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I am a big fan of shot blocking, as well. Want to know my theory on why SB is more noticeable/effective in a zone?

SB is mostly used to defend drives...the players who drive the most are guards. In a man to man defense, guards defend guards and bigs defend bigs. In a zone defense, bigs defend drives from guards.

Furthermore, someone running a look inside offense (highest driving offense) will have most likely around 7 IS on their guards and double digits on the driving. Depending on which is matched up against SB, you can clearly see why zones are more effective under current training agendas.

Man to Man:
PG w/ DR 13 IS 8 vs PG w/ SB 4

3-2 Zone:
PG w/ DR 13 IS 8 vs PF w/ SB 12

The PF will clearly block more shots than the PG. It may be impractical to train PG to this level of SB, but I am confident you would see similar results in a man to man if you did.

Breaking this up into two to make it easier to follow:

My continuation of this theory is that SB is not quite as important if you intend to run a man to man defense.

LI vs 3-2:

15% of total shots will be driving shots in LI, roughly, and will primarily be defended by PF and C. For the sake of a number, lets say 14% of all shots will be defended by the SB of PF/C combination. The shots are fairly evenly distributed between PG-C, but the PG/SG take a few more driving shots overall than the other positions.

LI vs M2M:

15% of total shots will be driving shots in LI, roughly, and will be defended by the counterpart to the player that took the driving shot.

Again for the sake of a number, lets say 5% of shots will defended by the same PF/C combination in this defense, and they will be 90% from the opposing PF/C instead of getting to cherry pick the guards weak IS (but their driving would be decidedly better).

So in a 3-2 zone, SB really only matters on PF/C and you can upgrade 2 positions to see results. Where as in a man to man, you would have to upgrade all 5 positions SB to see any benefit.

Now you know my secrets...don't use them against me.

Last edited by Alan Ellis at 11/16/2012 9:49:38 PM

My 2 cents:

I think that the GE tries to get a match before deciding what it's gonna be.

For example, JS gets divided with OD and the result produces the odds. Same goes with IS/ID etc. I think that SB firstly divides DR, before everything else. IRL games most shot blocks come from big guys when a small guy tries to drive and lay up.

Let's take a C with 10 SB, which is good. When this number divides a DR of let's say 16 the result is 1.6. Generally, I find that results between 1.1 - 1.4 are good odds for something to happen (a JS vs. OD or an IS vs. ID). 1.6 is a great number for the player that drives to be succesful.

In big division DR is generally better that SB. Way better to be precise, that's why players with good SB skills do not get that many blocks in a game.

Everything on this post is based on assumptions and there's not any proof.