One thing we hear quite a lot about in clinics and in talking with other coaches is “spacing.”  For years I have heard coaches tell their players to “space the floor” or “15 – 18 feet apart.”  And it makes sense but I’m not sure I really understood why it was so important.  I was fortunate enough to be a part of the NJ Nets organization for four years.  The term “spacing” itself didn’t come up all that often but it took me going back to the college game to understand that everything we did revolved around this one simple concept.   What hit me was how much smaller the court seemed as a result of the difference in the 3-point lines.  I found out that spacing was about more than guys just not standing next to each other.  It was about putting the defense in situations where their rotations and their slides were as long as possible.

Today more than ever teams promote attacking the basket, getting shots in at the rim, and playing the “drive & kick” game.  And I totally understand why.  The hardest thing to do defensively might just be to defend the dribble, keeping your man in front of you.  There are whole offenses based upon this principle of spreading the floor and attacking off the dribble.  Vance Wahlberg mania has infected coaches everywhere, and for good reason.  It works.  Even though his thinking is outside the box and goes against conventional basketball principles, it’s a rather sound philosophy.

It really hit me how important spacing was when I watched our team at Rutgers run our offense on the college floor.  Everyone was 3-4 feet closer to the basket.  Now 3 feet doesn’t sound like a lot on paper.  But let’s think about your point guard having the ball at the top of the key trying to beat his man off the dribble.  Now let’s move each help defender on the floor 3’ closer to the ball.  I’ll bet your point guard feels awfully congested all of a sudden.  I had heard a lot about “spacing” prior to that, but that day I felt like I learned what it truly meant.  For years I had listened to Bill Cartwright tell in our various sets that we needed to get guys out of the paint, space them around the 3 point line, and keep the lane open.  He would always tell me “we’re guarding ourselves!”  Who would have thought he was actually right all along!  We were trying to promote drives to the basket but at the same time we had our own players (and their defenders) clogging the paint. 

No matter what offensive system you employ, spacing is vital to its success.  We can look at this principle in several pick and roll sets.  Lets say we are running a side pick & roll (SPR) with or 1 man and 5 man.  Conventional weakside spacing is to have a ‘triangle away’.  This means our 3 man in the weak corner, our 2 man in the slot (between FT line extended and top of the key), and our 4 man on the weakside block ducking in.  My pick and roll philosophy is that the ball handler must look to attack first, creating shots for everyone else.  So ideally, I’d like to get the ball handler in our pick and roll to the rim.  The screener in our SPR, is probably a better ‘roll’ guy than ‘pop’ guy.  So we will assume he rolls to the basket.  As this is happening the 4 man is ducking in to the middle of the paint on the weakside as well.  So now we have three offensive players converging to the rim as well as their three defenders!  That’s a lot of bodies in the paint.

This is why I like to run SPR with the better shooting big (usually 4) setting the screen.  Now when he sets the screen he ‘pops’ to the corner.  Instead of having our other big on the weakside block I want him in ‘the hole’ (basically on the baseline in the short corner, ready to duck in if his man rotates to ‘the pop’, but not otherwise).  This keeps the paint open and forces the defense into some tough decisions.

What may be even tougher to defend is a “spread SPR.”  In this situation we really stretch the defense because we space our weakside big man outside the 3 point line instead of keeping him on the block (or in ‘the hole’).  As 5 sets the screen, his defender (X5), will typical ‘show’ or ‘hedge’.  As this happens, 5 rolls to the basket, but since 4 is now spaced outside the 3-point line it puts the defense in a bad way trying to defend the roll.  Obviously it helps if you have 2, 3, and 4 men who are shooters when running this play.

Another situation that comes up frequently, especially at the end of the clock, is a 1-4 low top isolation.  You get the ball to your best ball handler (lets say our 1 man) and let him go to work and beat his man (X1) off the dribble.  I liked this set as well until I saw something I liked even better.  The play begins with 4 & 5 on either block and consequently their defenders as well.  If we get what we want offensively and we beat X1 off the dribble, then to get to the rim 1 now has to beat both X4 & X5 as well.  Due to the extremity of the passing angles, it’s hard for 1 to make a dump-off pass to either big if their defenders step up.  I like getting the same isolation out of a slightly different set.  Instead of the 1 man starting at the top of the key, he starts in the ‘alley’ (in line with the lane line on either side).  Instead of having our two bigs occupy both blocks, I’d rather have our 5 man opposite the ball in ‘the hole’ and our 4 man in the weak corner (opposite the ball).  Our 2 (or 3) man fills the ballside corner and our 3 (or 2) occupies the slot on the opposite side of the floor.  Now the 1 still has space to beat his man in either direction (right or left hand drive) and it hopefully stretches the defense to their limits.  Now if any off the ball defender helps on the drive we have created an open shot only one pass away.

Spacing has made me look at all of my favorite sets in a different light.  They are my favorite sets because I’ve seen high level teams run them efficiently many times against me.  But there may be certain things you could tinker with or change slightly to improve your spacing and put the defense at a real disadvantage.  The way you run things now might be difficult to guard, but there may be something we can alter with our spacing that makes it even more difficult to defend.  My offensive philosophy is simple: begin with what I’ve found to be most difficult to defend and build from that.