Offense

This article was written by Kyle Ohman and originally posted on his site, BasketballHQ.

I hope you can take some points from this article to help with your offensive play.

1. Ball Reversals

• Make the Defense Move
  • The more times the ball goes from side to side, the more the defense must rotate and closeout.
  • Be down ready on the back side as the ball is swung to you.
  • Attack closeouts that are too close, and shoot the ball when the defense closes out short with hands down.
• Don’t Catch and Hold the Ball
  • Be thinking one play ahead and be decisive with your moves.
  • Don’t waste your dribbles. Either drive the closeout, shoot, or move the ball.

2. Player Movement

• Don’t Stand
  • Players that stand are easy to guard and force one on one offense.
  • Sometimes you may need to space, but most of the time you should always be moving.
• Hard Cuts
  • Read your defender and make the appropriate cut.
    • Back cut
    • Face cut
  • Make decisive cuts.
  • Set up your defender before cutting.
  • Slow to fast.
  • Look to score on every cut.
  • Your cut may open up a scoring chance for a teammate.

3. Screens

• Set GREAT Legal Screens
  • Use screens to help get other teammates open.
  • Must head hunt on screens.
  • Never screen and stand.
  • Read the defense and offensive player using the screen to determine whether you should roll or space after you set the screen.
  • Slip the screen if you are being overplayed.
• Use Screens to Get Open
  • Set up your defender before using a screen. EVERY TIME.
  • Read your defender when using the screen and then make the appropriate cut.
    • Curl cut
    • Straight cut
    • Fade cut
    • Pro cut
• On the Same Page
  • The player using the screen and the player(s) setting the screen must work together.
  • Must have great timing and spacing when executing a screen.
• Hand Offs
  • Use hand offs similar to ball screens to help teammates get open.
  • If your defender is cheating the hand off, fake it and then make a move.

Resources: Game Situation Hand Off Shooting Drill, Game Situation Pick & Pop Shooting Drill

4. Penetration

• Drive and Kick
  • Great penetration forces the defense to suck in and help, which opens up the kick out pass.
  • Get your shoulders to the basket before making the kick out pass.
    • This sells that you are attacking the basket and makes the defense sink in.
  • Receiver needs to be down ready to either shoot, drive, or swing the ball. Don’t catch and hold!
    • If you catch and hold, the defense can recover and the ball movement is dead.
• Stay Under Control
  • Don’t leave your feet and open yourself up to charges and wild passes.
  • Don’t over penetrate into trouble.
    • If you get too deep into the defense, there are too many hands to deflect your pass.

Resources: Two Ball Drive and Kick Shooting Drill

5. Passing Angles

• Receiver Needs to Create Passing Lanes
  • Don’t stand and watch on penetration.
  • Either slide up or down to create a great passing lane.
  • A great time to move is once your defender turns their head to watch the ball.
  • Find the passers eyes, especially when the ball goes into the post.
• Down Ready
  • Don’t catch the ball standing straight up and down.
  • Anticipate what you are going to do with the ball by how the defender is guarding you; shoot, drive, or swing pass.

Resources: Game Situation Post Skip Pass Shooting Drill

6. Inside Out

• Post Play
  • Get the ball into the post and then look for kick outs when the defense helps.
  • Find the post players eyes and create passing lanes by moving up or down.
  • Hard cuts on the weak side will be open with a great post passer.
• Pass Fakes
  • Being unselfish opens up opportunities for pass fakes and keeps.
  • Works great for hand offs in the high post area.
  • Must sell the pass.
  • Use your body to shield the ball from the view of the defender.

Resources: Game Situation Post Entry Relocate Shooting Drill

7. Designed Plays

• Executing Offense
  • Use set plays to help establish ball movement and player movement.
  • It can be a set play or a motion offense.
• Read the Defense
  • Don’t be a robot to the play.
  • If the defense is cheating the play than make them pay.

