The main objective that each team has to achieve in the game of basketball is to score as many points as possible. At the same time, the team would also want to reduce the amount of points that the opponent manages to steal from them. With this in mind, development of both team offense and defense is very crucial for any team that desires to rule the court.
Being well versed with many offensive strategies is the best preparation that a coach can equip his players with. During game day, the ability of his players to play various offensive strategies will confuse the opponent. This will subsequently increase the teams’ likelihood of winning.
The goal of a team offense is to create open shots for members of the team. Offensive team strategies require top level of teamwork to be a success. The coach must convince his players to play as one during the game. In a team offensive, the ball is usually passed around until someone finally manages to shake off a defender and take a clear shot.
However, unless you’re up against an inferior team, these clear shots do not come easily. In fact, intricate moves and strategies should be planned and executed to achieve this. Some of the popular offensive team strategy categories are press offense, man to man offense, zone offense and also transition offense. We will briefly look at the some popular strategies under each of these categories.
Press offense is used to counter pressure defense. There are basically two categories of press offense attacks. The first one is a freelance attack where players move around towards open spots. The second category of press offense is control pressed attacks. The coach should decide which attack methodology should be practiced by the team based on the capabilities of its players.
Among the most famous man to man offensive strategies are the Wheel Offense, the High Post Offense, and the Wyoming Weave Offense. For this category, we will look specifically at the Wheel Offense. The benefit of the Wheel Offense is the versatility that it offers when facing a multitude of defense configurations from the opponent.
When the opponent plays zone defense, it has to be met with zone offense. The main objective of zone offense is to distort the configuration of the defense zone. Once this is achieved, attacking players will have better chances at clear shots. Experts reckon that this type of offense is usually more suited for high school teams than college and professional teams. The benefit of this offense approach is that players do not have to make long passes and long shots. However, in college teams, players are already strong enough to shoot and pass farther out. This explains such an opinion.
Transition offense is also known as fast break offense. Fast break is great as it places constant pressure on defenders and will eventually wear them down. Also, this type of offensive is really popular with the fans due to its high speed nature. In terms of motivation, this type of offense gives every team member an equal chance to score. In addition to this, playing fast break offense will reduce the number of opponent players waiting to take a rebound. This is because they know that they will have to get back to defend fast.
There are many offensive team strategies that coaches can look at for their team. When considering strategies, coaches must consider the ability and physical condition of their player. A well planned offense strategy will help in many ways to get your team to win.
Photo credit: Tulane Public Relations
