Winning Defense

I really disagree with the two negative reviews given by A Customer, particularly his stance on Coach Harris not winning a championship with the Lakers. Remember, a coach is only as good as the players he has to work with. NBA teams are fashioned by the GM's, not the coaches. If you have great offensive players who can't, or won't, play defense, you have your work cut out for you as a coach. Having said that, the information in this book is in depth, advanced, and yes, perhaps a bit much for the average fan or basketball coach. But for those who really want to understand the complexities of a solid NBA defensive system and the different ways to play man-to-man defense, this is a great book. It will certainly challenge your basketball IQ and make you think about defense in different ways! Kevin Sivils - author of Game Strategy and Tactics for Basketball Game Strategies and Tactics for Basketball: Bench Coaching for Success

It is a book for advanced levels, but every coach can take something out of it. What was the person who slammed Del Harris and wrote about Phil Jackson talking about? Del Harris doesn't know defense because he didn't have Kobe Bryant? Just because the guy couldn't understand the book doesn't mean that it isn't good. I agree that implementing some of the things here would be tough, doing all would be impossible, but reading it and understanding it will give any coach or player a better understanding and more ideas about defense for their own team.

Outstanding advanced book for experienced teams, although some principles can be applied to less experienced teams. Much of the book deals with higher skilled strategies and philosophies, but gives a great foundation to playing solid defense.In this day of offense being the number one priority of most teams with many variations, it is nice to find a book that details sound defense philosophies in a straight forward manner.