"David vs Goliath" or The Delima With, and Trapping of, Lebron and Wade

So today was the last friday before Ramadan, which means basketball will come to a halt for most of us (at least competitive basketball) for a month. Depending on the circumstance, this might have also been the very last day when we could ALL play basketball together (most of you could still play without me...but that wouldnt be very fun...or at least nice). Luckily for us we did get to play on Wednessday, and it was a great turnout. The games were fun and competitive, but it also introduced tons of topics for me to wrap my mind around for the last couple days.

The Games:

For those who werent there, or just have short memory spans, the teams were essentially:

Team Mohsin (Mo, his brother, Usmaan, Farooq, and Asif) vs Team Naveel (Which had Naveel, Shazil, and except for a small moment atiq in all games and some comboniation of Myself, Nauman, and My Brother.
The first game featured just my family vs Team Mohsin (nauman hadnt arrived yet). We played 2 games and lost both.

In all honesty when we were choosing teams i pretty much assumed that we would lose, which probably isnt a great mentality for any player. On paper, Team Mo certainly looked like the better team. They had Mo who (as you can see in the scouting page) i consider the best player within our group, Usmaan who has great size and a natural feel for the game, and Asif who shows that you dont have to be hte tallest most athletic dude on the court to be one of the most dominant. The end result of those two games indeed ended up being losses, but it certainly wasnt the type of loss i expected. Mainly because i felt that in both games, my team SHOULD have won.

there were quite a lot of surprises in the game, the first being the fact that we often led in the games till the very end, a second being the great defensive contributions of my brother (which surprised me) and finally the fact that our team was winning not because of the nitty gritty stuff that I feel my family has a reputation for, but because we were just far better at scoring than team Mo...yea...wrap your heads around THAT for a moment.

I'll take this time to praise my brother who i felt was the mvp of the first two games for sure. My brother, at least to me, has always been a good scorer, the best in our family I'd say (and most would admit) but what really surprised me was his all around game. He handled the point guard role quite well and surprisingly in a mature way (for the most part) making good decisions, smart passes, and not just trying to play hero. What was even greater was his play on the defensive end, he covered quite a lot for our team in the post, blocking and contesting shots, and had great timing on well timed steals (as well as good hands) preventing Mo from getting on the break whenever he wanted. It wasnt a perfect game by him by any means (especially after the first game when he let personal feelings start guiding him into playing a little bit more narrow minded-ly) but for a game and a half my brother played at what i would consider an ideal level for him and the best ive seen him perform in quite a while, not just in play but in his antics on the court.

Despite his play (and naveels play who was probably the most consistent scorer in those two games on either team) we ended up losing the games. I felt the main culprit was that we conceded to the lead. In both games we started off strong, everyone sort of feeling like they had their backs to the wall. We played with urgency and desire. However in both games, once we got close to the finish line with lead in hand, players started to slack a little bit. We gave up layups here and there, rebounds (especially rebounds) here and there, and stopped running up and down the court. As the games got tighter, we started to go further away from what got us our leads (mostly unselfish play and efficient looks on offense) and began to take ill advised shots and play hero ball (which i was also a part of).

I think those kind of losses happen quite a bit especially to my family, and it disheartens me. I think i would rather be blown out than face those kind of losses because being blown out means that perhaps (though this shouldnt really be an excuse) the talent level was indeed one sided. However, because we had a nice lead in both games, it just suggests that the teams were perhaps more talented on our side, but we got lazy and lost. Of course things changed when nauman stepped into the game.

There's an interesting concept to be had here, and its the impact of Nauman being on the court. In the 3 games nauman played, i think he probably made 5 shots...total...mostly being layups. From 3pt land, nauman had a chris bosh like performance hitting only 1 of 18 (okay i wasnt really keeping track of how many he threw up, just know that one went in). Hell shazil even had a better performance. And yet, it was with nauman we were unbeatable. The main reason is the threat of naumans reputation. He has proved, more often than not, of being a dangerous player, capable of having no limit to his range, clutch circus shot shooting ability, and an uncanny vision and passing ability. Most of which he wasnt on Wednesday. I will give nauman tons of credit for his ability as a point guard, hes willing to take chances with passes that i wouldnt and has great accuracy with them as well.

I think an even bigger plus for our team was that Shazil actually began to try when nauman stepped onto the court. While me and my brother really didnt talk about it after the games, after the first game it did seem to both of us like Shazil wasnt trying or wanting to play. Its hard to say without knowing the other side of it, but whatever kept shazil from playing hard in the first game (especially) seemed to completely disappear when nauman stepped to the court. In fact, in one game (and i was away getting water during this game) he (as the story goes) scored the first 9 of an 11-3 run against Mo's team.

The Lebron James/Dwayne Wade Dilemma:

Another big reason why Mo's Team lost and suffered in general might've been what I witnessed happen to the Miami Heat, which is the contraversy of having two very dominant scorers with ball handling (and ball dominating) skills but are not natural playmakers (scorers instead). That is what Mo and Asif seemed to deal with for most of the game, and it hurt the team. For Mo's team there wasnt really a single true playmaker. Both Mo and Asif could create and handle the ball, but both also were far more comfortable and simply better at scoring. However both also shared a similar style of scoring the ball, which was to penetrate and get shots close to the rim.

Much like lebron and Wade (at the start of the season) it seemed Mo and asif were forced to take turns with the ball, instead of playing off each other. This actually made it far more easier to guard them, If it was mo with the ball, i played on ball with atiq backing me up and forcing mohsin to pick up his driblbe and shazil would then contest the shot, if it was asif with the ball then naveel (who did a hellava job countering asif with a defensive that resembles asifs offense, which is staying low, being patient, and being physical) would pressure asif all the way into the paint where my brother would provide help defense. since we often just had to worry about one of the two on any given possession it made things a lot easier for us, and a lot harder for them. This also leads me to my next topic...

Trapping:

For quite a while now I have seen people call for traps in our games. I gotta say, its not something I've been liking. Ideally a trap is supposed to force the ballhandler to be funnelled to a specific area on the court while also forcing him to pick up his dribble and force a tough pass or shot. This is a nice weapon on the defensive end, but it comes with some great risks. The first risk is that a trap, especially on perimeter players, opens up a lot of space for the other offensive players. The second risk comes from the trap being broken, which without a good defensive center, means an easy layup for the offensive player, and finally theres the 'penicillin' affect.

The first flaw comes from now having the right kind of players on a team. If your team really doesnt have many defensive specialist or guys with high defensive i.q.s its gonna create a lot of openings and lanes for the opposition. The second problem is similar to the first, in which it involves the defensive personnel. I know naveel has been a bit fond of the trap ever since it was utilized when he was teamed up with nauman and usmaan. The thing is the trap worked precicely because of that roster makeup, nauman has a high defensive i.q. as does Usmaan, but more so Usmaan is a very good defensive center. he has good anticipation and uses his size wisely in filling lanes and taking away vision for the offensive player. In other words the trap worked because he had the right players covering his back allowing him to play physical enough on the perimeter.

Finally there is what i like to think of as the Penicillin affect. Like Penicillin, the trap is a very powerful defense. The problem is that the more you use it, the less effective it eventually becomes. This is akin to taking Penicillin frequently, after x ammount of uses, the bodys becomes immune to the drugs affects and the drug loses its power to the point where it wouldnt be able to stop a common cold. Thats exactly the same with a trap.

The more you use a trap on a specific player, the more that player learns to anticipate and perform within a trap. This essentially means that eventually Mo will be so used to traps that when a trap fails or only one defender is sent at him, he will feel the same ammount of pressure as if NO ONE was guarding him, which makes a far more powerful and dangerous player.

It is because of these 3 reasons why i dislike the Trap in the way we use it. This isnt to say I am dead set against it, its more to say that it should be used wisely. Using it only in tough times is one of getting hte most of the trap, another way is to offer sneakier variations with both players and timings of the trap, which would not allow the offensive player to adapt.

Essentially I think the best way to guard Mo (and to an extent asif) is to have different waves of defense. A primary defender on the perimeter as wave 1, a secondary helper and trapper jumping in when they try to get inside the paint as Wave 2, and finally a shot blocker to contest and hopefully block the eventual bad shot attempt as Wave 3, ending the sequence on a team boxout and rebound.

Well thats it for now, anything i want to or need to add to this post ill do so in the comments section, hope to see some of you there as well.

Chek out the scouting page for the updates, It will be up by tomorrow