As I was watching Lebron front Pau yesterday, I was reminded of all the frustration I felt watching all our opponents do this to Yao constantly. And the solution is so simple to me. The perimeter ball handler/scorer should drive the ball right to the fronting defender. One of several things winds up happening. 1. He compresses his defender against the fronting defender and uses the fronting defender and his big man as a screen to go right to the rim. 2. He beats his man off the dribble and forces the fronting defender to step out to defend the little 10 foot jumper, which creates a release for his big man for either an alley opp or the rebound putback. 3. If the front takes place in the paint and the guard is at the top of the court, just bang the durn ball off the glass hard to your big man for the layup. The fronting defense in the NBA should be the absolute easiest defense to beat and beat good with layups/dunks and And 1 fouls. And it does not take very much practice to get good at it. These are NBA players with NBA skills. A couple practice sessions and repitioins and they should have it. It's an easy 2 points if they simply have it in their reportoire. Why aren't they doing it?
- your idea is one of the methods of beating a fronter - but i think the major factor is the entry pass - what i do with my team is quick perimeter ball movement and then a fast high entry pass over the defender - the quick perimeter ball movement does not allow the defender get into optimal position to steal the pass - ex. quick movement from the top to a corner player who qucikly directs the ball to the post
Lebron's too quick for that side to side pass. That's what they were trying to do yesterday. Fronting defense in the NBA is played by smaller super-athletic guys. For some reason, they can't get the pass to the baseline and entry before defensive recovery. I say stop trying. Just drive the ball towards the fronter and let the play unfold from there. Much easier, much simpler, cleaner, and the results will be there.
It's because of the lack of fronting in general in the NBA The thing is fronting while effective, is very tiring and can stack up lots of fouls. I felt like fronting Gasol for example is totally different from fronting Yao. Lakers were still able to run their offense through Kobe and Bynum and really wasn't all that bothered by Gasol getting neutralized. If anything the fronting gave Gasol better positioning for offensive rebounds. The reason fronting worked so well against the Rockets was because we were too dependent on Yao on the low block. Without Yao, our whole offense bogged down to Artest being a r****d. Plus Portland had Oden and Pryzbilla that did nothing but taking turns muscling Yao on D and eating up fouls. Team simply don't front these days because no center in the league today is worth wasting the energy and fouls on.
If you dribble drive straight to the fronter, the weak side is still there, more pronounced, with a direct angle instead of 2-3 passes around the horn.
It worked so well against Yao because, despite being 7'6, he was actually a small target because he had no hops and was laterally very slow. There is no easy fix to fronting in the NBA because players are too athletic.
I'm offering an easy fix. Everyone else is saying it's too hard. But nobody is saying what's wrong with my fix.
There's others players on the court, so it's not that simple. It comes down to the mix of players and their size/athleticism. Sometimes it'll work and sometimes it won't.
You can't just dribble to any location on the court you want and pull off a simple pass....it may work once or twice, but after defense catches on and is aware of it, they will shut it down.
Everyone can attempt a drive. Though even in the NBA, not all players can beat their man off the dribble.
This is the no hand-check era where we have perimeter offensive machines out the yaozoo. They may not all be able to drive to the fronter, but about 75% of them can.
Do you think Kobe could? How about McGrady when we had 111 going. Do you think McGrady could take his man? Francis? Could he take his man? Brooks? Lowry? Tell you what, go through the league and find all the guards that can't take their man off the dribble. It'll be a lot easier and the list will be much shorter.
If they are fronting on the low block and guard is at the wing, have a high post player get ball from wing and dump it down to low post. This has to be done quickly and usually almost results in an easy layup.
^ I pretty much agree with you here. Especially when you consider that if Kobe was the entry passer, this should be a no brainer easy defense to exploit. Kobe and Pau might not have been the ones ultimately shooting, but it should have resulted in easy easy shots for someone. I think the reason it probably worked yesterday so effectively was because it was so out of the blue. Even in the NBA, it's difficult to adjust to something like that, seen so rarely, even with great players. You'll see offenses take some time to adjust to zones, and that's with a defense that they should expect every once in a while, and which in the NBA doesn't work very well. Also, one has to consider Mike Brown isn't exactly an offensive genius. I can't imagine this will work consistently against the Lakers/Kobe/Gasol. It worked much better against Yao because of the aforementioned lateral quickness issues, and bad wing entry passers. TMac wasn't actually great at beating his man off the dribble. Anyway, to further your idea, I think the concept of your offensive post player "pushing" his fronting defender further our would only help with your strategy. You would often see Yao trying to post up, and then being fronted, and nearly have his man pushed out to the three point line. You almost force the defender into setting a pick on his own man. Whatever the case, I agree with the general idea that fronting defense, in the NBA, should ultimately result in better efficiency for the offensive team.
That defense shouldn't work on LA again and if it does, the blame will fall almost entirely on mike brown not adjusting. Your strategy may work once or twice, but you have to also consider the help defenders. This isn't just a two on two game. The best way to beat a front is through quick and efficient passes. You say that these players are too athletic and can outrun passes but I disagree. Call me old school but we did just see the mavs torch the heat with outstanding passing in the finals last year. Maybe flash a high post to get the ball to the opposite end of the court quicker or something. While this is happening, yao or pau or whoever is getting fronted should be positioning themselves and closing the defender out. Once the ball is on the other side of the court, the post player receiving the entry pass should have their defender behind them and be closing them out, ready for the pass. If these post players are good enough to be fronted in the first place they should have the skills to better position themselves once the ball is swung to the opposite end. Lebron has to be the best option in the nba to front a post player based on his strength, size, and quickness. Lakers shouldn't see this much trouble caused by anybody else.
I don't see how decreasing the spacing is the solution, if anything I think driving towards the fronting defender would make things worse. I'm trying to picture the situation, but to me it seems like if you're Derek Fisher and trying to pass to Gasol with Lebron fronting him it seems like a terrible idea to drive that way. Making the area more crowded with Lebron even closer to you seems like a losing proposition.
I think it'd be turnover central. You actually have your own defender. By the time you've dribbled close to the fronter, you've really closed the gap between where you want to pass TO and where you are passing FROM. Your own defender might easily get a hand on the ball. Or worse: fronting tends to happen down on the block, so you're dribbling towards the baseline into a double team. You get swamped by your guy and the long athletic fronter, and probably need to pick up your dribble or force the bad pass (see above). The best option is to get a shot somewhere else on the court and have your teammate (who is being fronted) in excellent position for the offensive rebound.
