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3. Offense
Offense is a combination of individual skill and team skills. If a team has many very talented individuals, but no team skill or cohesion (also called team chemistry), the team will be less likely to accomplish the goal of shooting the highest percentage shot. This will also be the case if there is strong team chemistry, but the individual skills are not strong. Thus, in order to accomplish this goal, everyone must maximize their individual skills, while also maximizing their team chemistry. It is an important balance!
(1) Q: Why is offense important?
A: Offense is important because the purpose of the game of basketball is to get the ball into the hoop!
(2) Q: What are the different types of offenses?
A: The types of offenses are usually responsive to the types of defenses that are being employed (Player-to-Player and Zone) in the four areas (full-court, ¾-court, ½-court, and ¼-court). There are also many variations/styles of each type, as well as Transition Offense. However, many of the basic components of all of these offenses are similar.
(3) Q: What type of offense should our team use?
A: Since we believe everyone should know how to play ¼-court player to player defense, we believe that everyone should know how to play ¼-court player-to-player offense; other offense types can then be built on this knowledge. We will go over the components of this offense in the next sections, and offer examples of major variations of this type of offense.
