Why has the zone defense been so effective? The answer is that, unfortunately, most players today believe that the open outside shot, either a long two-pointer or a three-pointer, is a shot that should be taken whenever it is available. Time and time again, teams respond to zone defenses by jacking-up long range shots. Although some of these shots may fall, and sometimes many all in a row, over the course of an entire game fewer of those type shots will fall than any other shot on the floor. If the team playing zone focuses on high-percentage shots on the offensive end, then the team firing from the outside will lose the game nine times out of ten.
Players fall into the long-range trap for two reasons: 1) Having seen highlight after highlight of three-pointers on ESPN and fired-up many threes during shoot-around, they believe themselves to be effective three-point shooters; 2) At some point, some coach or other player mentioned that the way to defeat a zone was to hit outside shots, thereby forcing the zone to extend outward and opening gaps which can be penetrated.
There is some truth in both of these beliefs. Most players can hit long-range shots with some regularity in practice, and such shots do force a zone to extend. However, neither belief takes into account the overall outlook of the game. The game is about efficiency with the ball, and any team shooting long-range shots is simply not going to be very efficient. In fact, zones are designed to give these shots to the offense. Players often do not realize that they are open for such shots precisely because the defense has decided that it can afford to surrender such shots in exchange for taking away higher-percentage shots. If you find yourself shooting many long-range jumpers against a zone, you may as well walk over to the opposing bench and ask the other team's coach how he would like you to play in order to give his team the best chance of winning.
How should a zone be attacked? First, we will assume that we are discussing a pure zone. Match-up zones and combination man-zone defenses are entirely different animals. The following are the keys to attacking zone defenses:
