You are one pass from the ball and you drop toward the paint instead of guarding the passing lane. Your man gets the ball whenever he wants it. What he does not get is a driving lane, because you are already standing in it with your feet set.
Sagging is a choice, not laziness. The defense has decided which shot it is willing to see.
Why coaches use it
Against a team that cannot shoot, sagging is free. Every extra body near the rim makes drives, post entries and offensive rebounds harder, and the pass you are giving up is a pass to somebody you were happy to leave.
It is also the honest answer when you are guarding a much quicker team. You cannot stay in front of them at the arc, so you stop trying, and you meet them where you can still use your feet.
And it lets you protect one specific player. Sagging off the worst shooter on the floor is how most teams free up an extra helper without changing anything else.
The cost is simple. You are giving up catch-and-shoot threes, and a team that makes them will make you stop.
How to attack it
- Shoot it. The first answer to a sagging defense is the shot it is offering. Take it early enough that the defense has to change before the fourth minute.
- Play off a big who can shoot. A high ball screen and a pop behind the arc, as in 1-4 High Quick Pop, attacks a sagging big directly.
- Screen the sagger. A defender who is already two steps off is easy to pin. Flare screens and back screens are cheap against him.
- Drive it anyway, but go early. Attack before the help has gathered, not after.
SlongeHoops has Sag, Gap and Deny as the three off-ball settings, so you can draw one possession and watch what each of them takes away.