The game isn’t easy to explain without visual aids, erislover. If you are interested I suggest sitting down and watching a game. Preferably over beers. But all of the beauty of the game isn’t in the strategy. It’s in the movement. NBA guys can accomplish feats you would swear was impossible. A friend of mine who wasn’t a fan came away from watching an NBA game on TV swearing Michael Jordan could fly. And I admit, sometimes it seemed like he could somehow change direction in midair. A lot of the game is the athletic artistry.
Another thing is the shot clock. A team only has 24 seconds to get off a shot. If they don’t, or if their shot doesn’t come close enough to hit the rim it’s a shot clock violation and the other team gets the ball. There is no stalling in b-ball. The action comes fast and furious. This makes momentum very important. It’s often a game of runs. One team gets hot for a while and gets ahead and then their opponents take over and go on a run of their own.
There are many strategies. One thing to keep in mind is that a team only has eight seconds to move the ball past the half court line and once across they can’t take it back. This makes for interesting scenarios. You can try to pin a team just short of the line and force them to take too much time or run the “half court trap”. Let them bring it across and just as they do bring up 2 defenders to press the ballhandler. Since the guy can’t go backwards he almost always picks up his dribble ( meaning he can’t walk forward either ) and looks for someone to pass to.
One basic offensive tactic is the pick and roll. One of the bigger players comes away from the basket and stands next to the person defending the ballhandler. This is “setting the pick”. Basically, the bigger player is restricting the movement of the defender. As this happens the ball handler runs past the pick ( toward the side not toward the basket. ) The defender has a choice. He can go under the pick, that is run around the bigger player on the basket side, or go over the pick ( also called “fighting through the pick” ), that is run on the far side of the big man staying closer to the man he is defending.
The prefered option is to go over the pick. If he goes under it puts the big man between him and the ballhandler. This is dangerous because the guy can take an open shot so it is only prefered when the ballhandler isn’t a great outside shooter. So far we are only talking about one defender. Generally the person guarding the bigger offensive player will come out to join the fun. The bigger defender can help his teammate go under or even over a pick by “showing”. This means stepping a bit further out from the basket and putting a hand up to keep the ballhandler from getting an open look at the basket. Big defenders are reluctant to do this because it’s not “the pick” but “the pick and roll”.
The person to watch when you see this tactic is not the guy with the ball but the guy setting the pick. He has to stand still as the defender is trying to get past him or else he will get a penalty. But once the defender is clear of the pick the bigger offensive man will roll. That is, he will turn the other way and run toward the basket. If his defender is showing then he will be open until yet another defender leaves his offensive player and comes over to help.
This is where it gets fun. The ballhandler has many options. He can take the shot if it’s there. Or he can continue moving around his defender, who is likely slightly behind him now, and try to take the ball to the basket himself. Or he can pass the ball to the man rolling toward the basket. Or, if a third defender is helping ( this is why you need to watch the man rolling ) the ballhandler can pass to the third offensive player who is now open. Or he can move toward a fourth offensive player who might set another pick and it starts all over again.
Teams with good individual defenders, such as my Pistons, can avoid this by switching. Instead of fighting through the pick the smaller defender can call a switch and the bigger defender will step out and take over and leave the smaller defender to guard the bigger offensive player. This has problems though as there is now a mismatch. A bigger player has an advantage in scoring on a smaller player close to the basket and a smaller player has a good chance to shake a bigger defender out on the perimeter and get an open shot.
Anyways, I hope this helps.
