Thread by @BBallImmersion

Top 5 Takeaways from #thebasketballpodcast EP230 Minnesota Timberwolves assistant coach Max Lefevre shares insights on NBA core defensive concepts.
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1. Defense doesn’t matter if you don’t get the rebound. The best schemes are wasted if you can’t end the possession. Loved the “sandwich method”. Would be interesting to hear from coaches who have used it, especially against teams who tag up for offensive rebounding.

2. Choppy step closeouts. Every coach’s dream is to hear a 10-minute deep dive into closeouts. “Chop your steps and break down” is biomechanically inefficient and ineffective yet it’s still taught. We have to do better as coaches at adapting to the science.

3. Defense comes down to decision-making as much as offense. How much decision-making are your players getting defensively in practice? How can you adapt your practices this upcoming season to provide players more opportunities to make decisions on defense in practice?

4. Reading drives. Really enjoyed the insights into decisions based on threatening vs. non-threatening drives. It’s also a good perspective to offer our players from an offensive perspective: is their drive really a threat that’s going to force a defensive reaction?

5. Ball pressure ruins a lot of screens. There’s so many options for ball screen defense: drop, ice, switch, the YouTube rabbit trail is endless. But at the end of the day, simply putting pressure on the ball is usually enough to disrupt the screen action.