Essential Drills for Building a Championship Defense

with Dwane Casey,
Detroit Pistons (NBA) Head Coach;
former Toronto Raptors Head Coach;
2018 Michael H. Goldberg NBCA Coach of the Year Award
; Most career wins in Raptors franchise history;
Led Toronto to the 2016 Eastern Conference Finals; 2018 NBA All-Star Game Head Coach;
won an NBA Championship as an assistant coach for the Dallas Mavericks (2011);
was the captain of the 1978 Kentucky NCAA National Championship team

Dwane Casey has earned a reputation as one of the top defensive minds in the NBA through his 20+ years in the league. His work constructing the defense of the Dallas Mavericks helped lead them to an NBA championship in 2011.

In this clinic session, you'll learn the defensive system that turned the Toronto Raptors into one of the best defensive teams in the 2015-16 season. Casey walks you through critical details of his transition and half court defense. Additionally, you'll learn the fundamentals of his system through the practice drills that he uses to train his players.

Warm Up

Coach Casey's half court defense emphasizes "flooding the lane" to force opponents to contested outside shots. To excel in this system, your players need to master the defensive fundamentals of closeouts. You'll learn two defensive warm-up drills that the Raptors used to develop this critical skill. Putting defensive actions into warm ups reflects an emphasis on defense and sets the tone for a defensive-minded team.

Transition Defense Philosophy

Great defense begins with great transition defense. Coach Casey breaks down his transition defense from the moment your shot is in the air to the moment your team defense is fully set. Learn player roles, how to communicate, loading up to the basketball and where to influence the ball in transition. Using these concepts will shut down your opponents' fast break opportunities.

Practice Drills

Using on-court demonstrations, Coach Casey shares progressive drills that simulate game situations and help you install the critical aspects of his defensive system. The Closeout Drill has several progressions that teach your players the technique for closeouts, boxing out for rebounds, running great shooters off the 3-point line, and how to "X-Rotate" out to shooters on high ball screens.

Learn how to stop baseline drives while helping the helper with the Crack Down player in the Shell Drill. This technique will help your team eliminate scoring opportunities for the opposing team that are created when a defender steps over to help on dribble penetration. The Flash Drill teaches players how to defend the high post, load into the paint to stop cutters, and War Over against dribble hand offs to disrupt the play. The Flooding the Lane drill reinforces the mentality of sending off-ball defenders into the paint for help support. Finally, the "5-on-5 Defense" covers aspects of low post defense such as denying post feeds and how to defend cutters when the ball is in the post.

Coach Casey addresses additional defensive concepts through a special Q&A session. Learn the Blue technique for sending dribblers to the baseline on side ball screens and see three common actions opponents use against this defensive strategy. Further topics include moving on the flight of the ball, defending the corner shooter, and using Weak to guard middle ball screens.

This video shows you the strategies that one of the NBA's defensive gurus uses to stop the best players in the world.

Produced at the Fall 2015 Toronto Clinic

72 minutes. 2016.