Basketball Attack and Counter: Should It Be Away From the Pass?
I subscribe to the Breakthrough Basketball newsletter and while most of the content is gated for subscribers there are a lot of good ideas that can come from the concepts.
Today, they had an article and video on Attack and Counter, with a key insight around how you should think about attacking the defense.
Attack and Counter Rule
The video suggests that you should as a rule attack the opposite direction for which you catch the pass. So if you catch from the left side, you should look to pivot and drive right. This is for two reasons:
- The defense is most likely in position to defend the left hand side of the court meaning more help defenders on the drive and limited access to the rim.
- Driving right gives you a free lane and puts the defense in recovery mode, which in many cases leaves open better offensive rebound and passing lane opportunities.
This year, we had been preaching with our players the value of having a rip and pivot move to the left and right to keep the defense honest especially late in the season as other teams had more scouting intel. This was more to give our players options but in thinking back when our players successfully drove, many cases it was opposite the pass. Sometimes it was a free run at the rim, other times in was a simple reversal that made the defense scramble and led to a quality shot.
There is also the fact that most defenses we go up against look to overload a side and dare you to make the cross court pass. With an emphasis and switching direction of the offensive possession, this could be a good add to the offense coaching arsenal.
Overall, I like this “rule”. What are your thoughts? Do you teach something similar?
