What is spacing in basketball?
Spacing, and more specifically, good spacing, is a foundational aspect within the game of basketball and its general notion is that players on the court, especially during offensive execution, should always strive to be at least 12 to 15 feet away from each other.
What are the general areas of the court for good spacing?
In essence, an offensive team could apply good spacing on the floor by having one singular player occupy or fill any of the aforementioned areas.
Top
The top, sometimes referred to as the top of the key or point, is the general area located behind the three-point line in the middle of the offensive team’s frontcourt.
The top is typically utilized to initiate offensive strategies or set plays by a player in possession of the ball such as the point guard.
Wings
The wings comprise areas of the court that are adjacent to the nearest sideline, which is generally at or above the free throw line extended.
Players will usually fill the wing areas during initial sets to start the offense and/or to execute certain offensive actions such as passing the ball to open teammates or dribbling towards the basket.
Slots
The slots comprise areas of the basketball court generally located between the top that is in the middle and between the wing that is near the sideline.
It should also be noted that if a player is at the top, then another player would usually not occupy an adjacent slot. In that instance, the player at the top and the player in the slot would most likely be too close to each other, which could lead to bad spacing.
Instead, if a player occupies the top, then other players should fill non-slot areas.
However, it is not an issue for a player to fill one slot area while another one fills the opposite slot. That would still constitute good spacing in that case.
Certain types of offensive strategies such as the 4 out 1 in motion offense feature players filling the slot areas, particularly during the initial setup, to apply good spacing.
Corners
The corners feature court areas that are in the general vicinity of a sideline and its adjoining baseline.
Strategies such as 1-4 low offense or Horns offense necessitates that players fill corner areas during the initial setup phase.
High post
The high post is the general area that covers the free throw line from one edge to the other as well as the adjacent area that is between the free throw line and the top of the three-point line.
In addition, the edges of the free throw line are typically known as the elbow areas of the court.
Strategies such as the 1-4 high offense feature players who fill the high post elbow areas during the initial setup.
Low post
The low post areas are slightly above the basket and just outside of the lane lines, which are borders for the lane.
Strategies such as the 3 out 2 in motion offense utilizes two players who occupy the low post areas during the initial setup while the three other players remain near perimeter areas of the court.
What is bad spacing and its general detriments?
Bad spacing occurs when more than one player attempts to occupy or fill the same area of the court at the same exact time or two or more players are simply too close to each other when filling specific areas.
This is detrimental, particularly to an offensive team because it makes it easier for the defensive team to mitigate or completely stop offensive production, and more specifically, offensive scoring opportunities.
For example, if two offensive players are standing adjacent to each other while attempting to fill the same area of the court, then one defender could basically cover both of them with minimal effort.
In addition to that, if one of those offensive players happens to have possession of the ball, then they could become susceptible to a very quick and possibly aggressive double team by the two defenders that would be alongside each other.
Furthermore, if that same player with the ball attempts to pass it to the other teammate standing next to them, then this is essentially a futile action.
Moreover, if the player with the ball was to execute a dribble move as a method of driving to the basket or creating separation for a potential jump shot (such as with a step back basketball move), then this could become unnecessarily difficult.
Basically, when the bad spacing occurs, the player with the ball would have to not only beat their own defender (via dribble drive penetration or jump shot separation), they would also have to try to evade another teammate’s defender (that would be standing very close to them) or any other additional nearby defenders.
As another example, if one player fills the right side low post area, then another player should not fill the right side short corner (at least most of the time) because these two areas are generally less than 12 feet apart and the two players are therefore, too close to each other.
Similarly, if one player fills the top behind the three-point line, especially in between the slots, then one or two other players should not fill the slots. Once more, those players would be generally too close to each other.
So, in simple terms, the bad spacing renders offensive actions ineffective, at best or totally useless, at worst.
Why is spacing important to consider?
Spacing is an important concept to consider because when offensive players are able to understand and apply the fundamentals of good court spacing, this will help them to execute basketball skills such as passing, cutting, screening, dribbling, and shooting in a more effective and productive manner.
As a result of that, those same offensive players would more than likely be able to generate a variety of scoring opportunities near the basket or from the perimeter areas of the court.
Moreover, when players on offense emphasize and implement good floor spacing, this makes it more challenging for the defensive team to limit or prevent the aforementioned offensive skills.