Chapter 8: The Heart of a Champion

A basketball team's building strategy can roughly be divided into three levels.

The first level is the strategic layer—whether your team focuses on the inside game or outside game, offense or defense, fast-paced or slow-paced, fast breaks or set plays.

These are all determined based on player configuration, the coach's style, and the overall temperament of the city the team is from.

Once these are set, they are rarely changed.

If they change, it indicates the team is starting to rebuild.

The second level is tactical routines—what routines the five players run on the court, how they move, how they coordinate with each other, and how the ball is distributed.

On defense, the team decides on strategies such as double-teaming or man-to-man, and whether to switch players on defense, etc.

These require direction from the coach, extensive off-court training for the players, and lots of in-game teamwork.