Why Floor Spacing is so Important and How
it can Help You Become a Better Player

Positioning and spacing on the floor are keys success for teams and players.

Where you move on the floor plays a big role in helping make sure you are in good, or bad, position on the floor to score the basketball or help your teammates score.

Floor spacing is something coaches talk about all the time, and for good reason. Good teams really space the floor out to make things tough on the defense.

Here are some key reasons floor spacing is so important. If you learn and understand these issues, you'll be well ahead of most other players you play against.

To put it simply: if 2 offensive players are standing very close to each other, 1 defensive player can do a pretty good job of defending both players. The defender can in a sense play both offensive players and prevent them from getting open to receive the basketball.

By spreading the floor out, and having good spacing between offensive players, you not only make it tougher on the defense, but you give the offensive players more room to operate.

Proper spacing also makes it much easier to pass from one player to another.

Typically, coaches like to see players at least 6 or 8 feet apart, or even 8 to 10 feet apart on the floor (or more). When players are spaced properly, it stretched out the defense and opens up holes so that offensive players can make cuts, drive to the basket, or run pick-and-rolls or other 2-man plays.

This allows good distance to pass the ball, forces the defense to guard players one on one, and make help-side defense much more difficult for the opposing team.

Now, offensive players often will come very close to each other, but this will only be for a very short time. For example, when one player goes to screen for a teammate, they will be just a few feet from each other. But this happens quickly, and the players should immediately go back to being well-spaced on the floor.

If you find yourself standing just a foot or two from a teammate for any period of time, you're not properly spaced on the floor. Immediately move to an open slot on the floor (within the scope and movement of the offense you are in. That'll stretch the defense and make each of the offensive players more of a threat on the floor.

You might not think floor spacing is that big of a deal. But it is. If you pay attention to how you are positioned on the court, and in relation to your teammates, you'll be a better player. No one is every going to say "He is a good player because he makes sure he is properly spaced on the floor, and makes sure he is properly spaced away from his teammates." No, that will never happen.

But a coach will notice that you always seems to be in the right spot on the court. A coach will notice that you always seems to put pressure on the defense, and that you never seem to be running into your teammates. That they'll notice.

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