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I usually play man2man defense when I feel like my team's defensive skills are superior to the opponents offensive skills. Now saying that, do you guys think there is a good offensive option to use against someone that is running a man2man defense or should you just use the offensive strategy that suits your team best?

Given the scenario that your team is equally good in IS and OS, what offense do you guys think is best to use against man2man?

My take is that you play to your strength and if you don't have a strength you gotta hope your defensive strategy pays off because you can't do much against a guy that has superior defense and uses a man2man approach. Does anyone agree with that thinking or do you guys differ in opinion?

I am very curious to see the responses here and I hope I can learn a thing or two.

Generally, you should pick tactics based your team's skills or the skills of your opponent. If your strength is going outside, you should play an outside focused tactic unless your opponent has much stronger outside defense or a glaring weakness in their inside defense. Same goes if you have an inside team. There are many other factors that can go into tactics though. If you want your best outside defender to guard your opponent's shooting guard (for example if you have a PG or SF with low OD), man to man would be your best bet. Or, if you want to take advantage of a PF with high JS and JR, princeton would be a good option. Each tactic has certain optimal skills for each position.

Against a man to man, if the opponent's defense is high I prefer to use a fast, focused attack. Balanced offenses tend to be unable to break through a very strong, balanced defense, and a fast offense won't run into the shot clock as much as other tactics. Personally, I favor run and gun, but this is in part due to my team's own strengths. If I had guards with enough passing to get the ball to big men with enough inside shot, I'd run look inside against such offenses as well. However, if you have a balanced team playing against a weaker defense, a balanced offense if more often than not the superior choice (against a man to man or otherwise). This is because your players will be able to take advantage of any match-up they have an edge in, rather than neglect areas where you have an advantage due to offensive focus. If you have enough flow, I'd also go with a slower tactic in such a situation.

Then you have to throw form, enthusiasm, and home court advantage into the mix ...

But to answer your last question, if your opponent has better defense playing man to man than your offense, and your team doesn't have an equally or superior defensive advantage, he probably has the better team and should win. Then again, you have to consider flow and rebounding too. Needless to say, a lot goes into choosing tactics.

Last edited by SM at 5/12/2010 8:23:37 PM

I am in my 4th season so I'm fairly experienced and realize a lot goes into tactics. I was just aiming for this situation because i think some people's opinions may differ. Thanks for the input and their were a lot of interesting points.

Yeah, I assumed you'd be familiar with most of that, just thought I'd throw it in anyway. Might be more useful for someone relatively new if they happen come across it.

It was useful for myself as well. I guess it was just a pride thing that made me announce I wasn't a complete Newb, haha. I appreciate the input for sure.

All things being equal I feel like outside offense is more effective than inside offense. Based on how most teams are currently constructed teams struggle to get quality inside shots and outside offenses seem easier to run. This is based on watching a fair number of games other than my own. You seem to be able to get away with low flow on the outside but are doomed when you try to go inside.

I also tend to try to switch up my offense just to avoid being too predictable, so based on a variety of things (can I win the game, what is my enthusiasm, what players on either team are in what degree of game shape, where does the game fit in my schedule, what are my goals for that particular game/competition, what offenses have I recently played, which ones do I feel like I need to use in the future, etc.) my choice is obviously going to change.

Ha, yeah, probably should have left out the more obvious things. Good to hear though, glad I was of some help.

No, no. Please don't leave anything out. Like you said, a long, thought out post is helpful to someone new that comes across it (read: me). I can't fathom why someone would create a thread and ask a question they're unsure of and then get defensive when someone else tries to help. I'm sure even old-timers in the NBBA, let alone people in Div IV, still have a lot to learn in the game. And as the old saying goes, the only stupid question is the one not asked.