8. Unselfish Plays

• Extra Pass
  • Turn down an okay shot for a great shot.
  • This type of play will be contagious and lead to better shots for everyone.
• Set Up Teammates
  • Make a move with the specific desire to set up another teammate for an easy shot.
  • Not just the point guards responsibility.
• Celebrate Winning Plays
  • Get excited when a teammate makes an unselfish play.
  • It must be all about the team.

This post contains some of my takeaways from Bob Starkey’s series “Thoughts on Half Court Offense.” He posts almost every day on his Hoop Thoughts Blog. Sometimes it is just a short quote or thought and sometimes it is a detailed series like this one. Whatever it is, it is always worth taking a look at.

You can read his entire series on half court offense at this link: Thoughts on Half Court Offense

Do you have a method of flowing into half-court offense out of your fast break? Out of your press offense? Out of your special situations? Do you practice flowing? We are big believers in that all half-court offense in the whole method should be concluded with at least one conversion. This allows the work you need to execute how you will flow as well as work on your transition defense.

Do you chart your half-court offense? Or do you just chart your offense overall? Of course you can look at the stat sheet after a game and see that you shot 46% from the floor, shot 18 free throws and turned it over 14 times. But what was your stat line in just half-court offense? If you eliminated transition, press offense and special situations then what did your team shoot from the floor? How many free throws? How many turnovers?

Be careful not to fall into a lull by just reading overall stats. You might play a team that is poor in transition so your stats get padded by your fast break but your half-court offense was not efficient.

Certainly there are coaches out there with the philosophy that “we are fast break team” and they well may be excellent in transition. But here are some numbers to think about that come from a book by Bob Liguori titled “Building A Championship Offense.” I’ll preface these numbers by letting you know the book is more than a decade old so the numbers he gives could be outdated — but I’ll follow that up with my thoughts afterwards. In Bob’s book he found the following:

Regardless of your desire to run, remember 3 keys:

1. Seventy-five percent of all field goals come in half-court situations

2. The better your opponent, the lesser number of transition opportunities.

3. Transition baskets decrease on the road.

I think those numbers hold close today. I also strongly believe that those numbers hold true in post-season basketball. Players may be a little more hesitent to run — at least early in a play-off game — not wanting to make mistakes. As you advance in the playoffs, you will obviously play better teams and part of them being better will most always include good transition defense. Even coaches tend to get a little more conservative in the post-season.

As you go through the season, and you are scouting or just watching a game on television, pay attention to some of these trends. After reading Bob’s book, I’ve found that in the majority of most “big games” (games played by two excellent teams), scoring is almost always down. Of course part of this is because of good defensive play…but that again goes to the need to execute in the half-court against good defensive teams.

If you want to be consistently effective in offense…if you want to advance in post-season play…work daily to become a good half-court offensive team.

Today we are going to talk about components of good half-court offense and hopefully give you some things to consider when your are putting together your offensive system of play. The components, or characteristics of good half-court offense are certainly debatable based on your philosophy but ever successful half-court offense will have their own particular elements in which they will base their play around.

I have always believe in the importance of getting to the free throw line. Again, this is my philosophy and that does not make it right or wrong. If getting to the free throw line is part of what you want your offense to be, than that will guide you to answer a few other questions along the way. Earlier this year I blogged about getting to the free throw line — it’s importance and considerations for getting there. You can read that post at:

http://goo.gl/DBB7T

Components of Good Half Court Offense

1. Spacing
Chuck Daly said it best, “Spacing of offense and offense is spacing.” Regardless of whether you run motion, continuity, patterns or quick hitters you should include elements of spacing. Obviously in regard to quick hitters you may not have good spacing in the beginning but it should be part of the flow of your offense. So much good stuff comes about because of spacing including the ability to feed the post, drive to the basket, and open up penetrating cuts. It helps neutralize the help of the defense as well as spread the defense to put more pressure on them.

