Strategy

If you’re a coach, it’s up to you to design the playbook for your team. You should understand the basics of offense and defense and the types of offenses and defenses you can play on the court. You should also know and be able to understand your opponent, their tendencies, and use that to beat them.

Here is a list of basketball plays and strategies to start learning.

• rotations;
• screens;
• posting up;
• press;
• cuts;
• boxing out;
• rebounds;
• pick and rolls;
• isolation plays;
• traps;
• blocks;
• press breaks.

Offensive Strategy

There is a lot to consider when crafting your offensive strategy. After laying down the basics, the below strategies can be very beneficial for a team.

The Basics

You should have your players develop the fundamentals for cuts, screens, boxing out, and posting up.

Rotations

Once your players know the basics, you can set up a rotation strategy based on your player’s skills. A rotation is a pre-set lineup of players that a coach sets up, determining where each player will be on the court. This rotation may change during a game based on the skill of your opponent.

Set Plays

You can design set plays so that your team can come through in the clutch or in key situations. Isolation plays are great to practice when you have one strong player on your team or when you are in need of a buzzer-beater from your best shooter.

Offensive Rebounds

Making sure your offense has a high offensive rebound percentage is critical for success. Rebounding gives you more and more chances to score and keeps the ball out of the hands of the other team.

Pick and Rolls

Next, design some plays for your post player and have your team practice pick and rolls.

Your offense should be prepared for any type of defense that comes their way.

Press Breaks

Have the offense squad practice press breaks to counter the half-court press and full-court press.

Team Chemistry

The offense should also work on building awareness of each other and chemistry in order to succeed. One of the most important strategies in basketball is communication. Team members need to know what each other are doing so that they can move fluidly both on offense and defense.

Offensive Formations

There are lots of offense types in basketball. Here are just a few:

• set offense;
• motion offense;
• man to man offense;
• press breaks.

Defensive Strategy

When creating your defensive strategies, you should have your team develop the fundamentals for cuts, screens, steals, traps, and blocks.

Tempo

It’s important your team knows how to play at different paces and speeds. This is called tempo and it is important because if you don’t play at a neutral tempo you can be overworked during a game.

Boxing Out

Next, have your team practice boxing out to get a high defensive rebound percentage. Boxing out means players using their bodies to prevent the opposite team from reaching the ball. This can easily be worked on in pairs during practice.

Traps

Teach your team how to set traps in the corners, and near the boundary lines.

Fouling

Physicality without fouling is another huge part of playing defense that players must learn in order to be successful.

Defensive Formations

There are lots of defense types in basketball. Here are just a few:

• man to man defense;
• zone defense;
• press defense.