When talking about basketball, we often hear that there are two types of transition: offense to defense, and defense to offense. These pertain to the team level, and the individual players are part of the process.

If we look at the states every player can be in while on the court, however, we can identfy five categories:

• Offense, with the ball (OB)
• Offense, without the ball (ON)
• Defense, on the ball (DB)
• Defense, away from the ball (DN)
• Loose ball situations (LB), or 'Zero Zone' (ZZ)

One of the consequences is that the number of possible transitions between these states is higher than two.

While we do not often focus on loose ball situations, it is a fact that some players are better at them than others, and a number of specific skills are involved.

This view of the five areas may also affect the way coaches train players, in an effort to make them more complete.