Why Don’t NBA Teams Use More Dribble Penetration to Get Open 3 Looks

During the regular high school and college basketball seasons from November thru the NCAA Final Four on the first Saturday and Monday  in April the only NBA games that I watch are if the San Antonio Spurs are playing.

Now that the NBA is all that is left to fix my basketball withdrawal symptoms I watch the NBA Playoffs even games not involving the Spurs.

I noticed something that i think basketball fans would be interested in  noting.

In the gams I watched I noticed many of the NBA teams do not use as much dribble penetration and kickouts to get the ball to the  help defensive man’s offensive assignment beyond the 3 point line. High School and college seem to use more dribble penetration and kickouts in the games I saw..

The NBA tends to get their open 3 looks running the shooters off screens to get free, or setting screens to the ball or ball to the screens and go inside and then outside for the open threes if there is a double down on the post.

However, I noticed the other night that the Spurs were using more dribble penetration to get open threes on kickouts.

It seems to me that because the three point line in the NBA is 23’9″ to the high schools 19’9″ and NCAA’s College 20’9″ from the center or middle of the basket that it would harder to be the help man on dribble penetration towards the hoop.

This is because the distance the help defender has to go to recover from stopping the dribble penetration to cover his man who he left to help out on the penetration is 3 feet further away from him then the College 3 point line and 4 feet farther  then the high school 3 point line.

So because the help defender has got a further distance to cover the man he left to help out  why don’t the NBA teams use more dribble penetration to get open 3 looks.

So the next time you happen to watch an NBA game keep track of how the offenses try to get their open 3 looks.

By either one of Five Ways

1. Screen to the shooter with the ball and he dribbles off the screen looking for the 3

2. Set a screen away from the ball and have the shooter dribble off the set screen and look for the open 3

3. Pass inside to the post man on the block and if he is doubled then he kicks it out to the offensive player who’s defender has left him to double down on the ;post player with the ball

4.Shooter with the ball goes one on one looking for the open 3

5. DRIBBLE PENETRATION with the dribbler making a kick out pass by hitting the offensive player whose defender left him to help stop the original dribble penetration

Beside each of the 5 things above put a 3 for an attempted 3 missed and circle the 3 if it is made

Then compare all 5 methods after the game is over and also see which method got the most misses or made 3’s.

This might make the games more interesting.