2. Initial Alignment
Regardless of what you are doing offensively, how you initially begin in your set should be of importance. The placement of the players can first distort the defense as well as help you maximize your entry options. Just because you run Triple Post doesn’t mean if you have to start in the basic set that most teams do. Take a look at your personal and take advantage of your own team with the alignment.

3. Entry Options
All offenses need the ability to have the ball entered. Obviously on of the more common entry passes is the guard-to-wing. Give thought to how you are going to enter the ball to get your offense started — no matter why type of offense you run. And of course, you should have Entry Option #1, Entry Option #2 and Entry Option #3. Regardless of how important your initial entry option is, you must be prepared for it to not being open. I once read where pilots have to file a flight plan and that than they are to create a back up plan. Do the same with your entries.

4. Counters
This is especially important if you are running patterned or continuity offenses. As someone who enjoys the defensive side of the game, I take great pride in “disrupting” an opponent’s offense. Teams that run patterns and continuity all have a specific pass and particular receiver to keep the offense going. From the defensive standpoint, we would work hard to take the particular pass or reciever away fromt he offense. If the team has a counter for when that is denied, than they can continue to attack offensively. It is always easy to spot a team that may not rely on counters. You can see their need to hit the high post player at the top of the key to reverse the ball and when it is denied, she will step a step higher…and then a step higher — working hard to get open just to keep the offensive alive.

5. Flow
If you are running a patterned or quick hitting offense, what are you going to “flow” into when it is over? If you have a shot clock to work with, you must be very effective at flowing into something to be successful in your half-court offense. Certainly some teams can and do pull the back out and yell “set it up” or call another play. If I could again refer back to my defensive philosophy, the offense setting up means our defense gets to reset as well. We tell our defense that anytime the offense pulls the ball back and yells “set-up” that we should take that as a sign that we have succeeded defensively. If you are going to flow into motion or a continuity, make sure you work on it in practice. And if you are going to pull it back out and call another play, you should work on that as well.

6. Paint Presence
This is certainly open to debate but I strongly believe that successful half-court teams are great at getting paint touches. Now please understand that this doesn’t necessarily have to be all low post feeds. But good offense knows how to score inside — even if they are primarily a 3-point shooting team. Maybe you don’t have a big team or an effective scorer at your post position. Ever tried posting up a guard? It is a very difficult thing for a defense to handle. Paint touches can also come from dribble penetration or flashes into the post. Very few things put more pressure on a defense than a team that can get the ball to the paint. I listened to Mike Krzyzewski a few back at a clinic talk about how Duke has worked hard to incorporate a 3-point shooter attack — and if you’ve watched them play you can certainly you can see the effect of the 3-point shot. Last year Duke was 34th in the nation with over 20 3-pointers a game. Yet they also managed to average 22 free throw attempts a game. It because they like to utilize dribble penetration or post feeds to set up their 3’s. At LSU, we refered to these as “Paint Touch 3’s” — you get the 3 (usually a little more open do to defensive collapse to the paint) while also pressuring the defense with the paint touch.

7. Shot Selection
This is again open to interpretation and philosophy but what I do think is important that you have it definded for your players individually and for your team as a unit. The whole goal of good offense is simply stated: get a good shot each time down the court. It is up to you to define what constitutes a good shot for your team. Do not leave it open to the imagination of your players. Be specific and make sure you are constantly reviewing with your team the type of shot you are expecting.

8. Valuing the Ball
All good offense is also about possession. Good offensive teams take care of the ball. A big part of this will be your ability to emphasize that to your team on a daily basis through practice, skill development and video. But you can also aid it by the structure of your offense. While at LSU, dribble usage was a big part of our offensive philsophy and here is how we viewed it: http://bit.ly/nTkmn4. Again, this does not have to be your set of principles, but make sure you team understands what you expect. The same holds true in passing. By having some design thoughts on when, where, how and who to pass it, you can help your offense to better maintain possession of the basketball.

