Rebounding & Defensive Balance

While on offense, your players know what to do- they have plays to execute and patterns to run. When a shot is rebounded by the opposing team, your players know what to do- they sprint back in transition, protect the hoop and match up defensively. But what do your players do when your team takes a shot and the ball is in the air? 


I'm a huge proponent that rebounding balance leads to defensive balance. Most teams will simply "crash the boards" in an attempt to gain an offensive rebound. I believe this isn't good enough; a few adjustments can have a huge impact.

I would teach my players the following:

1) On offense, when the ball is in the air, the 3 4 and 5 players should sprint to the rim, with their hands up, and form a "rebounding triangle"; one person centered on the hoop and the two others on either side. It doesn't matter who is in which part of the triangle, as long as we have a triangle.

2) As the 3 4 and 5 are sprinting to the rim with their hands up to form a rebounding triangle, we would ideally like to have our 2 guard play "safety" by patrolling the free-throw line for long rebounds. There are three reasons for this- one, how many rebounds is your 2 going to get in the paint? Second, the 2 will be more likely to get long rebounds and also tap-outs from missed rebounds inside. Finally, if possession changes, the 2 will act as the first line of defense to prevent a fast break attack (and they also may be able to pick off outlet passes).

3) The final piece is your point guard. They should be at or beyond the 3 point line to play "protector".

The 2 and 1 are interchangeable, depending on who takes the shot.

So, now what we have is strong rebounding positioning with our 3 bigs balancing their positions inside while one guard is seeking long rebounds/picking outlet passes/slowing down transition at the free throw line and our other guard is protecting the backcourt and hoop.