There are two things that kill zones: 1. Three point shooting - If you play the zone correctly, you can get really easy wide open 3 pts. Its justs that the Lakers with Odom, Artest, Fisher in the backcourt are not reliable enough to hit them. 2. A decent point guard - A decent point guard who can dribble penetrate, causing the zone to collapse and dish it for an easy wide open shot. The Lakers probably have the worst offensive starting point guard in the league.
Indiana, Memphis, Miami, and New York are the only teams that I can think of that are even close, and they all suck.
I don't know why people cry about zone defense hiding weak defenders. If zone defense is good for hiding weak defenders, then the old illegal defense rule was good for hiding bad offensive players. Remember the time when the defense had to put a person guarding a guy like Ryan Bowen even though you knew he had zero threat to score. All the player had to do was stay away from the basket and he would open up the interior for his teammates. That's totally unfair. I am all for letting teams play whatever defensive schemes they want. If the Lakers didn't have the kind of players who could beat the zone effectively, then that is the Lakers' weakness, not the Suns'. It's that simple. BTW, let me reiterate this: zone defense is not as easily executed effectively as many people think.
Zone defense = weak? Are you kidding me? The Suns would have been down 0-4 if it wasn't for their zone defense.
One way to work the zone defense is inside out. Which means catch the ball in the paint and make a quick decision as to how the defense reacts. This puts the onus on the decision maker (the big man) who is going to catch it far from the basket. He has to decide to pass it back out to the open guy or take the 15 footer the defense is offering
Zone defense is not a weak defense. It is exactly that defense that gave international teams a shot at beating Team USA; indeed, several teams have beaten Team USA partially as a result of zone defense.
Yeah that's true. I don't think Team USA will have a problem with the zone D anymore with the kind of talent they are going to have on the roster from here on out. They didn't have a problem with it in the olympics.
Are we talking total zone defense or partial zone defense. Opposing teams always shy a man on Yao, is that zone? I say so.
