Why not contest the inbounds pass?

[Stargazer]

I'm not sure this is thread-worthy, but it's a strategy that I've always thought seemed like an obvious winner, and tonight the Spurs finally tried it. To stop the Suns from running on a made basket, and to give you time to get back on defense, why don't teams routinely guard the inbounds pass? You don't need a steal, just to force the Suns to take an extra second to get the ball in play. Yet almost nobody ever does this? Is there a down side to this that I'm missing?

 

[arwillan]

I'm not sure this is thread-worthy, but it's a strategy that I've always thought seemed like an obvious winner, and tonight the Spurs finally tried it. To stop the Suns from running on a made basket, and to give you time to get back on defense, why don't teams routinely guard the inbounds pass? You don't need a steal, just to force the Suns to take an extra second to get the ball in play. Yet almost nobody ever does this? Is there a down side to this that I'm missing?

yes there is. if you guard the center (who usually inbounds) and the ball is inbounded to a guard, the guard gets a free run up the floor unless the center picks him up. if he does, the center will be guarded by a guard, and there's your mismatch. this is assuming you mean stand along the baseline in front of the person throwing the ball in.

 

[YouJustGotSUNSD]

Yeah, it can backfire just as easily as it can slow them down.

 

[Stargazer]

Yeah, it can backfire just as easily as it can slow them down.

You guys must be right, since nobody really does it - but what I am thinking about is not guarding the inbounder, but rather instructing whoever will be guarding Nash (like Bowen, for example) to pick Nash up before the inbounds, rather than at half court. Again, the point is simply to force Nash to make a move or two, which burns a second and lets everybody else get set.

 

[Errntknght]

The Spurs pick Nash up in the back court fairly frequently and now and then it does slow him up a bit. The Mavs did it with... his name eludes me at the moment... an older, defensive minded guard who's no longer playing. I think the idea is to tire him more than anything.

 

[mojorizen7]

I'm not sure this is thread-worthy, but it's a strategy that I've always thought seemed like an obvious winner, and tonight the Spurs finally tried it. To stop the Suns from running on a made basket, and to give you time to get back on defense, why don't teams routinely guard the inbounds pass? You don't need a steal, just to force the Suns to take an extra second to get the ball in play. Yet almost nobody ever does this? Is there a down side to this that I'm missing?

I think the best strategy to use in slowing down the SUNS is to get them into a 7-game series.