Help the helper

Help and recovery is only a temporary way of help. Good defense on a ball handler plus the help and recovery, are methods to keep the ball within the perimeter. With an actual penetration dribble, so in the direction of the basket , there is an acute danger to the defense and immediate help should be provided.

This direct help is usually done by the defender of the weak side low post or by the defender of the weak side forward. In the picture we see an example of a penetration dribble from the guard 1. Help from defender 3 is now impossible. The immediate help must now come from the defender of the weak side low post (5). This must stop the ball handler and prevent him from shooting.

A rule of thumb is: help in such a way that the ball handler is stopped outside the bucket. Through this help of 5 on the actual penetration his own man is completely open. The defender of 4 must now rotate to attacker 5 to intercept a possible 4 pass to 5. This maneuver of defender 4 is called helping the helper. The other defenders move in the direction of the basket.

Another situation of helping the helper is shown in the picture on the right. Attacker 3 makes a baseline drive, the help side defender of 4 helps immediately. He has to run through the bucket as fast as possible and stop attacker 3 as early as possible, preferably outside the bucket (crossing the lane).

Now the help side guard of the guard (2) simultaneously rotates in the direction of the basket to prevent a logical pass (obvious pass) to 4. If the penetration dribble is blocked, there is usually a recovery to the own man instead.

The intention of helping the helper (and of rotation) is:

Preventing the helper’s abandoned offensive player, who is in an easy scoring position, receives the ball. The open man is, in other words, eliminated. The rebound position on the weak side – where most rebounds end up – must be insured. Nevertheless, this rebound position is vulnerable because usually a small defender is faced with a big attacker.

The other defenders fall back into the bucket. We see this principle with every penetration (collapsing). The helping the helper takes place with a deep penetration (dribble). The movement of the defenders is always in the direction of their own baseline to find the open man, who is in an easy scoring position.