AggieEP said:
Have you seen anything written yet explaining why teams are pressing and trapping more often this year?
Conceptually I'm in favor of it because it's stupid to concede to the other team that they can bring the ball up leisurely and get into their offense without being harassed by the defense. However, it's an 82 game season and a LONG playoff grind so I kind of get the perspective that you save energy where you can and that means less aggressive defense like presses and traps.
Hollinger talked about it some:
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6753950/2025/10/28/nba-first-week-defense-rookies-trends/
All over the league, teams are picking up full-court after a make, and jamming ballhandlers in the backcourt even after a miss.
Before I go deeper, though, let's pause for an anecdote to underscore my point. After Toronto pressured and harassed Atlanta full-court in the Raptors' unexpectedly easy 138-118 rout of the Hawks on opening night, I expressed mild surprised to a Toronto player that the Raps were committed to playing 94 feet even against Trae Young.
"Especially against Trae Young," he corrected me. The point: All that ball pressure is actually even more valuable against the league's most dangerous ballhandlers, because it allows defenses to wear them out during the course of a 48-minute game.
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That said, the statistical evidence backs what I've seen with my eyes. The league-wide turnover rate is up from 12.6 percent in 2024-025 to 13.8 percent through Sunday's games this season, and more notably, the league-wide steal rate has shot up from 8.1 per 100 possessions to 8.9.
Backcourt steals are perhaps the biggest factor. Even the league's All-Star guards haven't been immune.
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There's a good reason we're seeing this, and it gets back to the decision the league made in the middle of the 2023-24 season to allow more physicality on the perimeter. It didn't immediately click with coaching staffs that they could dial up the ball pressure, and do so without risking the myriad fouls that used to make such a tactic foolish for all but the McConnells of the league. However, the crucible of the playoffs saw more teams lean into this tactic (undoubtedly helped along by watching McConnell torment opponents all springs in the playoffs.)
With officials allowing much more incidental contact (and even some not-so-incidental contact) on the perimeter and in the backcourt, the risk/reward equation has completely shifted. The downside of a needless foul 50 feet from the hoop and free points for the opponent has diminished, while the possibility of harassing a harried (and, um, hand-checked) opponent into a bad miscue has increased.
The pressure is a three-pronged weapon too. First, it can create turnovers in the backcourt that often lead to layups the other way. Second, even without a steal, it forces teams to operate later in the shot clock in their half-court offense and thus reduce their efficiency. Finally, it's a great tactic to use against heliocentric teams to exhaust their lead ballhandlers as the Raptors did with Young above.
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Of course, no strategy lasts for long in this league without coaches quickly thinking up countermeasures to negate them. The antidote to all this ball pressure? It may just be throwing speed at the problem.
