Help side defense is any defender not guarding the ball or not guarding an offensive player with a direct pass to the ball. A lot of coaches refer to this as two-passes away from the ball. Any defender guarding one of these offensive players is in help side defense. In any given offensive possession this could mean 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 defenders being in help side defense. When a defender is in help side defense then these are my rules for them.
1) Communication
The biggest key to a good half-court man defense is communication. Communication has to come from the help side defense. These defenders are the only players in a position to see everybody on the floor. Help side defense must communicate to the on the ball and one pass away defenders. Help side defense is going to be calling almost all screens as they are happening. This communication keeps their teammates from getting drilled with a hard unseen ball screen.
The defense also needs to communicate to properly rotate while the offense is cutting and replacing each other. The defense must work together to interchange from the top to the bottom as their offensive player is making a cut. If the defense does not talk, then defenders can run into each other causing an offensive player to come open.
I am always looking for ways in practice to force the players to maintain better communication. Kids today have so much access to social media and cell phones that the ability to communicate with talking is not where it used to be with players. Also, the ability to listen and hear commands and react to them is not where it once was.
The best defenses have players in help side constantly talking. I do things to force the players to improve on talking and listening. The ability to communicate makes defense easier to play and harder to play against. And this communication needs to be coming for the help side defense.
2) Positioning-Get to Midline
My general rule is to get help side defenders to midline. Midline refers to the imaginary line going right down the middle of the floor splitting everything in half. I want all 5 defenders on the same side of the court as the ball is on. The rules for on the ball and one pass away defense helps to force the ball to the sideline. When the ball is on the sideline the help side defense is able to get to midline and have all 5 defenders on the same side as the ball.
There are exceptions to this rule. If the ball is in the middle of the floor, then the help side defense is splitting the difference between their man and the ball as far as how far to go towards the midline.
The other exception is if a defender is in a no-help or low help scenario. No-help is used against an offensive player who we do not want to catch the ball at all. Some coaches refer to this as face-guarding or no-touch defense. No help defense hopes to reduce the number of touches an offensive player gets.
Low-help defense is played against a really good shooter. Low help means the defender is not preventing the ball from being passed to the offensive player but is staying close to them to closeout faster and not give them an open shot.
The defense being able to get to midline is basically building a wall around the basket to prevent any easy close shots from happening around the basket. Midline puts defenders in the middle of the floor in a good position to help on any drive. Midline is designed to not give up any open layups.
The problem with midline is it gives the offense the ability to drive and kick more easily. My philosophy is to make the offense take shots from as far away from the basket as possible. So, midline prevents layups but gives up 3-pointers. This is why low-help defenders are used to stay close to the other team’s best shooters. I do not use low help every game but just when we are playing a primarily 3-point only shooter. This will force the 3-point specialist into having to do something else offensively other than just shooting.
3) Sprint to Midline-Sprint to Closeout
Good help side defense is going to be playing off their man by quite a bit. Defensive slides are too slow in most cases. The ability of a defense to sprint out of midline and back into midline is so important for a defense to be successful. One of the first drills I do every year is working on this sprint.
All defenders must move on each pass. A skip pass by the offense moves the ball from one side of the floor to the other. On a skip pass every defender is most likely changing their defensive position. Help side defense is going to be sprinting to closeouts and one pass away defense. Defenders that were one pass away or on the ball are now going to be sprinting to help side.
A defense that is able to sprint when moving is a defense that reduces the amount of time the offense has to make decisions. This reduction of time can speed up the offense and cause rushed shots or bad decisions. Both of those things are positives for the defense.
A player that does not sprint is a player that will struggle defensively. This player will also be the player the offense identifies to attack. This focus by the offense will highlight the struggling defender making it more likely that player will need to come out of the game. Not every player will be a good defensive player, but they can hide their defensive struggles by working hard and sprinting everywhere.
4) Stop all cuts
Anytime an offensive player can make a cut across the face of the defender, it will give the offense a good chance of getting a good shot. So, rule #4 is to stop all cuts.
Stopping a cut means the defender uses their forearm or body and redirects the cutter to another location away from where the offensive player is cutting too. As a defense, I want to force the offense to do things outside of their offense. By redirecting cutters, it should force the offense to have to do things outside of their normal offense.
When an offense has to adjust to the defense, the offense can struggle playing out of rhythm. One of the ways to change the rhythm is to stop cuts. The offense is being re-directed to new locations. This now makes the offense have different angles and spacing after the cut. The different angles and spacing can work in the defenses favor by making it easier to move around screens. It can also put offensive players closer together which means it is harder to pass the ball in the offense.
The last reason to stop all cuts is to enforce a physical style of defense. I like to play a physical style of defense using the defenders’ bodies to move and re-direct offensive players. Teams that are not used to playing physical can wear down and become fatigued quicker than normal. This can lead to an advantage in the 4th quarter of games when the opponent is tired.
Physical play can also frustrate opponents and make them play worse. Players that get mad usually play worse because they are not thinking clearly. It can also lead to mistakes and bad fouls. All of this is favorable to the defense.
5) Use Peripheral Vision
The help side defense is able to see all the offensive players on the floor when using peripheral vision. These defenders cannot get tunnel vision and focus on only the ball or only their offensive player. They have to be able to see everything that is happening and react accordingly. If a defender gets tunnel vision and only watches the ball, then the player they are guarding can cut and get open. This can destroy the defense.
Man Defense is about the 5 defensive players guarding the 5 offensive players. In order for the defense to be at their best, the defenders must not focus on an individual player but be ready to rotate and help when needed. Through rotations the players may have to switch who they are guarding during each possession. This is only possible when players are using their peripheral vision.
6) By Ready to Rotate
The last rule of help side defense is to be ready. At any moment the on the ball defender could get beat. When that happens, the help side rotation needs to be quick and decisive. If the rotation is slow getting there, then the offense will probably get an easy layup.
This rotation is not just about the next person rotating to the ball but the next player rotating to the offensive player of the defender who rotated to the ball. One defender rotating to the ball will stop the driver. But it will open the dump off pass to the offensive player next to the basket. The 2nd defender needs to rotate to this offensive player. This will make the pass go to the outside. Again, the goal of man-to-man defense is to force the offense to shoot the ball from the outside.
When a defensive rotation happens, everybody has to rotate. This is usually 3 players on help side all moving together. Without every help side defender moving together, the offense will get an easy shot. So, if a defender is in help side defense, then they need to be ready to rotate at every moment. These rotations is what makes man-to-man defense work with all 5 players working together.
Conclusion
On the ball defense makes a defense good. Help side defense makes a defense great. The ability to get more players working together on defense improves the defense drastically. When an offense has to beat multiple defenders to get a good shot it makes it harder for the offense to score. An extra dribble or extra pass can be the difference between a layup and a turnover. Every defender should be working together and moving together. When the defenders are all connected, the offense has to work even harder to get good shots and score points. That is the ultimate goal of every defense especially man-to-man defense.
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