9. Floor Balance
This is a simple concept that some coaches don’t give a great deal of thought to — but it can great effect your team. There are two major thoughts in having good floor balance. The first if making sure that you have good board coverage. This obviously can be enhanced by having a set philosophy on shot selection — it is easier to rebound when you have a good idea of who is going to shoot and when and where they will shoot it. But having good floor balance can put your best offensive rebounders at the best spots on the floor to attack the glass. The other component of floor balance is defensive. Good floor balance certainly benefits your transition defense.

10. Ball Reversal
This is another one that could be question by a few coaches with various philosophies but I think a good half-court offense must be able to effectively reverse the basketball. The better the defense, the more difficult it will be to score on a first-side entry pass. Good defensive teams simply won’t allow it. So you have to work on options to reverse the basketball and how you will attack from that — especially with the thought that some defenses will work hard to prevent the ball reversal action.

In his book “Building A Championship Offense,” Bob Ligouri studied offense in great detail and came to this conclusion: “The most effective 1 on 1 situations came as a result of an off-the-ball screen and cut. One on one moves were much more efficient after 3 to 4 passes and 1 to 2 court reversals.”

I very much believe this to be true. In fact, one of my offensive mantras is that “everything is more effective off ball reversal.” I think you could take any offensive action and then work it into ball reversal and it will be more difficult for the defense because they must handle that action after a closeout. It will also often give better opportunities because of the ballside action being slow to get to help or not getting to help at all.

11. Patience
This could coincide with Ball Reversal and again philosophically some coaches might not agree with it making the list of elements necessary for a good half court offense. But again, we need to look at our half-court offense being effective against the best that we will play against and good defensive teams will make sure you don’t score early in a possession. The art with being effective while being patient is maintaining aggressiveness. Patient is not complacent. Patient is now slow. We talk to our teams along the lines of being “aggressively patient.”

I don’t think a coach has to demand that his offense is always patient but she/he needs to coach them so that they understand what patience means to her/his philosophy and be able to execute that when necessary.

Roy Williams thinks patience in offense is important because the longer you aggressively run your offense the more likely the defense will have a breakdown. In fact, good offensive patience could be defined as running your offense aggressively until you can take advantage of a defense breakdown.

Do you have a way to communicate patience? At LSU, we would hold up five fingers to indicate that we must have at least five passes before shooting a jump shot. We would also hold up a fist to indicate that the ball must touch the paint once before a jump shot. To maintain aggressiveness, we would always let our team that they could take a lay-up at any time. Regardless of what we called, if we have a drive to the rim or a cutter to the rim, the restriction is off.

This post was written by Texas A & M Women’s Assistant Bob Starkey and posted on his blog Hoop Thoughts. He shares his thoughts on all topics related to coaching and updates the blog frequently. It is definitely worth your while to check it out.

What’s Your Paint Game

Bob Starkey, Texas A & M

For the large majority of us, we are well into the beginning of the off-season. A major part of the off-season for the best of coaches is a thorough review of their system of play. As I view the NBA plays-offs, my question to us is this: WHAT’S YOUR PAINT GAME?

I’m a strong believer that championships are won in the paint. This speaks to both offensive and defensive philosophies.

In 2011, the Miami Heat lost in six games to the Dallas Mavericks. The Mavs dominated the paint and the Heat settled for jump shots far too many times. In that off-season, LeBron James called up Hakeem Olaguwon and asked him if he would work with him that summer on his paint game. You have to give great credit to LJ for first recognizing what he need to work on to improve his game and then for not hesitating to ask for help — those are the two marks of a great player.

Too many coaches think that a “Paint Game” means isolating a big post on the block and working the ball inside. And if you have a big that certainly is a good thing to do. But just because you don’t have a big doesn’t mean you don’t have a paint game. Here are some ways to get the ball to the paint:

1. Low Post Play: develop your post players — regardless of size — to post, seal, move without the ball and to finish.

2. Transition Offense: beat the defense to the paint before they get there.

3. Dribble Penetration: being able to put the ball on the floor and drive it to the paint has become increasingly popular with so many teams utilizing the Dribble Drive Offense.

