Basketball Strategy

The Coach

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.

Offensive Strategy

There is a lot to consider when crafting your offensive strategy. You should have your players develop the fundamentals for cuts, screens, boxing out, and posting up. Once your players know the basics, you can set up a rotation strategy based on your player's skills.

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. 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.

Basketball Rebound

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 there way. Have the offense squad practice press breaks to counter the half-court press and full-court press. The offense should also work on building awareness of each other and chemistry in order to succeed.

Types of Offenses

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. 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. Next, have your team practice boxing out to get a high defensive rebound percentage. Teach your team how to set traps in the corners, and near the boundary lines. Physicality without fouling is another huge part of playing defense that players must learn in order to be successful.

Types of Defenses

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

man to man defense
zone defense
press defense

Glossary Terms

Here is a list of glossary terms related to offensive and defensive strategies in basketball.

basketball stats Basketball Terms