What type of defense do you play in pick up games?

[NBAplayoffs2001]

ie. 5v5

zone?
man to man?
do you allow hand checking?

[imdaman99]

I prefer man everytime unless there is a noticeable height disadvantage.

Zone means you're relying on someone else to know how to cover their spots. You can always find a hole in the zone, especially exploiting a lazy defender's spot on the court. Basically you can get an open shot EVERY play with simple ball movement.

I played in a league and it pissed me off that my team wanted to play zone. We were getting killed by a guy that could make NBA 3s. I wanted to cover him, but the short(er) guys on my team didn't want to guard someone 2-3-4 inches taller than them :facepalm

Meanwhile this guy hit about 10 threes. Imagine that.

Hand checking is ok in every thing unless you play a professional league. It's all about what you can get away with. Personally I know if I was driving past someone every time and he kept holding me back hand checking, it would piss me off and eventually I'd tell him something like, "learn to play defense bro, not by hacking".

[Patrick Chewing]

Zone if you're playing against speedier guys.


Man to man if they're as sluggish as you.

[Jailblazers7]

Man defense. I feel like it's kinda cheap to go zone because it is easier to get 5 stranger to play a passable version of a 2-3 than it is to get 5 strangers to beat a zone. It ends up being a 3-point contest in most pick-up games. Plus, I'm trying to get a workout during the game and man forces more activity.

Handchecking depends on the opponent. If guys are calling fouls a lot then it is generally hard to do that.

[KobesFinger]

Man, defender calls fouls, handchecking to an extent

[NBAplayoffs2001]

Every few days people complain about defense and often get on the verge of fighting. It rarely escalates. I play very hard defense. I set mean screens and tend to bend my knees on purpose to hit them hard in their thigh/hip (I admit I do this only with everyday players who I dislike not my friends). They rarely call it and I do hand checking while I guard bigger guys in the paint. I blocked a guy cleanly once who was 6'2'', I'm 5'9'' and he called foul. I gave him a lip full.

[imdaman99]

Zone if you're playing against speedier guys.


Man to man if they're as sluggish as you.
Absolutely NO WAY man. If you're playing zone against 5 guys faster than you, you will get sliced and diced having to rotate in zone. You play zone if they can't shoot and are bigger than you, not if they are slower. Faster guys would be like the Spurs ball movement dissecting the slow Heat rotation. Although pickup games you never come across the Spurs lol

[NBAplayoffs2001]

Absolutely NO WAY man. If you're playing zone against 5 guys faster than you, you will get sliced and diced having to rotate in zone. You play zone if they can't shoot and are bigger than you, not if they are slower. Faster guys would be like the Spurs ball movement dissecting the slow Heat rotation. Although pickup games you never come across the Spurs lol
I never know how to defend teams who literally have 2 guys cherrypicking. Happened last week and I felt so trolled when we lost 11-6. :coleman: :coleman: :coleman:

[imdaman99]

I never know how to defend teams who literally have 2 guys cherrypicking. Happened last week and I felt so trolled when we lost 11-6. :coleman: :coleman: :coleman:
If someone's cherry picking, it ruins the quality of the game and you're gonna need at least one of your guys back there to defend them. You need good ball handling if they press and cherry pick.

[NBAplayoffs2001]

If someone's cherry picking, it ruins the quality of the game and you're gonna need at least one of your guys back there to defend them. You need good ball handling if they press and cherry pick.

We didn't have any guys who had the speed to keep up with them. We did have one but he was by far our best ball handler and we needed him in the frontcourts. I went 2/5 that game with one 3 pointer (counted as 2). They did get rocked the next game though. Granted, I knew everyone of the team after and knew from the start they had no chance. We also won 3 games back to back and were really tired.

[Mr Exlax]

Man to man no matter what. I hate when teams decide to go zone when I get the ball. I can't get to the rim and therefore I have to pass to the open man. Sometimes I just wanna score though.
Hand checking I'm ok with because I'm gonna beat my defender up when I have the ball so I guess it makes it fair.

[KobesFinger]

Man to man no matter what. I hate when teams decide to go zone when I get the ball. I can't get to the rim and therefore I have to pass to the open man. Sometimes I just wanna score though.
Hand checking I'm ok with because I'm gonna beat my defender up when I have the ball so I guess it makes it fair.

You sound mad confident in your ability to drive, is this even after your back surgery?

