playing the U18 team - You had NOTHING to lose and everything to gain.... it had to show your guys what areas they needed to work on and the better the opponent the harder you need to play.... for the ENTIRE GAME. I'm also glad that your young player has seen the light and become a true team player. IF he handled himself well vs the 18 team he should be just fine vs better talent at your level...... that doesn't mean that you will win every game but at least he is growing as a player.

Times and places we liked to trap -

1- 1st pass from the ball being inbounded under our basket.
2- 1st pass to the wing from the point guard.
3- IF they dribble over half court near the sideline (my favorite)
4- Deep Corners
5- If they dribble baseline - around the short corner ( especially if it is a shorter player... and take advantage of which side and that players prominent hand - right handed player / right side - it helps to take away the pass to the right because of the basket being there )
6- We always doubled the post unless he wasnt much of a theat

One key is to vary where you trap and when... don't let them go to school on what you do ALL the TIME.

My question than is, how do you communicate this. Because if you trap let's say the first pass to the wing from the point guard, than the weakside forward needs to step in and the defender of the forward needs to make sure his man won't get down the sideline before the trap is completed. But how do you communicate this to the team? And who initiates the trap?

This is something that you work on in practice and have a call for it... use numbers if you like.... but everyone has to be on the same page so you get good rotation.

***** You don't have to do it all the time either... maybe first few trips to begin the game, coming out of a qtr or time out.

Things we did all the time because the kids wanted to.

Trap the ball over half court if it was on the sideline... a perfect spot - baseline drive short corner - double the post - These were automatics.

As for the rest, you need to have a call for these *****

How do you work on this in practice? Breakdowndrills for trapping or just repeat the situation on and on?

Definitely break down drills so the kids know EXACTLY what you want them to do and what your rotations are.

The trap just over half court was the easiest for us becuase it was part of our press package.... 1-2-2 ..... and they knew that we would always look for the trap just over half court so we didn't have to make a call for that.

Baseline short corner... if we got beat there we had to step out and stop that so we just made that an automatic trap spot also.....

Doubling the post was automatic too....

Drills these things because your players need to know that you want this and this is how we are going to do it... then as you scrimmage / work on your defense or offense you let them utilize what you have taught.....

My suggestion is to teach one at a time - don't add another until you are sure they understand the first one and can execute it well... otherwise they will lose confidence in trapping and might not try very hard. JMO As you add one at a time it will end up as your trapping package.