What are your thoughts on Zone Defenses. Why do teams play a zone?

Question

What are your thoughts on Zone Defenses. Why do teams play a zone?

Answer 1

Zone defenses are used to help players who have a weakness in coverage and to confuse QBs, they generally use the zone to keep from giving up long bombs that u get when someone gets beat in man2man.

Answer 2

It's excellent for stopping guys like Kobe Bryant, LeBron James or Paul Pierce who frequently drive to the hoop. With all five players guarding an area rather than a specific person it covers more ground and the defensive team can recover quicker.

Answer 3

Zone defense is used mainly to stop offensive players on getting near the rim. That means limited time on the paint for slashers and dominant Big men.

When the NBA re-adapted the said defense rumor mills flooded that it was designed to limit Shaq's dominance back in his prime years of early 2000's.

Hope this helps.

Answer 4

I fell that it's a very good way to defend a team who specializes on the perimeter, or more often, in the paint. Teams play it to get the opposing team out of their comfort zone on the floor, and to ruin their offensive flow when they get really hot. It's like a punch in the gut to the offensive team.

Answer 5

3-2 is supposed to stop outside shooting

2-3 is supposed to stop inside/post play

Answer 6

zone's for lazy bums who can't play d.

Answer 7

Look at the finals. Zone defenses, when done right, help stop players from getting to the basket.  

Answer 8

^^ Completely agree with the poster above me. Zone is for sissies who lack sound defensive fundamentals. NBA teams today have plenty of those in their roster. Trapping, clogging the lane, double/triple teams etc. all of this could be done using man to man. Unlike man to man however, zone defense is especially weak against a good passing team because defensive rotations and switches are usually slower and more confusing in a zone (Should i leave my area of responsibility or not?). Unfortunately, good passing teams are rare today which is why zone seems like a difficult defensive strategy to crack.

Answer 9

They play zone to make other teams shoot the ball more. If they got a player like D-Wade and KB then they play zone to make them shooters instead of slashers.  

Answer 10

To stop all star players like a Lebron, Kobe, Wade or other good slasher players from scoring near the baskets. Its basically a defense that will protect the basket from easy baskets and I believe it works when you dont have good outside shooters. If a team does have outside shooters then you will probably have to play diferent types of zone defense or play man to man.

Answer 11

because they don't want somebody coming in and shooting at point blank. its bad in basketball when opponent scores on you like that. people will think your team is nuts to allow that.

Answer 12

I like the 2-3 zone defense and 3-2 zone defense, zone's are better to play to stop being from scoring and getting the rebound and you can run the fast break from it get the outlet pass out and start runing and u got 2 points from the easy layup. I had a coach in high school who loved to play man to man its great if everyone is quick enough but when we played zone it worked better than man to man and don't get me wrong man to man works but someone won't slack on zone defenses becuase the players trust each other.