Become a LOCKDOWN DEFENDER! (The SECRET Way To Get MORE PLAYING TIME!) - Basketball Tips

Something that you need to understand is that every single coach in the world wants to have great defenders on their teams. And a lot of times, if they have a guy who's a great defender, they'll overlook some offensive deficiencies in order to get that guy on the court if he's a defensive stopper. Another thing that people sometimes don't realize is that defense can be a skill that you learn too. And a lot of times, if you're smart and you know what you're doing, it can overcome physical limitations you might have as a defender. So if you're looking to make the team or just get more playing time, being able to play great defense is one of the best ways to do that. Today we're going to take a look at Marcus Smart, one of the NBA's best defenders, and I'm going to give you three tips that we see in his game that'll help you be a great lockdown defender. Now, Marcus Smart has been a part of a very, very talented Celtics lineup for the past few years. And despite the fact that he might be the worst offensive guard on his team, he gets consistent playing time and oftentimes stun starts because of how great he is on the defensive end, which just goes to show the power of being a defensive stopper. So if you want to learn how you can become a defensive stopper too, stay tuned. Let's get into it so quickly, Bosh to beat the shot clock. Alright, guys, so let's break down this Marcus Smart defensive clip real quick and take a look at a few keys on why he's such a great defender. So as you'll see, he's guarding Mario Chalmers right here and there's a little down screen coming to try and get Chalmers ball up top. So Marcus Smart's gonna get through this screen. Chalmers is heading up top and as soon as he gets this ball, look at this. As soon as he gets this ball, Marcus Smart is making him uncomfortable all up in his space. And a lot of gu don't do this. A lot of guys, when their man gets the ball, they give him some space, they let him get comfortable, they let him see the floor. But Marcus Smart, as soon as Chalmers gets that ball, he's making him uncomfortable. That's what you got to do as a defender. You got to make your guy uncomfortable if you want to be a great on ball defender. And now the other thing that Marcus Smart does really, really well is he's able to cut his guy off and force him to change directions. Because another key point As a defender is you want to make sure that you dictate what your man does. He doesn't dictate what you do. You decide. I don't want him to go that way, so I'm going to make him go this way. And that's what Marcus Smart does. Right here. Chalmers tries to get across to the other side of the court. Marcus Smart cuts him off right there and makes him turn around. Now, at this point, Chalmers has had enough and he's ready to get rid of this ball right here. So Smart's going to go over the screen and there's going to be a little hedge here. So Chalmers is going to pick this ball up, get rid of it, throw it to Chris Botch right here. Now, right here. A lot of players, especially at the youth level, youth high school level, a lot of guys think that their job is done here and they kind of zone out. They think, alright, you know, I did my job, my guy got rid of the ball. Now it's up to my teammates. But your job's not done, actually, it's just beginning. You're going to see right here what Marcus Smart does. And this is another reason why he's such a great defender, because he's such a team player and team defense is super important. So Bosh is going to get this ball. He's going to pass it over to Naper on the wing. Now look at this. Marcus Smart's going to retreat into help. Boom. We'll stop it right here. He's in perfect help position. He's below both ball and his man. So if you were to draw a line from Shabazz Napier over to Mario Chombres, it's a straight line. Marcus Smart makes sure that he's below that line so he can see both ball and man. Now he's in great position to where if Shabazz Napier gets by this low hedge guy and is able to split and gets in the middle, Marcus Smart's in great position to help right there. Or you'll see if Shabazz comes off this screen and throws a pop to Chris Bosh, he can help out and then recover back to Chalmers. So Shabazz Napier comes off the screen, goes up for the shot, but then realizes he doesn't really have it. So like I said, he's going to throw this pop right here to Chris Bosh, and literally, Marcus Smart is in such great help position that the reason Chris Botch doesn't get an open jump shot is because Marcus Smart's right there to prevent it. So as soon as he gets there, and then he sees Avery Radley's back and recovered, he sprints back to Chalmers to make sure he doesn't get the ball. Chris Watts had to throw up a contested jump shot, the end of the shot clock, and he misses it. Now, a lot of people will say that's great team defense, and it was great team defense, but Marcus Smart really was the key defender in that possession because he took Chalmers out of the play, made him waste time, and then on top of that, he played great help defense. And the reason that Chris Bosh didn't get a wide open jump shot was because Marcus Smart was in great help position. So you'll see this, this is kind of a reoccurring theme, is that Marcus Smart is always in the right position. And again, defense isn't something that is a talent thing as much as it is a knowing what you're supposed to do and a heart thing. And that's what makes him so great. And that's why anybody can be a great defender. Smart scores. Pierce spinning, puts up a shot, looking for a super important part of being a great defender is playing disciplined defense. And Marcus Smart is one of the best defenders in the league when it comes to being disciplined. And you'll see this right here, something that a lot of young players struggle with is whenever they get in a position where they have to guard a shot or, or a layup or a guy in the post, they like to swipe down with the ball, reach for it, put themselves in a