[Nick Young]

I just play solid fundamental defense. I dont have good length or lateral quickness so not lockdown by any means but atleast I'm doing the right thing and staying between my man on the basket. I stare at my defenders belly button so dont really fall for fakes. On shooters, I poke em in the belly the first few shots they take because some times it messes with their mind. Vs good shooters though this just pisses them off and usually they try extra hard to go off against me so sometimes that strategy backfires. I never gamble on steals. I used to contest dunks alot but I've been badly dunked on so many times and it sucks so my strategy these days is matador if I see a monster dunk coming my way.

[NBAplayoffs2001]

I just play solid fundamental defense. I dont have good length or lateral quickness so not lockdown by any means but atleast I'm doing the right thing. I never gamble on steals. I used to contest dunks alot but I've been badly dunked on so many times and it sucks so my strategy these days is matador if I see a monster dunk coming my way.

I once got posterized so badly because I tried taking a screen. He cleared my head and swung around while giving me the troll face. One of the funniest pick games ever. I tried shooting over him and he rejected it and the ball flew 20 feet. We didn't keep score and just played for an hour. I never laughed/cried so hard during a game :lol. So many hilarious plays.

[ace23]

Hand checking I'm ok with because I'm gonna beat my defender up when I have the ball so I guess it makes it fair.
Lol

[fpliii]

Man D, try to keep your guy out of the paint, and towards the sidelines/baseline.

Zone D wouldn't work, seems like everyone I play against can shoot lights out.

[oarabbus]

How do you guys hand check?

I do it in pickup, but I take it to mean an actual "check" i.e. reach out, make contact w/the hand, retract your hand. And contact should be on the lower torso/hips, you shouldn't be handchecking a dudes arms and shit.

Some dudes think "handcheck" means you can play like linemen in football, I don't do that.

[NBAplayoffs2001]

How do you guys hand check?

I do it in pickup, but I take it to mean an actual "check" i.e. reach out, make contact w/the hand, retract your hand. And contact should be on the lower torso/hips, you shouldn't be handchecking the upper body imo.

Some dudes think "handcheck" means you can play like lineman in football, I don't do that shit.
:roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: When I first started playing, this is what I thought it was. I got called for multiple fouls and was once kicked out of the pickup game cause of my hard fouls :lol :lol

[NBAplayoffs2001]

Man D, try to keep your guy out of the paint, and towards the sidelines/baseline.

Zone D wouldn't work, seems like everyone I play against can shoot lights out.

Yeah, we usually do it if they have one primary scorer whose just ridiculously quick. But usually those players that I see can easily maneuver around you in midair. I've tried taking a charge once and the guy simply just edge himself over and had an easy layup on a breakaway.

[NugzFan]

zone? in a pickup game? wtf?

[Thorpesaurous]

The men's league my buddy and I joined the past two years in which I got hurt both times is pretty young. We're by far the oldest team. And we're a hodgepodge of guys who were thrown together because we signed up but didn't have a whole team. With this third year getting started (without me), we're starting to find more people to play with us who are competent.

Anyway, being older, we played far more zone. But it was a problem because we don't know each other, and most of the pieces were really really bad. We can hide a defender in the zone though moreso than man.

Our newer guys are definitely a step better than we're used to, and younger too. So we're starting to look better. We've had two games this year. We have one kid, 23 or so, 6-6, can dunk, hits an occasional three, but he's legitimately retarded. Like some serious mental deficit. He just lacks the focus to play for real. But we hate to not let him play, so we stick him in the middle of the zone so he doesn't have to focus on much but the ball. We also have a big fat guy who's son plays for me. He knew so little that he didn't know what a zone was going into last season. He seemed to just want to hang out with us some after his son's season ended. He's another guy ideal for sticking in the middle of the zone.

[TheReal Kendall]

I've never played a pickup game were they played zone. It's always man to man.

Who plays zone during a pickup game?

How is that even possible? Most randoms don't know zone defenses and most people would laugh at you if you suggest a zone during a pickup game.

[LongLiveTheKing]

Man to man.
Its hard for me to guard players with a quick first step because I'm not that quick but my defense is very good and I usually guard the best player on the other team

Btw who plays zone in a pick up game?

[NBAplayoffs2001]

zone? in a pickup game? wtf?

I've seen it happen a lot at my gym. If you don't play zone, some people will literally say gtfo.

[Rake2204]

Man defense. I feel like it's kinda cheap to go zone because it is easier to get 5 stranger to play a passable version of a 2-3 than it is to get 5 strangers to beat a zone. It ends up being a 3-point contest in most pick-up games. Plus, I'm trying to get a workout during the game and man forces more activity.Sentiments fully echoed. I see a zone in pick-up games maybe twice a year, with at least one of those instances being a team responding to feeling vastly over-matched, to where they step back and say, "Welp, I guess we can try to go zone?" At that point, it's usually moot and they get carved up regardless, because they use it as an excuse to stand around.

