However, when I started breaking down how many points we were giving up in transition, I started to change my thinking. While we were giving up two transition baskets a game, those two baskets were still worth only 4 points. So is dedicating a ton of time during your practice really worth stopping 4 points? Here are some numbers to consider For instance - last year teams scored 89% of their total points in the half court and 11% in transition. So if you take a typical 2 hour practice and spend 20 minutes each day working on your transition defense is that really time well spent? Should you spend 17% of your practice time working on stopping how a team scores 11% of their points? My personal on this is NO. So the challenge is how can you develop and improve your transition defense without spending a ton of time on it every day in practice? Here are three possible ways to do just that. Send 3 to rebound and 2 to get back When a shot goes up have one guard sprint all the way back to the opposite top of the key and have the other guard sprint back to half court. For many teams, a transition layup is usually the end result of some kind of uncontested run out. This strategy eliminates that. Sending two players back instead of one can increase the effectiveness of your transition defense without spending a single minute on it in practice. Utilize your post players more on offense I fully realize that the current trend in basketball is to shoot a boat load of three pointers but long shots generally produce long rebounds. A team that rebounds the ball 64 feet from their own basket has a much bigger transition opportunity than the team that rebounds 83 feet from their own basket. Driving the ball and attacking the basket is a very effective offensive strategy but it often places your point guard right underneath the basket. In my mind it's much better to score in the post and give our point guard a 15 foot head start to get back. Rebound, Rebound, Rebound
2 Improve Your Transition Defense with Minimum Practice Time-hoopskills.com