There’s always jargon within a community. With this being said, I decided to dedicate this blog post to help Taiwanese basketball fans understand the languages of the basketball community. Hopefully people can appreciate the game behind the game.
Fans in Taiwan would vividly remember that New York Knicks game when “Linsanity” happened. Lin was blessed with an opportunity to rise and shine in NYC, and he ended up relishing the chance because he mastered the jargon, helping the Knicks to win games.
Throwback time: (you can see Lin using some jargon here that I will explain later).
Video by Codename Sigma on youtube ( link to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKSoyTmD-JY)
Since the dawn of “Linsanity” in the NBA back in 2012, the popularity of basketball in Taiwan has gone through the roof. Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, and Lebron James, have established basketball as a popular sport in Taiwan. But, Jeremy Lin’s sudden rise brought the popularity to a level where he legitimately popularized NBA action to all corners of Taiwan.
Taiwanese basketball fans may like basketball, play basketball, but does one* know the secrets to appreciate it? Many times during the game, plays are constantly being called. Each plays gets more and more complicated as you watch higher level athletes perform. That’s why Taiwanese basketball fans may not appreciate and keep track of what is going if one does not understand the jargon. I’ll introduce some of the plays/offense that coaches utilize a lot to create scoring opportunities, and to appreciate those jargon more.
In basketball, the most common plays are motion offense, pick’n’ roll offense, and triangle offensive plays that are used by coaches. Understanding them would bring a much better joy since now you know the jargon!
The motion offense is the flow of the ball and the player, which essentially is “ball movement” offense. Spacing is the key to utilizing this as players get rooms to operate. Usually, the 3 out 2 in tactic is most commonly used in college basketball and pro leagues for floor spacing. That’s why you see in college basketball and NBA, there are 3 players outside the 3pt range and 2 guys in the mid range/ paint area.
3 out 2 in: Basically 3 on the perimeter, 2 on the inside
2 out 3 in: The opposite.
For these clips, they are filmed by me using video recorder on my computer and also the game, NBA2k14.
For example (I used a pick’n’roll in cooperation with the offense):
The term ‘pick’ is a form of a ‘screen’ set by a teammate player that helps the ball handler get free of his defender for a few seconds. You might’ve heard of the jargon ‘screen’, it’s basically a pick set to get a few seconds of space from the primary defender. That few second is the difference between making a successful play or settling for a open shot.
or this one:
A youtube video of Jeremy Lin running the offense
Video by SpeedofLin on youtube (link to https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=wbKJtqo6RBU)
As you can see, there’s a good amount of spacing, and the flow of the ball makes sure all 5 players are involved in the offense. Even tho this is just practice, it is clear they are all getting involved. They’re practicing fast-breaks too, in which is a term known to push the ball up the court to score quickly before a effective defense is set.
Next up, the pick’n’roll. The pick’n’roll, is one of the most commonly used plays to involve teammates and create scoring opportunities for both players within the play. A normal pick’n’roll would revolve around 2 players, a play would be to constantly set screens for each other until the defense collapses and a scoring chance is found. The screen is the ‘pick’ as said above, the roll is the decision based on the player, to shoot or to pass.
or
Jeremy Lin pick’n’roll
Video by OneBasketball LLC on youtube (link to https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=wbKJtqo6RBU)
As you can see, Jeremy used a simple screen, stepped away from his defender, and ended up with a wide open shot for almost 3 seconds worth of time before the help defenders realizes he needs to help.
Video by Karol K on youtube (link to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNY3DEFSp90)
This is a tutorial instructed by Larry Bird and Kevin Mchale for readers to fully understand the usage of it. This would be 1 pick’n’roll, so you can imagine that there’s no need for that many pick’n’rolls in a play before the whole defense collapses and miscommunication creates scoring chances. This jargon works so well every time, NBA teams today sometimes run their entire offense off of it.
The last play is the triangle offense. The triangle offense is not easy to understand. It’s combined with pick’n’rolls, and motion offense too in order to put the ball in the position of the best scoring opportunity held by the best offensive player on the team. Usually the ball gets passed around like a triangle to the mid range area where these scorers usually take their jump shots.
It would be like this:
Triangle offense 1
or
Triangle offense 2
A video of triangle offense
You can see how effective the triangle offense is when given the ball to a natural scorer. It’s always used to keep the defense guessing. And, you can easily see a ‘triangle’ being formed by the players every time moving into their positions. It is one heck of a jargon that wins games!
By understanding these 3 key offenses, I hope Taiwanese basketball fans can appreciate the game more by fully understanding jargon of the basketball community. Now you know the jargon, and the specialized way of communication. Combined with other offense, an effective scoring tactic is created, and now you’re aware of it. Isn’t that more fun, to appreciate the game behind the game?
Citations
“Linsanity .” YouTube, YouTube, 23 Dec. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3A6wJBZ7hE&%3Bt=95s.
“Jeremy Lin running motion offense.” YouTube, YouTube, 14 Nov. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbKJtqo6RBU.
OneBasketballapp. “Jeremy Lin Pick’n’roll.” YouTube, YouTube, 16 Feb. 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_66WoLbSuc.
chalidibmalwaled. “Larry Bird teaches pick’n’roll.” YouTube, YouTube, 14 Apr. 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNY3DEFSp90.
viperav4. “Chicago Bulls triangle offense.” YouTube, YouTube, 22 Sept. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUiXwNtgV2k.