How teams are breaking the Pacers’ 2-3 zone

Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty ImagesLast February, about a month before the NBA shutdown due to a global pandemic, another unexpected, albeit far from life-altering, happening occurred. Breaking from tradition while mired in a six-game losing streak, the Pacers dropped into a 3-2 zone against the Brooklyn Nets, marking a significant departure from the team’s long-held conservative defensive principles. Back then, with the weak-side help missing in action and the point of attack defense struggling to contain, the altered form of coverage was basically being used as an occasional curveball to protect against various vulnerabilities. Now, with Nate Bjorkgren changing defenses and changing defenses frequently in an effort to throw opponents off balance, the aim of switching between man and zone and sometimes mixing man with zone is for the whirling approach to be an attack mechanism. At the present moment, however, without a full training camp to prepare and in the absence of 2/5 of the starting lineup, the early returns haven’t exactly pointed toward the zone looks being consistently disruptive as much as sporadically haphazard, at least by comparison to the rest of the league.

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