That said, one year we had a collection of guys come from out of town and insist upon only playing on a team together (they'd sit out games until they could team-up). They'd run zone, and it was weird. They had basic zone principles down to the point that a random collection of five offensive players struggled. All it took was one offensive player to not understand zone attack principles and everything was shot. Interesting to compete against, but it felt kind of lame.

I've heard some regions play zones in pick-up with great regularity, more so than man. I cannot imagine it.

[NBAplayoffs2001]

Sentiments fully echoed. I see a zone in pick-up games maybe twice a year, with at least one of those instances being a team responding to feeling vastly over-matched, to where they step back and say, "Welp, I guess we can try to go zone?" At that point, it's usually moot and they get carved up regardless, because they use it as an excuse to stand around.

That said, one year we had a collection of guys come from out of town and insist upon only playing on a team together (they'd sit out games until they could team-up). They'd run zone, and it was weird. They had basic zone principles down to the point that a random collection of five offensive players struggled. All it took was one offensive player to not understand zone attack principles and everything was shot. Interesting to compete against, but it felt kind of lame.

I've heard some regions play zones in pick-up with great regularity, more so than man. I cannot imagine it.
Yeah at my gym it is usually out of desperation. Sadly most players don't know how to run it. They forget their role down low and try coming out to help and the opponent can easily do a quick crossover and drive by both of us. Seen it happen far too many times.

[masonanddixon]

I'm thinking of using old man defense now, just hacking the hell out of everyone and calling it a 'good hard nosed foul'

[YouGotServed]

Man to man for sure. lol @ zone in pick up ball.

Average then pick up the intensity towards the end of the game. help out when necessary.

I play in the post a lot and often get double teamed so there's that.

[joe]

I love playing zone. I was playing once against this really athletic team, and 3 of them were also LIGHTS OUT 3 point shooters. We had no chance in man because our team featured two young players who would have gotten wrecked. Instead we did a 3-2 zone, with me and the two young players up top. Anytime one of their three point shooters was up top, we would stick by him no matter what. And if one of their so-so shooters was up top, we would totally ignore them. It simplified things for the young kids and made them really effective. We then had this guy named ''Big Ed'' down low who was older, but great at protecting the rim. I ended up getting like 4-5 steals that game, because they were continuously passing around the perimeter trying to find open 3's. And I am very small and speedy so I was turning those into lay-ups. Sadly we lost! We were the only group to give that team any sort of threat all day though, and we were severely over-matched talent wise.

I also like to play a box-1 zone. If they have one great player, but the rest is so-so.. stick our best defender on their best player, and everyone else in zone. It is perfect against players who try to win the game by themselves.

My personal style of defense is that I can move my feet pretty fast, and I know defensive fundamentals pretty well. But I am small, both height and frame. Smart players take me down low- if they have the skill set.

[Mr Exlax]

Lol

Nah I'm a big guy now so I play really really physical. I'm usually stronger than the player trying to guard me so hand checking gives him some help.

[NugzFan]

I've seen it happen a lot at my gym. If you don't play zone, some people will literally say gtfo.

pathetic. is everyone 300 lbs?

[sick_brah07]

james harden level type man to man defense

[NBAplayoffs2001]

Nah I'm a big guy now so I play really really physical. I'm usually stronger than the player trying to guard me so hand checking gives him some help.

nope mostly guys between 5'11'' and 6'2'' at 180+.

[L.Kizzle]

Who the hell plays zone in streetball? Do yall take charges and call touch fouls too?

[NBAplayoffs2001]

Who the hell plays zone in streetball? Do yall take charges and call touch fouls too?

Lol no we only call fouls on really hard fouls in the paint. Depends on who I'm playing with.

[L.Kizzle]

Lol no we only call fouls on really hard fouls in the paint. Depends on who I'm playingwith.
You'll get called a bich abd never get picked up again calling weak as fouls on the perimeter. Or nighas playing that Shane Battier 'D' taking charges and shit.

[russwest0]

ie. 5v5

zone?
man to man?
do you allow hand checking?

HAHAHAHA I LIKE HOW EACH OF THOSE 3 LINES GOT BIGGER OVER TIME AS TO INCITE DISCUSSION HAHA

[masonanddixon]

I like the dudes face guarding me when I'm not even trying to get open and shit

Like dude I suck what are you doin

You should want them to give me the ball

Holy hell, thats the absolute worst. There's so many people who face guard and think its good defense. Someone needs to explain to them thats not legal.