Re: Zone Defenses

[Bob Miller <bob@pointofchoice.com>]

>>I've been wondering what would happen if you allowed zone defenses.
>>Sounds like it would give even more advantage to the defense, but it
>>might stop  teams from walking up the court and playing isolations.  They
>>might actually  be encouraged to, you know, run fast breaks.  Of course I
>>might just be  blinded by the fact that it would make Pitino's job a lot
>>easier!  Anyone  know when zones were first outlawed in the pro's?
>>

I believe zone defenses have always been illegal in the pros. Part of the
reasoning was that zone defenses prevent the display of individual creative
offensive moves (especially one-on-one drives) that you can't do against
the zone. Also, the "rules" for zone defenses changed sometime back (led by
a committee headed by Don Nelson... I don't remember when exactly this
was... in the 80s?). These new rules defined "illegal" defense (such as
defender off the ball can't be in the paint, no double-teaming guy without
the ball, etc.). The reason given was that defenders off the ball were
clogging the lane in anticipation of helping out. The problem, as I see it,
with these rules is that they allowed "trapping," which, as anyone knows,
is simply a type of zone defense (double-team ball, others "rotate"-- they
are no longer defending one-on-one an assigned player... or even Pitino's
full-court press, a classic 1-2-1-1 zone defense). IMO, this has really
bogged down scoring in the league and led to godawful offensive schemes
(Barkley pounds, everyone stands, Barkley double-teamed, passes out for the
three, yawn).