position to have a foul called on them and bail their guy out. Instead of playing good, solid, disciplined defense and making the guy make a tough shot over you. So you'll see this right here in these next two clips. So Marcus Lamar is out on the wing guarding Paul Pierce. Paul Pierce is going to catch this ball and he's going to start to go middle. And like I said before, market Smart really, really good at making people change directions. So Paul Pierce has to spin right here. Boom. Now he picks the ball up. And now you'll see this is where a lot of guys mess up. So right here, Paul Pierce brings his ball low. A lot of guys try and swipe at that ball, try and strip it. Sometimes you get it, but a lot of times you just end up getting a piece of his arm or even you might get the ball, but the refs might see it a different way. And there's a foul call and you bail your guy out and get him two free throws. But take a look at what Marcus Smart does right here. So Paul Pierce is bigger than he is, but Marcus Smart still stays disciplined and makes Paul Pierce put up a tough shot. This places his arm straight up. Paul Pierce tries to draw contact, misses it, leaves it short. Because Marcus Smart was able to alter the shot, he was able to disrupt it without fouling. That's called playing disciplined defense. And that's something that every young player needs to be able to do, is play disciplined defense. Because if you get in foul trouble, you can't be on the court helping your team play. Coaches want guys who can stay in the game because they play good, disciplined defense. Jack taking it hard to the so again, right here, Marcus Smart staying in front of his guy. Good physical defense, moving his feet, keeping his arms up, forces up a tough shot, arms straight up. That's a bad shot because Marcus Smart played great discipline defense. Didn't try and block the ball, didn't try and swipe for the ball. Didn't bail out Jarrett Jack right there. Didn't bail out his man right there. Just played great, disciplined defense and got his team the ball back. That's what being a great defender is about. It's not about the highlight blocks. It's not about even the highlight steals or any of that stuff stuff. It's about playing good, solid, disciplined defense. So here we have Marcus Smart guarding one of the NBA's best scorers in CJ McCollum. But nothing that he does here is any different from how he guarded the other guys. So you'll see that the number one thing that he does well here is he makes CJ McCollum uncomfortable. And as you can see, the shot clock's at 13 right now. So you just got to make something happen. And because Marcus Smart's able to make him uncomfortable, they waste time off the shot clock. And Portland ends up getting a bad shot at the end of this possession and a critical possession in the fourth quarter. So let's take a look at this. McCollum starts to go towards the middle right here, and you know, like I've said, boom. Making him uncomfortable. CJ McCalm leaves that ball explaining exposed, and Marcus Smart makes him pay. He gets a little piece of it again, wasting more time now we're at 10 seconds. So McCollum's able to get back towards the middle, and Marcus Smart, boom, Cuts him off right there again, making his guy change directions, keeping him uncomfortable as a defender, making sure that he dictates what the offensive guy does. McCollum loses this ball again, and Marcus wants able to recover physical defense. McCollum's got to get rid of this ball. And they end up having to force up a tough shot at the end of the shot clock right here, when really they wanted McCollum to be the guy to take that shot. But because Marcus Smart was making him uncomfortable, he couldn't get the shot off. So again, that's just great defense right there. And that's not a play that gets on the highlight reel. I think when people think about defense, they're way too concerned with, oh, man, I gotta get a highlight block or I gotta get in steal or all this. But this is great defense right here. This is the type of play that gets you playing time. This is the type of play that even if you have no offensive game at all, a coach is going to figure out how to get you on the court, because there's not a lot of guys who are willing to give this sort of effort. So just as a recap, let's go over three keys to being a great defender. The first key is you want to make sure that you keep your guy uncomfortable at all times. So you want to make sure that when he gets that ball, you're in his space. You want to make sure that if he puts the ball on the ground, you dictate where he goes. You're cutting him off. You're making sure that as the offensive player, he doesn't get to control the look that he gets. You get to control it. The second key is you want to make sure that you're always disciplined on defense. You never want to be the guy to bail out your man by fouling him because you swiped at a ball or you tried to swing for a block or you reached at a bad time. You got to stay on the court. You got to make disciplined plays, good basketball plays, plays that might not necessarily get you on SportsCenter, but are going to get you on the court. And the third thing is to be a great defender, you got to give 100% at all times, and you have to have a lot of heart. Something that makes Marcus Smart so great is that he competes every single possession and he competes harder than anybody else. If you watch him play, he dives for every loose ball, he's going for every rebound. He's not the biggest guy ever on the court, not even close, but he plays like he's the biggest because that's the heart that he's got. And if you want to be a great defender, that's a non negotiable. You have to have that you got to. Every single time you step on the court, you got to forget about the highlight plays. You got to forget about what the score book says. You got to go out there and do what it takes to win. That's what will make you a great defender. That's it for me, guys. Let me know what else you guys want to see like and subscribe as well. I'll see you guys later. Peace.