Playing Through the Post

As the game globally continues to morph towards 5 out offence, the skills and concepts around post play are still important areas for coaches to understand, teach and develop at all levels of the sport.

Despite the trend towards 5 out concepts, post play and playing through the post remains a key element of offensive basketball. The ability to feed the post effectively is an underrated skill, along with the fundamentals around footwork, body positioning, pivoting and finishing.

Body positioning, pivoting and impacting the relationship between the eyes and the feet are important aspects of post play and need to be taught, drilled and developed in the both the “platform” or block setting and in games of purpose.

Feeding the post is often described as a “forgotten art”, but as with most skills and concepts, players will be good at exactly what coaches teach and prioritise. Use of fakes, pivots and the dribble to create an angle are all basic foundations on being able to effectively get the ball inside.

More and more in the modern game, feeding the post is about the post player as a “second point guard”, with the player in the low block being a facilitator. Effective spacing, cutting and reading of defence are crucial parts of any offence and need to be taught and drilled in a variety of settings.

Using games of purpose to breakdown skill and concept is always valuable in the player development setting and this rings true when developing post play. Creating an advantage for the offence will build confidence, understanding and allow for learning through doing.

Thanks to the coaches from the Basketball Australia Centre of Excellence and NBA Global Academy for sharing these valuable player development drills.