Inside is important

Inside is important in basketball. With this statement made I would like to start this entry. First and foremost I can’t emphasize enough the importance to work with inside skills for (almost) all players. Maybe some shorter point guards can survive without posting up, but players in position 2-5 need skills to post up and score in the paint. Defensively post-defense is important for all players, including point guards.

So far, I have only talked about the importance of using inside in your game both as a player and as a team, but I haven’t mentioned why I believe so. Let me start in offense. First of all in my basketball philosophy inside is a scoring position not a player position making posting up an important scoring skill. As a team you need to have depth in your game. A team who doesn’t penetrate the other team won’t force defensive rotations which is a key to even get shots off in modern day basketball when the defense is so much more atheltique and with clear defensive rules. One way is dribble penetration, another cutting through the lane and the third one is posting up and getting the ball inside.

Players need skills to take position inside and to score or force the defense to rotate and help. The team needs to look inside and the skills to pass the ball inside. The pass is maybe on of the weakest skills in this subject among a lot of perimeter players. Working with passing the ball inside should almost be a daily subject. Remember a player who posts up, but doesn’t get the ball won’t keep posting up in the long run.

In defense letting the ball inside often forces defensive rotations, maybe dubble team or just dropping to towards the ball. This might not seem as a problem in defense but when you play against a good team they will use it and find the open player and get open shots or force new defensive rotations. In my defensive philosophy I want to control the other team and decide. Cutting the floor off and not letting the ball go inside helps the defense control the other team. Denying the post also takes care of some screening situations cause the post-up player might not get good enough angles to set screens on and off the ball.

Inside is like the most important street in the game of Monopoly, you really want to be in control of it, and you definitely don’t want your opponent be in control!