I’ve seen this work in HS, my uncle is a varsity women’s coach at a small HS in PA. He watched some tape of an upcoming opponent (heavily favored) in districts and decided to press them, even using players off his bench that didn’t usually get much PT. They were down at half but not by much. They kept it up and their opponent fell apart in the second half.

Whether its pressing or some other alternative means of attack, the stats are there to show that if you have the inferior team and choose to go toe to toe with your opponent you will lose almost all the time. I guess the real question is why, when faced with almost certain defeat, teams don’t make any changes and just play it out and lose? Is it because coaches don’t want to go outside the norm, or admit that they have less talent or can’t win going toe to toe? I think there is some pride involved.

I also see good coaches recognizing this. Roy Williams knows his Carolina teams will have as much or more talent than their opponent. So they play as fast as they can because that means more possessions. If they were less talented then you want fewer possessions, less chances for the opponent.

Whats interesting to me is that only teams that are willing to admit they are inferior switch it up. My uncle knew they couldn’t win just playing half court. The other team was too big, too skilled. He needed more possessions and in those he needed to score at a higher percentage than normal.

I also consider the Princeton offense in college or even the spread in college football as ways of evening out the talent disparity through scheme. Your 11 may be better than my 11 but we’re going to get our #1 or 2 on your weakest player, make them cover in space and tackle in space. The spread allows for smaller, lighter O Linemen to block bigger, faster DL… Princeton knew that athletically they were inferior to other schools especially once they got to the tournament.

I think Simmons really hits on key points to using it in the NBA.
1, They have to be reserves, guys who’s desire to make it in the NBA outweighs their current contract.
2. It would be situational, focus on disrupting the opponent’s second unit. You aren’t going to press and get Chris Paul to turn it over a lot.

I could see Crit, NY, McGuire, and McGee, maybe even Songalia executing this strategy at times. With the NBA shot clock at 24 seconds the benefits of the press isn’t just that you may get turnovers or easy baskets. You get the added benefit of taking time off the shot clock while they are the farthest from scoring. If a team can regularly force their opponent to start their offense with 16 or fewer seconds on the clock that will have a direct effect on the quality of shot they can get.

It doesn’t even have to be full court pressure to get this benefit. It can be 3/4 token pressure just to make them think and react more instead of easily dribbling up the floor.

Again the key is to press the reserves who don’t have the high skill level of Lebron or Mo Williams. Daniel Gibson isn’t exactly the best ball handler. He’s out there with Wally World, Ben Wallace, Sasha Pavlovic… thats who you target.