Just curious.Why the hate on the pack ? Tony can take 5 boneyarders and hold you under 60.
Short answer? It's boring.
Long answer? I teach a lot of elements of the pack, actually. My players are coached to play a step off and up the line as a base defense like you'll see in the packline. And I am willing to let them take risks gambling for steals. (We'll adjust to a denial or a lock left/right defense on star players). I also am pretty strict about maintaining really intense ball pressure like Bennet does. The main difference is that I just CANNOT get on board with a defense that forces guards to the middle of the floor--that's exactly where they want to be making plays. Teams get toasted if you let a guard get to the middle of the floor below the FT line.
So I don't run a "textbook" pack, but maybe 5050 traditional man-to-man and 50% pack. The last 2 years I've started teaching my teams to ice everything. In the past I like taking away a players dominant hand every chance we got, but I think it was too much for the kids to remember. Now we only do that for the other teams' star player.
My opinion on pack would likely be different if CT had a shot clock. It doesn't make much sense to run a defense that isn't focused on generating turnovers if you have no shot clock. When you want to beat better teams you need to generate turnovers and get high % looks.
I am convinced that in the next 5 years packline D will become less and less effective. Kids are growing up emulating shooters like Steph, Trae, and Dame in the park. And good shooters is, of course, the kryptonite of the pack.
But yeah. It's mostly because it's boring haha.
