Ball Screen Defense Options:

Hedge & Recover, Switch, Trap, or Iso?

Since everything in basketball will eventually trickle down, you can bet that we will see more and more ball screens. It started in the NBA and now is a mainstay of almost all college programs. You have to give time and attention as to how you are going to defend ball screens.

There are many ways you can defend ball screens. You can hedge with the man guarding the screener while the defender on the ball goes over the top. You can switch and have the man guarding the screener switching

and taking the ball while the man who was guarding the ball picks up the screener. You can trap the dribbler as he comes off the screen or you can "Iso" the man dribbling by having the man guarding the screener sag off

and protect against the drive.

Everyone's job on defense is to stop the ball!

HEDGE & RECOVER: Hedger should place one hand on the hip of the screen and when the screener either rolls or pop you will lose contact this is your cue to recover. Defender on the ball stands up and

lunge steps over the top of the screen. *Hedger" MUST aggressively step out into the path of the dribbler. Keeps your match ups in tact but it is difficult to teach and requires a great deal of repetition to master.

SWITCH: Can be very effective, especially, if all your defenders are about equal in size. Not good if you end up with constant mismatches because of switches with your littles on their bigs or your bigs on their littles.

TRAP: May want this to be "situational." Good to get the ball out of their best players hands. Negative, if you don't have help side people covering roll options.

ISO: Man guarding the screener sags off to protect the rim and discourage dribblers from being successful at the rim. Not effective If the screener is a good shooter who after screening pops into an open area for their shot.

If you have veteran defenders who are intelligent, you could use a variety of these techniques. For example, if the team you are playing has a 5 who sets

screens but is only effective rolling to the rim, you could iso whenever he sets a ball screen. If you are facing a good three point shooting team, you may wan to aggressively, switch ball screens. If the opponent has one really

good scorer/shooter, you might consider always trapping that player when they use the ball screen to get the ball out of his hands. Some coaches switch perimeters but don't switch screens between a big and a perimeter.

There are many options you can consider based on your opponent(s) and your own personnel.

From an offensive perspective, we found it beneficial to have a continuity

ball screen offense as part of our offensive package. Seldom do you find

high school defenders able to execute 3 or more ball screens in a row before

someone on defense breaks down. We also liked the ball screen continuity

offense to take some time off the clock yet not give our opponent's the sense we were going to a delay game.