Transition defense was never more important in the history of the game of basketball than it is today. The evolution of the game itself went from big and strong guys, and their only goal was to get close to the basket throughout the series of passes, to the faster, lighter guys whose goal is to run the floor as fast as they can and to get into the position for a flashy layups or an open threes. 

Our teams have to run more, our teams have to run fast, and our teams have to be thought that it all starts with defending the transition and getting into the organized positional defense.

As we know, in today's basketball, layups, and three-point shots are go-to solutions, so the goal of every good defense, and not just transition defense, is to prevent those attempts. What we really want to do is to make the offense take some mid-range jumpers and we want them to take those shots from the bad positions.

Here are 10 rules of transition defense that are going to help you get organized on protecting the breaks:

Two players that are closest to your own basketball need to run back. When they see that the ball is flying toward the rim, they need to sprint towards the center and to turn back and scan the floor in order to get organized. Some of the coaches love to send 3 players on the offensive glass, I think that you can do that with the teams that do not run the floor well. With the teams that like to push the pace, I think just the centers are enough to do the work.

It is very important to beat your players on the way to defense. The first three steps are the most important in starting a good transition defense. Being faster than the opponent means that you are going to position yourself between the ball and the offense and you will have a chance to defend. And here we have to emphasize the condition and good defensive habits that your players possess.

The main goal of a good transition defense is that all of your players get below the ball. This means that everybody needs to be held accountable in terms of running back on defense each and every time. No matter whether it is a good or a bad match, we must try every time to keep defensive composure and to contain the ball. If we want to play our transition defense this particular way, then our players have to be able to do these 3 things:

• run the floor under the 4 seconds period,
• they need to avoid risky steal attempts and
• not to try and poke the rebounder.

A good transition defense demands that the players are covered. There is no a universe in which your player is searching for his player and leaving the other to be alone running the lanes. The goal of a good transition defense is to cover all the defensive players and to get everybody on the half-court. Only then we can think about switching and making good match-ups.

This is the defensive position when we have just two players who are involved in transition defense. They need to position themselves in a line. The first player (PG) needs to contain the ball-handler/player leading the break. When the pass goes to one side, a player that is under the basket/in the center of the paint (SG) needs to run towards that player and to close the penetration lane. The player that was in front needed to come down and fill his spot inside the paint area.

The goals:

• Prevent a layup (after the first pass, the player that is coming from the paint and defending the penetration line needs to do a good closeout. That means that he needs to sprint halfway to the player that now has the ball, and then to get low in the stance and to try and make him take a jumper from the bad angle).
• Force a mid-range shot
• Force the offense to make more than 2 passes

When we have 3 defenders then they form a triangle zone. Again, the first player in front (PG) is containing the ball and two others are on the sides of the paint. When the ball goes to one side, the player from the same side needs to step on the penetration lane (SG), the player that is in front is just sliding down a bit toward the free throw line (PG), and the player on the weak side of the defense needs to step in the center of the paint (SF).

The Goals of this transition defense situation are the same as the previous one: Protect the layup, force a bad shot, or make them pass the ball more.

In real-game situations, if the team is running well, after the first pass there will be someone who is going to catch the offense and help prevent easy buckets.

A good transition defense is all about recognizing good opportunities and picking the right spots. If we take a look at our bigs, what we need from them is that the first one back needs to protect the rim and to secure the rebound...so he needs to get to the center of the paint, and the second one can help with the ball. In this diagram, we can see that the Center (C) is the second big to get to defense, but what we can see also is that his man got the rebound and in the majority of situations, they are tired to run fast on offense. This leaves time and space for our second big to try and double, or just slow down the ball handler.

Layups are the most efficient shots in this sport. Whit that said, the conclusion is that the first thing that your team needs to do in order to have a good transition defense, is to stop penetration and to force passes and shots.

This is the upgrade from the previous point. If we are able to take away the penetration, the next level in building up a good transition defense is to make the other team shoot low % shots. If we know that the corner three is the most emphasized shot from the range, we are going to try and to make the other team shoot from the 45-degree spot or from the point. If your organization has the possibility to watch some films and to have some info on the opponents, then you are going to try and take away those sweet spots from them.

Sometimes, a fast break can be used as an advantage, because a lot of teams are not coached well so they learn things mechanically and not in a "read and react" manner. Because everything is happening so fast, and if your team plays a good and meaningful defense in transition, there will be opportunities to turn the situation around.

More passes on fast brakes means more time for the defense to consolidate. If we take a look at the picture, we are going to see two passes in 3 on 2 situations made from PG to SG and then from SG to SF. While those two passes took place, PF had time to get back on defense and help.

In real-game situations, teams usually have 2 seconds to score, after that the defense is assembled and the traditional offensive sets can go to work.

Communication is everything in basketball, they use to say. The more information the player has the better can he execute both on offense and defense. Teach your players to talk even when there is no need to talk. Sometimes it can just be cheering, but on the other times it is the crucial peace of info that is going to make a difference.

1. 5 on 5 Advantage

 All 5 of them are going on offense (green path)

Defense (Red) , three of them, are standing in a line and above the free throw line. They are going to play transition defense (yellow path)

Two other defenders are going to catch up on defense after the first offensive player steps over the center (purple path)

2. From 1 on 1 to 5 on 5

The drill starts with two players, one on offense and one on defense. Every round 1 player is going to join the drill until it is 5 on 5 game.