You can work with whatever space you have, but as a general rule of thumb, especially if you are planning on using your basketball hoop outside in a driveway or yard, the following is a good guideline based around how many cars your garage could hold! So for a 1 car garage, a 54” hoop will do just fine whereas if you have a 2 car width garage, then your driveway can probably comfortably handle a 60” hoop. Going for the big guns at 72” then you either live in a palatial mansion with a fleet of cars, or you’ve just got a really big backyard! Just go for something that’s proportional really relative to the space that you intend to position it. More importantly, make sure that you have a flat and even surface, preferably one that’s made of cement or asphalt. While you can use basketballs on grass, you just won’t get the required bounce from this kind of surface.\r