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First of all, your question does not sound amateurish. It would be amateurish if you didn't care where to inbound the ball. It shows attention to detail on your part to want to inbound the ball correctly. So don't sweat it if you don't know all the answers (even the "basic" ones) right away. Nobody ever has.
The general answer is that the ball is (almost) always put in play at the spot closest to where a foul or violation occurred.
If the foul or violation occurs in the midcourt area (between the 3-point arc on either end of the court), then the ball is put in play on the sideline that is closer to where the foul or violation happened. Just make a straight line to the sideline and wherever the closest spot is, that's where the ball goes.
Ok, now I don't know if I can describe this accurately, but picture the lane and the free throw circle. Now draw an imaginary line from each end of the free throw line to the corner where the endline meets the sideline. You should be envisioning a big trapezoid. If the foul or violation occurs in that trapezoid or in the free throw semi-circle, the ball is inbounded on the endline. If the foul or violation occurs outside that trapezoid, then the ball is inbounded on the sideline. (If you have an Officials' Manual, there will be a diagram in there showing this exact picture.)
I hope that helps. If not, I'm sure somebody else will explain it better.
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