Offensive and Defensive Efficiency
This is a discussion that came up recently amongst some coaching friends of mine. The basic premise of the discussion was, can you be a great defensive team and score a lot of points, and can you be a high octane, high scoring team and be a great defensive team as well?
We are known for our pressure defense and deliberate offense. Not to say that we don't encourage the transition game, but with our personnel it benefits us as a team to have a more deliberate attack. Under different circumstances, could we be both a great defensive team and a great offensive team? In my opinion, yes.
When you look up defensive and offensive leaders in the newspaper, you see that they are measured by points per game on offense, and opponents points per game on defense. While these are certainly good measuring sticks of how a team plays, it doesn't portray their effectiveness. In addition to these stats we also track points per possession on offense (offensive efficiency), points allowed per possession on defense (defensive efficiency) and average scoring differential (margin of victory or defeat).
By using these statistical categories it gives a better indication of how well your team is really playing. While we are always amongst the leaders in our class and area in team defense, I would still think that we would be among the leaders in defensive efficiency, but it would be near impossible to track. Likewise a team that gives up a lot more points than we do might also be among the leaders in defensive efficiency because their style of play leads to more possessions and more points scored, but just as many points per possession.
Bottom line, if you look at it on a game by game basis or season average you will get skewed statistics. In order to get a true picture it has to be broken down by possession.
We are known for our pressure defense and deliberate offense. Not to say that we don't encourage the transition game, but with our personnel it benefits us as a team to have a more deliberate attack. Under different circumstances, could we be both a great defensive team and a great offensive team? In my opinion, yes.
When you look up defensive and offensive leaders in the newspaper, you see that they are measured by points per game on offense, and opponents points per game on defense. While these are certainly good measuring sticks of how a team plays, it doesn't portray their effectiveness. In addition to these stats we also track points per possession on offense (offensive efficiency), points allowed per possession on defense (defensive efficiency) and average scoring differential (margin of victory or defeat).
By using these statistical categories it gives a better indication of how well your team is really playing. While we are always amongst the leaders in our class and area in team defense, I would still think that we would be among the leaders in defensive efficiency, but it would be near impossible to track. Likewise a team that gives up a lot more points than we do might also be among the leaders in defensive efficiency because their style of play leads to more possessions and more points scored, but just as many points per possession.
Bottom line, if you look at it on a game by game basis or season average you will get skewed statistics. In order to get a true picture it has to be broken down by possession.
posted by Coach B at 9/25/2006 07:35:00 PM
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