I subscribe to a Basketball newsletter that recently poised the question to its subscribers: what is your favorite basketball drill? The implication in this question is that you have one drill that you like more than the rest. In reflecting on my practices, I realized that I use whatever drills I can think of to make our team stronger, but I usually run these drill out of a particular framework. That framework is a 2-on-2 or 3-on-3 basketball type of scrimmage setting.
Premise Behind the Framework
The fundamental premise behind using the 2-on-2 or 3-on-3 drill framework is that a 5-on-5 basketball offense and/or defense consists on multiple sub-games within a larger context. For example, many offenses are designed to create two or three player mismatches, with the other teammates positioning themselves as the safety valve, set up shooter, and/or weak side rebounder. As offenses move through their options, they typically move through a series of 2-on-2 or 3-on-3 progressions, where the location of the ball on the court dictates which players are involved.
Why are offensives structured into sub-games with a couple of active players? The most potent weapon in a basketball team's offense is floor spacing. The offense wants to require the defensive players to cover the whole half court, which means that the offensive player must be positioned across the whole half court in a position where each individual is a scoring threat at one or two passes away.
Proper offensive floor position is achieved when you divide the half court into four quadrants and three out of the four quadrants have one offensive player in it and one quadrant has two players. If you take your playbook and divide the half court into four quadrants, you will see this is the case. (Let me note that there are a couple special situation offensives where this does not hold true, such as a 4-high offense used late in a game when your team has the lead and the defense has to play an aggressive over-play man-to-man to take chances to get a quick steal and score).
If you goal is to develop the fundamentals of basketball offense and defense and you believe offensive floor spacing is key to your success, then the 2-on-2 and 3-on-3 scrimmage drill framework is very effective in teaching your players the basics.
Player Positioning
Two players (offensive players) stand outside the 3-point line between the free-throw line extended and the top of the key (player's choose where they stand in this region). The rest of the team lines up in two lines under the basket below the baseline. A coach hands the ball to one of the two players in the front of the line at the baseline and they throw a good bounce pass to one of the two offensive players behind the 3-point line (again player's choice who they throw the ball to). After the player passes the ball to the offense outside the 3-point line, the two players at the front of the line run out to play defense on the two offensive players. In the example to the left, the #1 defender passes the ball to the #2 offensive player and then the two defenders move into defensive position on their respective offensive players.
Why It Motivates the Players
- The drills are a fun game with winners and losers. Players like games as oppose to rote mechanical drills.
- With fewer players on the court, there is more room for athletes to operate and it is easier for each individual to utilize their offensive strengths without worrying about help defense. Conversely, the defense needs to be played with higher intensity and focus because there is no teammate available to bail them out.
- The running is in short bursts and the players have an immediate focus and feedback.
- When one set of players stays on the court for awhile, all the other players get an increased focus to "knock them out."
Example Drill Using this Framework
Objective: 1) practice man-to-man defense, 2) practice pick-n-roll offense
There are two rules the offensive players must follow:
- the offense must make one pass and one screen before they can shoot a jump shot,
- the offense can score a lay up without being required to pass or screen.
If the offense scores, they stay on the court. If the defense gets the rebound, then they become the offense.
Why did we put restrictions on the offense?
- The requirement for a pass and screen encourage the players to run a pick-n-roll play (pick-n-roll requires a screen and a pass). What we then noticed is that the defense was not aggressively charging out to defend the offensive players but sagging back near the basket in a poor man's defense against the roll. We then added the offensive option that they could score a lay up without a pass. As the two defenders sagged on the roll, the ball handler started driving to the basket, which kept the defense honest.
- The second change we made was that the offense could score a lay up without a screen. What we found is that the defenders stopped charging the ball carrier on the initial pass. We experimented with allowing the offensive player, who received the pass to shot, but this just became a "gun feast" since there was no way the defense could get out to the 3-point line to contest the shot before the offensive player got the shot off. When we changed this to allow for a lay up, two benefits occurred. First, the defensive players started charging out to play defense because very few players are able to stop an offensive player coming full steam for the lay up. We occasionally would have someone take a charge, but most of the times the offensive player would cross over and do a reverse lay up or finger roll. Second, the defenders learned to charge an offensive player under control so that the offensive player could not easily drive around them.
The players enjoy this drill and many times cheer for their teammates (especially when one pair of players has been on offense for a while).
In future posts, I will explain how to use this type of drill formation to work on post play, three-on-three, shooting off screens, rebound box-out, ... just by adjusting the offense and defense rules.
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