In the Passing Lane (one pass away)

In an earlier post, I talked about the importance of playing defense with the feet rather than the hands. Great man to man defense starts with the player guarding the ball. Making the ball handler constantly "turn" creates the chance for the ball handler to turn the ball over to the defense. The next key is for the defender that is guarding the offensive player closest to the ball, and therefore the player that is most likely to receive the ball in a good position to hurt the defense, to deny the pass by placing the back of his arm in the passing lane while facing his man, while at the same time seeing both his man and the ball handler. This is a tough job (we call it defending the man "one pass away") because the defender has the responsibility to help his teammate that is guarding the ball if that teammate's man drives to the basket. We call managing these two responsibilities "walking and chewing gum". It is very important to the success of the defense.


Matt Miller (#14 white) does an excellent job in this clip of being in the proper position to steal the pass without sacrificing the proper defensive fundamentals. The best thing about this possession is that Miller would not have been out of position to defend his man even if he had not been able to steal the ball. The defender often completely takes himself out of the play and leaves his teammates in a vulnerable position when trying for a steal. Miller does no such thing because he exercises the proper fundamentals. He also converts a three point play after the steal.