Zone D

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How do I get open against a zone defense with three in the back and two in the front. I can get open on man to man but zone is always harder for me, please help me.
Answer -
Hello,

Good question as the zone can be frustrating to play against. I am not sure what position you play so I will write in general on how to beat a zone. The zone you are talking about is a 2-3 zone. Aginst a zone you have to be patient and rely on your teammates to get open. We use allot of skip passes to break the zone down. The defenders in a zone are taught to move to certain positions depending on where the ball is. To get the defenders out of position to create a good shot we swing the ball and then overload one side of the court. When they react and cover the overload we screen the defender in help "D" and skip the ball over the top of the defense. This ususally creates a nice open "3" for us. If they are able to cover this our posts flash to the block and elbow as gaps are created by swinging and skipping the ball. If you pass and swing the ball gaps open up in the defense, you can drive at a gap and even go by a defender but there should be another defender waiting for you, so you need to shoot the mid-range jumper or look for an open teamate. We always teach are team that the best way to beat a zone is to beat it down court. We really emphasize our running game when teams play us zone. I hope this helps.   



Okay, it sorta helps but not really. Maybe if you knew my position you know how to help me out. I am a forward. Look at my scoring averages by game to.

Vs Zone-3,5,4,0,0,2,1,3,5,2,1,0
Vs Man to Man-18,8,1,19,27,35,18,19,42,16


There, now I hope you can help me. What I want to know is how to get open and get the ball into my hands from a teammate.


Let's say I'm running down the court my team has the ball and they're using this type of zone defense. My two guards run down the floor and pass it around between each other. How can i get open down low so they can pass me the ball and I can take a shot. When i'm down low in a 2-3 zone defense i can't get open cuz there's one guy covering me, i can't go up because there is another guy there and i can't go the side because the centers there, or I'll be called for 5 seconds in the lane, or our center won't have enough room if one of our guards throw up a shot.

In man to man coverage it's easy to score, I just run down court, the guards take it up, I shoot across the side of the key and they get me the ball, by then the defender is there, i throw up a fake, he goes for it and i drive or I shoot from there. PLEASE HELP ME, since most teams use zone defenses in my league my coach says i have one chance to score over 8 points the next game since our team is 10-10, we still lead the league in points thanks to my league record 42 point game!
Answer -
Hello,

I think the problem you are having is exactly what a zone is intended to do. Take you out of your rythem and get you anxious to score. First of all you have to stop thinking in terms of how you can get open. You are not going to do it by yourself. It takes a team to beat a zone. You hit it right on the head, when you were reffered to defenders being everywhere you try to get open. The way you beat a zone is overloads, swinging the ball, and finding the gaps. I am not sure what offense you are running against a 2-3 zone, so it is hard for me to instruct you on how to get open. We run a 3 guard offense against the zone and 2 posts inside. We have the point guard at the top and the 2 and 3 at each wing. Our posts both start on each of the blocks. We pass to a wing and the opposite post cuts to the corner and the strong side post, posts up. We have now created an overload as the ball is at the wing and we have a player on the strong-side block and a player in the corner. The defense has to shift to cover this. We now swing the ball to the opposite side by passing to the point guard at the top and he then swings the ball to the weakside wing. When this is happening the strong-side post "V" cuts to the opposite block and the player in the corner comes and sets a screen at the block. What happens is the defense shifts with the swing of the ball which allows the man in the corner to set a pick at the block. The wing who initially had the ball slides down to the corner and we skip pass the ball to him for an open jumper being a 15' footer or a "3" depending on the pass. If we don't have a shot then the weakside post flashes to the strong-side elbow and the player setting the pick at the block reverse pivots and posts up. This works everytime because of how the zone is taught. The reason I explained all this to you is it takes the entire team to beat the zone. What kind of offense is your team running and what kind of shots is the coach telling the team you should take? Let me know what kind of offense you are running and maybe I can make some suggestions.  

Two guards, two forwards, and a center. That type I guess, our coach says pass around until someones open, when that mans open, take the shot. 3s don't count in our league so he tells us to get inside and take a shot, most guys don't care, they shoot outside anyways. Our forwards go down low and our center does to, except one guy he goes outside and drives the lane at center, our guards are like right next to each other for some reason, I'm down low.

Answer
That is the problem is your team has no plan of attack against a zone. You can't freelance against a zone and be successful. If you are going against a 2-3 zone you should only have 1 guard at the top so you can overload other spots in the zone. What your coach is doing is playing right into the zones strengths. Try and watch a college game this weekend, Syracuse would be a good one because they always play a 2-3 zone and see what the other team does to beat the zone. I think they are playing Providence so it should be a good game. Watch how they line up there offense and where they attack the zone. Syracuse is the best in college in playing zone defense so if Providence is succesful, that would be a good team to copy. I hope this helps. I am sorry for the delay in answering as I had some personal issues I had to deal with.