Listen to Dick Vitale and he’ll tell you: guards dominate amateur basketball. As the Dirk Nowitski’s and Kevin Garnett’s excel in the League, every player wants to play on the perimeter, regardless of height, to avoid the pounding and wrestling under the basket and to capture the spotlight with their “And1 Crossovers.”
Post play, really good post play, is a dying art form, resuscitated briefly by the Big Fundamental himself, Tim Duncan. However, whenever I gather with former high school teammates, junior varsity head coach Jim Peth’s name surfaces, along with the post drills that dominated junior varsity practices.
I started as a perimeter coach, teaching shooting and ball handling. But, when I landed in Europe, I quickly became a post coach to work with my best player. I immediately recalled a conversation with high school friend Mike Haralambakis as we played just before I left about Coach Peth and the footwork we developed through the post drills. He lamented the lack of footwork evident in today’s game, and the few coaches like Mr. Peth who stressed such important fundamentals.
Haralambakis was right and I realized this during our game of two-on-two, as his flurry of pivots and pump fakes enabled him to get his shots off, even though he and his teammate were considerably shorter than my teammate and I. He used his body, made fakes, created separation, pivoted and found a good shot.
And, more than anything else, that is post play: reading the defense, using pump fakes and pivots and creating space for a shot or drawing a foul. Every player, regardless of height or position (Haralambakis was a crafty point guard in his playing days) must master these skills, whether he uses them in the post as a one-on-one back to the basket post player, on the perimeter or anywhere in between.
I struggled to teach post play well; I could score with an assortment of fakes and spins, but it was hard to translate my moves and feel into teaching concepts. My post breakdown sessions consisted almost entirely of one-on-one play, learning to seal the defense, receiving the pass and making a good move. There are certainly some standard post moves (Drop-Step Power Lay-up, McHale Up-and-Under, Sky Hook, etc), but most moves are simply feeling the defender, making a fake or pivot and creating space to shoot.
Every player needs to have these skills and incorporate them into one’s game. Post play instruction generally starts with the MIKAN DRILL (continuous lay-ups, shooting on the right-hand side, grabbing the rebound and crossing under the basket and shooting on the left-hand side), which is an important drill for all players, as everyone needs touch around the basket.
The next post instruction standard is teaching players a go-to move to each shoulder. These moves vary, and the actual moves aren’t as important as the player’s ability to recognize when to use the move, whether the player is playing the baseline side, playing behind or playing the middle.
Another key move to teach is the DON NELSON MOVE, as all players can utilize this move, not just in the post. The offensive player faces the defender, sticks foot between defender’s legs and puts knee into defender’s crotch; pivot and seal. Sit on the defender’s knee to take away his mobility. This move can be used anywhere on the court when a player struggles to free himself using a basic V-cut or L-cut.
Once the player establishes a couple moves and counters, one-on-one post play games or two-on-two post play games (coach starts possession on the wing with an entry pass and offensive players can play in the low post, short corner or high post/elbow) instill these moves and teach players to add fakes and pivots to beat the live defense.
When a player understands how to use his body to create separation, to utilize pump fakes to keep the defender off-balance and to use front and reverse pivots consecutively without traveling, he will be a more well-rounded and effective player anywhere on the floor. Study the great scorers in recent NBA history, and almost all players, wings included, use fakes, pivots and spins much like a post player: MJ created space for a fade-away jump shot and then for his step-step counter move by getting into the defense and spinning away from the defender; Kobe does similar things; Paul Pierce uses spins, fakes and pivots to get himself to the foul line as much as any player in the league.
Basketball is unlike other typically American sports like baseball and football, which are very specialized sports. A baseball player with a terrific arm can pitch and needs no other skills; a big, strong football player can block as an offensive lineman and needs no ability to play with the ball at all. Basketball players must be adept at all skills on the court, like a five-tool baseball player, or a running back adept at picking up the blitz, carrying the ball and catching the ball out of the backfield. Basketball players, regardless of position, need post and perimeter skills because they feed off each other; a post player who can shoot a fifteen-foot turnaround jump shot off the glass, like Duncan, is much tougher to defend than a post player who can only score from four-feet; a perimeter player who can play off the dribble as well as out of a triple threat position, and who makes credible fakes using good footwork is more difficult to defend than a player who is simply a jump shooter or who can just play off the dribble. Basketball is a fluid game and the more skills a player possesses in his arsenal, the better, which is why all players need post practice.
