How To Read The Defense In Basketball (Exploit The Defense) - Part 1

No matter how skilled you are, if you aren't able to properly read the defense and consistently make good decisions, you're really, really going to struggle in basketball, especially if you play against good competition. This is a question that I get from so many players asking me how they can get better at making reads, at making good decisions, and being able to execute the things they try in their workouts. So today we're going to go over the three steps you need to take if you want to be able to get better at reading the defense, making good decisions, and seeing the work that you put in in practice and your workouts translate over games. I essentially want to take you through step by step and tell you exactly what you're going to need to do if you want to be able to get better at doing this reading. The defense is a skill in itself just as much as shooting is, ball handling, all that stuff. Being able to make reads and make decisions is such an important part of the game of basketball, and if you aren't good at doing it, you're going to struggle when games get here. I always talk about basketball being a game of solving problems, and that's exactly what we're getting into today. How you can get better at understanding what problems need to be solved, what reason to be made, and then learning how to be able to adapt and quickly make those decisions so that when you're in games, you can be effective. We all know players who in practice are awesome. They hit a ton of shots, they seem really, really good. But then games get here. The lights are on, there's fans in the stands, and now you've got coaches yelling, and you've got the officials out there blowing the whistle, and all of a sudden that player isn't quite as effective as they used to be. That's usually because this player isn't very good at making the necessary reads and being able to make them quickly enough to be able to execute their skills in actual games. The first step to become a great player offensively is understanding what reads to make and when. In this video, we're going to break down a few different situations to see what the correct read is. And ultimately, I don't want this video to be just me. You sit back and watch. I want this to be a little bit more interactive than your normal video might be. So at some point during this video, I'm going to show you guys a clip and I'm going to pause it. I'm going to let you guys try and predict what the correct read is going to be so you can start to kind of drill these patterns into your mind and start to understand why players do certain things and how you, if you're in a similar situation, could make that same read or a different read, depending on what you actually pick. So for simplicity's sake, I'm going to.

Break down the first part of this.

Video into five different categories. We're going to talk about reads coming off of a closeout. We're going to talk about reads coming off off ball screens. On ball screens. We're going to talk about reading to help defenders, and then we're going to talk about making reads in a one on one situation. And we're going to tie all that stuff together. And at the end of the video, I'm going to tell you exactly what you need to do to be able to take this knowledge and translate it into results on the court. Let's get into it.

The first category we're going to talk about. When it comes to reading, the defense is being able to read closeouts and knowing when to attack. Attacking closeouts is going to be the best opportunity for you to get by your defender and get downhill to make a play. So it's important that you know what to look for. The first read you can have coming off of a closeout is just to take the jump shot. If you have space to shoot the ball, then you have to be able to shoot the basketball if you want defenders to close out on you and give you opportunities to actually drive by them. Our second read is to quickly rip through and attack that defender as soon as you catch the ball on their closeout. This will typically happen if you can tell that you're not going to have enough room to get the shot off or that your defender is closing out, out of control and is going to give you opportunity to get downhill and make a play. We can also go with a quick jab on this closeout to get the defender leaning one direction to make it easier to attack and get into the paint. Closeouts and ball screens are really the two main situations you're going to get that are going to allow you to attack downhill. When it comes to ball screens, there's so many different reads that you can make coming off of one. For this video though, we're going to keep it simple. I just need you to understand the basic principles we're going to go over. The first read we'll take a look at is what to do against drop coverage. Drop coverage is when this defender drops down in the paint to try and take away a drive, which is going to leave you with a couple different options. If we see this drop defender gives us enough space, then obviously we can take the jump shot. This can also be a great time to go to a floater if you have that in your bag as well. Usually that drop defender is going to be a big. So if you have the speed advantage, then you have the opportunity to blow by if the big plays too far out. Making the right read against drop coverage ultimately comes down to reading where that big guy is. If he's too far out, then you got to be able to blow by him. And if he drops too far into the paint, then you've got to be able to get into that jump shot. The next coverage we can take a look at is what to do on a soft hedge or a switch. In this clip right here, this big soft head is and ultimately ends up switching onto Cassius Winston. And because he's not comfortable guarding him out there, Cassius gets right into that three point shot. In this clip right here, the big straight up switches on to catch his Winsman, which allows him to use his speed advantage and beat the guy to the basket. Now we look at this hard hedge coverage. Typically we're either trying to bounce outside this hard hedger or we can try and split it. As you'll see in this next clip, similar to a hard hedge, you can also see what's called a blitz coverage where that hedge guy essentially goes to trap that guy and Yuri typically will be trying to hit that open pop guy.

When we talk about reading off ball.

Screen, we're going to keep this very.

Very simple as well. We're going to talk about three different reads you can make coming off of a pin down. The first read is a curl and you're going to make this read. If your defender is trailing you, they get hit by the screen and they're going to have to chase you around that screen. You're going to want to curl because they're going to be behind you. If your teammate gets you the ball quickly enough, you're going to be able to attack it downhill. Our next read is a flare if your defender tries to cheat over top of the screen. So we'll go to a flare, which basically just means we're going to pop below the screen so that our defender is up above. The defender jumps it, we go below the screen and we're wide open. And the last read we'll talk about is a backdoor cut. If the defender overplays and tries to be beat, you over the screen, you can go back door and should be able to get an easy layup if your vendor overplays it.

Now, ultimately, when it comes to making reads, a lot of it is just instinctual. So when you're trying to beat somebody one on one, understanding when to pull up, when to pass the ball, when to step back, when to make different sorts of moves, moves that really comes through playing and being able to reflect on what works for you and what didn't work for you in different situations. And this is why watching your own game film is so important. If you're able to see what you did well, what you didn't do well, what you can improve upon, you'll be able to see how you can maximize your efforts to get the best results in games. And really, the best way to be able to do this is breaking down your own film. If you guys want me to break down a film with you, send me a DM on Instagram @ Vision Driven Basketball or check my website@visiondrivenbball.com and we can hop on Zoom and we can break down a film. We can see exactly where you need to improve on and what you should do to get the best results.

Make sure you guys stay tuned for part two, where I'm going to explain to you exactly how to take all this stuff and translate it into your own game. Make sure you guys like and subscribe and make sure you guys also turn on the post notifications for my channel. So as soon as part two drops, you guys will know. I'll talk to you guys soon. Peace.