The 2024-2025 NBA season started a trend that has carried over into this season: the full-court press. The Indiana Pacers went all the way to the NBA Finals last season using intermittent pressure to gain an advantage. When they got to the Finals, they ratcheted up the pressure even more often. This season, several more teams have begun to follow Indiana’s lead. So, just how effective is full-court pressure? Why are teams doing it? Will the trend continue? Let’s examine.
“Pressure,
Pushing down on me,
Pressing down on you,”–from “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie
With the right set of defenders, the full-court press can be very effective–just ask players who played for John Wooden. The late UCLA coach won ten national championships in 12 years using a 2-2-1 full-court zone press as a staple of his teams’ defensive strategy. In the college game, the full-court press can be very effective. In the NBA, it has largely been eschewed by coaches for decades, until just recently.
Last season, the Pacers used the press 10.9 percent of the time during the regular season. In the Finals, that number more than doubled to 23 percent. While Indiana’s defensive efficiency improved over the prior season, the team still ranked just 17th in the league in points allowed per game. So far this season, the team has utilized the press 11.8 percent of the time. The team, however, is 0-4 as of the typing of this article.
The loss of Myles Turner to the Milwaukee Bucks and injuries to Tyrese Haliburton and other key players have made two things true. 1) The Pacers think they need the press more to make up for the missing talent. 2) That missing talent is why the team has not been able to use the press very successfully. This illustrates the conundrum with the press. It can be effective with excellent defenders playing against less effective ball handlers. In college, poor ball-handling is more prevalent. In the pros–not so much. That raises a pertinent question…
The full-court press can be useful in many ways. First, when used by an excellent defense, it can create turnovers, especially when used against a team’s bench players. Second, even if it does not result in turnovers, an effective press often forces the opposing team to start its offense several seconds later in the shot clock. This can lead to hurried/forced shots and often take an opposing offense out of its rhythm. The press also makes both teams work harder and tire faster. For teams with deeper benches, this can be a big advantage, as well.
Many of the teams using the press the most this season are the teams with the worst records. The Pacers, Toronto Raptors, Brooklyn Nets, Phoenix Suns, Washington Wizards, and Sacramento Kings are six of the nine teams using the press the most. Those teams have a combined record of 4-24 so far this season. While it may appear that those teams have not been successful using the press, they may believe their lack of talent makes it necessary. In their view, if they don’t have the big stars to compete, maybe they can at least slow down the games and make the scores a little closer.
Will the full-court press be a fad that quickly fades, or is it here to stay? That will all depend on whether there is a team that is clearly making it work. If the Boston Celtics, Portland Blazers, and Cleveland Cavaliers (the other three teams using it the most this season) find success with the press, teams will try to copy it. If it is a big factor for even one team, some other team will inevitably believe they can make it work as well. It will become the NBA’s version of the NFL’s “Tush Push”–used until it can be consistently beaten.
Coach Wooden proved that the press can be a weapon at the college level. No one has really proven that it can be a major weapon yet in the pros. At the NBA level, ball-handling is far better up and down the rosters, making a bad press just a layup drill for opposing teams. That doesn’t mean that strategic use of pressure can’t play a factor. Using it against a team’s second unit or against a team that has injuries to its backcourt can still be advantageous. If you are giving up 129.5 points per game like the Wizards, though, the press won’t save you.
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