Can anyone tell me why JVG does not allow us to play Zone D?

I often hear questions like, "What's the best zone defense?" If there was a correct answer to that question, most teams would be running the "right" defense and a few oddballs would be running something different. When you look at teams across the country, or even across your own league, you find a myriad of defensive solutions that all work with some measure of success. You can't really say one defensive pattern is better than another until you take an analytical look at your team.

Key criteria are physical makeup (fast, slow, tall or short), experience, emotional level and in the short term, game situation. At the risk of stereotyping, if your team physically advantaged and operates at a high-charged emotional level, man to man coverage can be very effective. Even a team that isn't particularly blessed with speed or strength can sometimes smother an opponent using sheer determination. Or, if you're facing a hesitant, inexperienced team, chances are they won't cope with well with an aggressive man to man defense.

Zones defenses can be very effective when your team is compromised in some way. Perhaps certain players are in foul trouble and need some protection. Perhaps some of your players are inexperienced and get easily beaten in 1:1 confrontations. Staying close to home, forcing the offense to shoot long and then concentrating on blocking out for rebound can pay big dividends at a fairly low risk.

http://www.akcoach.com/index.htm

 

JVG must have watched Chinese National Team with Yao playing zone D.
He may get the impression that Zone D sucks.

 

Bingo! We have a winner.

Anyone who does more than scream at the Rockets during a broadcast will easily recognize the zone principles in VG's defensive scheme.

 

as someone who has coached and played against zone and in a country that regularly uses zones..... one of the biggest myths about Zone is you cannot set screens on them.... YOU BET YOU CAN...

admittedly a pick n roll is a tad different, but plenty of international teams, clubs, etc use screens against zones....

screens are set on players... if player X is guarding a certain area then a screen can be set by one offensive to free up another who is also in player X's defensive area....

in particular with quick ball reversal, especially with a skip pass screens can be used to free up shooters

also alot of zone are often match-up so once again this makes screening very possible

the pick n roll against a zone is interesting.. say the defense is in a 2-1-2 or 2-3 zone (3 on baseline, two up the top) then by you theory the defensive player up the top does nothing lets the dribbler just get into the middle of the zone... also the screeners defender obviously isn't with the screener as they stay in the position in the zone... so not exactly sure about a pick n roll against a zone.. it probably shouldn't work but in another way it would although the dribbler a free pass to the middle of the key and in the nba that would spell trouble....

pick n rolls are always tough if they are run properly.. and that's why so many team use them on offense