What is the objective of a full court press in basketball? The full court press is used to pick up the pace of a game and possible create steals and easy baskets. One of the more tiring basketball defenses...
One of the more tiring basketball defenses to run, the full court press is used to try to get a steal and possible easy layup. Most teams usually run the full court press when they are behind late in a game.
Tulsa 66ers of the NBA's Development League head coach Joey Meyer knows a thing or two about running a full court press. A former college basketball coach at DePaul University as well, Meyer has run a few full court presses and has had a few run against him before.
"Most teams usually pick up half court pressure and try to play good solid defense from there," Meyer said. "But if you want to be aggressive and pick up the pace of the game, normally, going to a full court press forces other teams to play at a faster pace."
The first step in running a full court press is to be aware that the press is about to be called. Most full court presses are run after made free throws. This allows the defensive team to set up in the most ideal positions on the floor.
A few of the more common full court presses set ups are the 2-1-2 and 1-3-1. The numbers represent where on the floor the five defensive players would line up. For instance, in the 2-1-2, there would be two players up pressuring the ball, one player at half court waiting on the long first pass and two players back deep to play defense. The same goes for the 1-3-1.
The most important thing to realize about the full court press is that basketball teams with deeper benches usually run the full court press more times than teams that don't have depth.
"Sometimes, teams with deeper benches or more athletes will use the full court press because they're not as worried about foul trouble or guys getting tired," Meyer said. "A lot of teams use it to pick up the pace to wear out the other team, create turnovers or to create easy baskets."
The full court press is tiring for the players because of the constant trapping of the basketball. As soon as the basketball is thrown in, the two top defenders should aggressively rush the ball in hopes of getting a steal.
Whenever possible, those two players want to trap the ball handler near the out of bounds line using it as an extra defender.
One the ball handler has been trapped, the job of the next guy is to pick off any outlet passes he would make. Now, in order to make this pass tougher and hopefully give the middle man a little more time to get into position, the two first defenders should have their hands up cutting off any good views at a decent pass from the ball handler. This tactic can backfire if the ball handler gets a good pass out. If that happens, the defense is now out-numbered.
"It's kind of like a risk reward situation because the team on offense has a little bit more room to work with," Meyer said. "But also, if you get the steal you're right there to score the basket and you can go right back into the press again"
