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Why don't they do a full court press in the NBA?

J

JFFR

Well-Known Member
With only 8 seconds in the back court, why don' they do it?

Will someone with some basketball experience please explain?
 
Explanations I've heard include that most teams have too many good ball-handlers to allow the press to work properly.
 
What OB said, and even though they are world-class athletes, running a FCP will take a crap-ton out of your players.
 
The other issue is designing one that works. Occasionally you will see a press, but usually only to catch them off guard. Once the press is used a few plays in a row then the other team adjusts and the presses are generally broken pretty easily. I remember they used to press Stockton, knowing they had to get the ball out of his hands, and we ended up often with an open layup or dunk as they broke the press. It just isn't as effective against a professional team as it was for my jr. high schoolers.
 
The Celtics tried it under Rick Pitino and it was an utter failure. You can't get the player's to buy in, too many ball handlers and good passer's, and not enough impact players to waste their energy chasing a moving ball around.
 
The better question is why it isn't employed a little more often. When you see it in the pros, a team is desperate. But I'm all for the occasional switch to press if a coach sees a matchup he likes or just wants to step on the gas. Pretty sure OKC has done this from time to time. But you leave yourself pretty exposed.
 
billyshelby said:
The better question is why it isn't employed a little more often. When you see it in the pros, a team is desperate. But I'm all for the occasional switch to press if a coach sees a matchup he likes or just wants to step on the gas. Pretty sure OKC has done this from time to time. But you leave yourself pretty exposed.
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That is a problem, and the fact that to pull off a half-court press in the NBA you need a very athletic lineup out there to do it. Awful hard to trap any one player (using 2 guys usually) then have the others try to run around trying to catch up to the ball.

I agree they could use it a bit more, but again it depends on how athletic your players are and how much they buy into it. Seattle used to run a decent press with Payton, but they were very athletic from Payton through Kemp so they could pull it off. Not many teams can match that. OKC is one that has that level of athleticism this year so I am sure you will see it more from them.

Maybe with our new guys and whoever we get in the draft we will be athletic enough too. We'll see.
 
billyshelby said:
The better question is why it isn't employed a little more often. When you see it in the pros, a team is desperate. But I'm all for the occasional switch to press if a coach sees a matchup he likes or just wants to step on the gas. Pretty sure OKC has done this from time to time. But you leave yourself pretty exposed.
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Well that's just it. The press is a temporary fix - just like the zone. Eventually, most of the time, the other team will adapt to it.
 
gregbroncs said:
The Celtics tried it under Rick Pitino and it was an utter failure. You can't get the player's to buy in, too many ball handlers and good passer's, and not enough impact players to waste their energy chasing a moving ball around.
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Pitino also ran it with the Knicks and had good success.
 
The way to break the press is to get the ball to the middle of the court. Formation is a simple five dot on a die formation. Press will have three defenders behind the middle dot. Get the ball to the middle dot and you now have a 3 on 2 advantage. Reason it works in the college ranks is that the middle guy is a big and not a good ball handler and decision maker. Jazz had Malone as the middle dot, who could handle the ball enough, was in control enough, and good enough passer to handle the 3 on 2.

One on one full court pressure is more apt to get a turnover in the NBA than a press.
 
JFFR said:
How long has the ruling been 8 seconds in the back court?
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2001 - part of the NBA's efforts to increase scoring. Most of the 8-second violations I've seen were from guards just being stupid - rather than from backcourt pressure. I remember seeing Deron get 2-3 of those during his time in Utah and Sam Cassell got one in a critical playoff game against the Suns. They get used to walking the ball up and lose track of time.
 
JFFR said:
With only 8 seconds in the back court, why don' they do it?

Will someone with some basketball experience please explain?
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.....with only 24 seconds on the shot clock....why don't more athletic types play some ball denial on the so called hot shot shooters? That's the REAL question to ask!
 
Darkwing Duck said:
The way to break the press is to get the ball to the middle of the court. Formation is a simple five dot on a die formation. Press will have three defenders behind the middle dot. Get the ball to the middle dot and you now have a 3 on 2 advantage. Reason it works in the college ranks is that the middle guy is a big and not a good ball handler and decision maker. Jazz had Malone as the middle dot, who could handle the ball enough, was in control enough, and good enough passer to handle the 3 on 2.

One on one full court pressure is more apt to get a turnover in the NBA than a press.
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That's an good angle, though there are plenty of situations in the NBA with a very vulnerable 'middle dot.' The problem as I see it is once a quality NBA point has the ball in his hands, the press becomes a liability. In college, most PG's can be a liability with enough pressure.

The key is denying the pro PG the ball or alternately trapping him to force the ball out of his hands -- the 'dot' as you're talking about. I doubt a press could work very effectively against starting units. But if you have the right guys and a practiced system, it could be a weapon. Not Paul Westhead madness, but something to throw at a team to break rhythm.

But I like the wrinkle of a one on one press as well. I'm a big believer that keeping teams off balance should be a bigger part of game plans.
 
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