05 - Proper Team Scouting

What's up berasap, y'all? If you haven't figured it out yet, you're reading part 5 of the 10 Things You Need To Know Before Playing In NCBL 2K11. In this instalment, we're going to discuss team scouting. No, it has nothing to do with camping or being a scout. Please stop reading this if you actually thought I was talking about pengakaps. Anyways.. First, we'll look at things to look out for when assessing the other team's defense (half-court and full-court) and offense (systems and setplays). Then, we will look at player roles/types that you should watch out for when scouting a team. This is one of the longest and boring-est of all the parts, so get some eye-drops ready. Here goes.

Saranan dari afiqPG: Scouting is not physically tiring, but it is mentally tiring and time-consuming. Why? Because, from my experience, if team aku main pukul 1 manakala team yang aku perlu scout tu main pukul 8 dah memang confirm aku terpaksa duduk, mulut ternganga, mata terbeliak untuk 2-3 jam. Tapi berbaloi, beb. Jauh mana sekalipun jurang antara dua pasukan boleh dirapatkan jika pasukan A tahu akan kekuatan serta kelemahan pasukan B.  

Generally, when assessing a team's style of play, the first thing you should try to determine is their favored style of defenses in two situations; half-court and full-court. When assessing the other team's half-court defense, look at noticeable holes in the defense. This can be done by roughly calculating where most of the points are scored against the team that you are scouting. For example, if the other team is playing zone defense and the other team keeps on scoring in one certain spot/play more than the others, there must be a weakness there! Meanwhile, when looking at the full-court defense, try to draw up the other team's play on a piece of paper. Be aware of who they are pressing in the defense (either the ballhandler, or they let the ball-handler free but press the inbounder, or they press and funnel the ball-handler to a certain spot, etc) and when they do it (some teams call it after every time-out, some after every time they score, or some are called at random on the spot by a player on the court). This generally covers the defensive stylings of the team.

When assessing a team's offense, you should be aware of two situations; offensive systems, and set-plays. To understand the other team's offensive system (or if they don't have a system, the style of play that they are most accustomed to), the first thing to watch is how the post-players move without the ball. For instance, if there are two players playing inside, see if the two players only move diagonally (PF moves from left high-post to right high-post and C moves from left low-post to right low-post), vertically (PF moves from left high-post to left low-post and C moves from right low-post to right low-post), or in rotation (PF and C moves according to weakside/strongside). Next, watch how the perimeter players move. Are there a lot of backdoor cutting from 45 to the opposite baseline? Does the PG like to 'push' his players to one side to make it 'heavy'? Do they make use of screens? Once you've seen this, determine if any of those things pose an alarming threat to your own team and prepare for it.

Set-plays are different than offensive systems. If you don't know the difference, then I'm sorry. I can't discuss it here because this piece is already longer than my hair. Anyways, on set-plays, the first thing you should watch for is how it is initiated, usually after an inbound or a call by a player (ie: the PG holds his closed fist up in the air). Either way, look at the initial positions of the players, then the position of screens and player movement. If you can see the other team do this 2-3 times and reproduce it on a piece of paper, then you can figure out a way to stop it or at least prepare for it.

When assessing every team, there are usually a few individual players that you should look out for. These players often fall under certain labels and I'm going to put them here:

• The athletic ones - watch out for the ones that look young, fit and athletic because these are usually the ones that go for fastbreaks or crash the board unexpectedly in games. Prepare for them by making your players aware that athletic people are usually slowed down by physical play. Point in case - Dwight Howard in the NBA. Hehe..
• The finishers - These are the ones who are usually given "lesen caru" by the team/coach. Usually, these guys don't pass anymore once the ball gets into their hand because they are the designated finishers in the team. So, just be aware of that. Cough*tamak*cough. Prepare for these people by denying the ball to them. Make the other players score.
• The kaki pukuls - Don't know if I should write about these people. Hurm, nevermind.
• The shooters - Refers to those who always shoot when they get open at the perimeter, and makes a high percentage of those shots. Get someone to shadow him or something. That ought to cool him down.

Of course, what I discuss here is just the tip of the iceberg, but it's a good start. If you guys want to make additions, amendments, comments, etc, please do so down here, aite. I've already written too much as it is. I'm signing off. Peace!

P/s: Lagu iklan untuk korang hilangkan bosan. Layan.