Posting #12, August 23, 2008

“THE IMPLOSION”
TEAM DEFENSIVE REBOUNDING

When I played in the NBA, the home court for the Seattle Supersonics, the Mariners, and the Seahawks was the Kingdome. Like all stadiums and arenas, there comes a time to tear down the old and build the new. I’ll never forget watching the implosion of the Kingdome. It was weird. Instead of exploding out, the building caved in toward a center.

If you can imagine what I saw, you have a mental picture of  proper team defensive rebounding. When the basketball rebounds, four defensive players should be converging on the area the ball is headed to. If done properly, it looks like an implosion. It looks like they are all coming together into a huddle.

You’re wondering why I wrote “…four defensive players….” If the ball rebounds a distance away from the basket, say one-third the distance to the sideline/corner, one player should remain around the key to protect, should the offensive team obtain the rebound and make a quick pass to a player under the basket. How many times have we all seen that happen? So, we leave one player back. His protection will cause a pass out to the perimeter, allowing the defense to reset.

I’ve seen some incredible individual defensive rebounds in my time. Kareem used to get his chin even with the rim. Walton would get the ball on the way up, close to the backboard and then make the outlet before he came down. (I’d like to see Dwight Howard learn that, as good as he is.) But defensive rebounding is a team effort. One man cannot carry a team in that department. The others need to be equally as aggressive and determined, each assuming full responsibility for obtaining possession. That ball could be tipped or dropped.

Get the visual? Let me paint it for you. Let’s start with the above scenario where the ball bounces one-third the way to the left sideline. The inside rebounder, closest to the rebound, sprints to get his feet under the ball. The middle inside rebounder is right behind him and closing the gap. Two players, one coming from the free throw line area and the other from the perimeter, are spread out and hover about ten feet from where the ball looks like it is coming down. The far inside rebounder also comes toward the ball, but stops at the edge of the free throw lane. The players are converging (implosion), they all have their hands above their shoulders, and they are all crouched, ready to jump forward, backward, or sideways. No one is assuming anything. Together, they have one mind: Work together to get that basketball.

There is no coach in America that will argue against this philosophy but, in reality, we rarely see this happen consistently. Oh, we see it at the end of games when possession of the ball becomes “more important.” What we do see is players assuming others will get the ball and players that prematurely think offense. It is human nature for this to occur because those kids want to score. Staying with the ball, as a team, until possession must be taught through weeks of explanation, correction, and repetition.

But players are not the only ones that must be convinced; some coaches need to convert also. The fast break-minded coach will allow players to “leak out” before possession. They have done the math and believe the amount of points scored by the fast break will be more than what they will give up in offensive rebounds by the other team. To them I say, no one has said it is one way or the other. Both are possible. Train your team in implosive team defensive rebounding and fast break from there. Coach Wooden’s teams did exactly that.

Therefore, the coach that trains his players to believe that a possession in the first half is equally as important to one in the second, and develops Implosive Team Rebounding as a team habit, will greatly increase his or her chance for winning.