4. Flash Game: flash players into the paint for a touch…this can be post players or perimeter players.

5. Post Up Guards: you may not have a big but if your posts can step away and shoot you can post up your guards inside.

6. Offensive Rebounding: working and emphasizing offensive rebounding above and beyond what other teams might do is another way to create a paint game.

We are not suggesting that you abandon your offensive system but having a paint game allows you a chance to score and draw fouls on the opposition when the mid-range or 3-point shooting has gone cold. Some people point to the fact that Duke and Mike Kryzewski has become great proponents of the 3-point shot. Watch how many of them come off of a paint touch — either dribble penetration or post feed to a fan pass. The “Paint Touch 3” is a great way of setting up a good three point shooter while still pressuring the defense to play interior defense.

Part of having a solid paint game on offense is understanding defenses and how they are played today. We all know the Chuck Daly mantra of “Spacing if offense and offense is spacing.” Well, the same can be true of defense. While offense is looking to spread the defense, defenses are now looking to shrink the floor — getting and sitting in gaps.

Even the best low post players have a difficult time of getting a good look off of the same side entry pass in offensive play. Two keys that will be beneficial include:

1. Reversing the basketball. While at LSU, with Sylvia Fowles dominating the inside, we would tell her to start opposite the ball in our motion offense and reverse the ball to her side forcing the defense to go from help to ball and ball to help.

2. Occupy the helpside. Movement away from where you want to enter the paint with the ball is critical. Making defenders guard two things at once will help you to get the ball to the paint more efficiently. Another one of our basic concepts is for players to “cut to create help.” If we are cutting hard and correctly, we have a chance to draw a helpside defender which creates more space for drives or post feeds.

Here are some thoughts for teaching players to space after the ball is passed to the low post.

These 3 options are from Trey Watt’s eBook on the “Versatile Swing Offense.”

It is a part of this week’s eBook bundle along with the Encyclopedia of Packline Defense.

Regardless of what offensive system you employ, you might be able to use these ideas, or use them for thoughts to develop feed and space rules that best fit your team.

You can find out more about the eBook bundle: at this link: Packline Defense and Swing Offense.

Diagrams created with FastDraw

On POST FEEDS we use 3 options:

OPTION 1: CUT TO CATCH

The wing that feeds the post cuts thru, “CUTTING TO CATCH” and the other perimeter players will fill the next spot.

NOTE: this option is used versus teams that are playing tight and not digging in on the low post.

Here 1 feeds the post and cuts.
4 comes to ballside slot
3 comes to ballside alley
2 moves form alley to slot.

OPTION 2: CORNER AND DIVE

NOTE: This option is usually used against teams that try to dig in on the post with the ball side defenders.

1 will feed the post and go to the corner
The next player, 4, will dive to the rim and out.
3 will move over to the ballside ALLEY
2 will move from SLOT to ALLEY

OPTION 3 SPLIT CUT

Run this option if your player in the 4 spot is a shooter. It can be any player and not a traditional “4.”

Here 2 will feed 5 and screen at the elbow for the next guard.
4 will move to the elbow and read his defender.
Here 4 comes out, so 2 willl dive to the rim.
3 and 1 will move up.

These 3 options are from Trey Watt’s eBook on the “Versatile Swing Offense.” It is a part of this week’s eBook bundle along with the Encyclopedia of Packline Defense.

You can find out more about the eBook bundle: at this link: Packline Defense and Swing Offense.

Clinic Notes from:

These are some of the notes I took at last spring’s PGC/Glazier Basketball coaching Clinic in Chicago.

The presenter was Tyler Coston, a full-time course director and clinician with PGC Basketball and his topic was “Handling Defensive Pressure.”

Mindset for facing pressure

• Dick Devenzio, Founder of PGC Basketball and author of several coaching books, taught players that “Pressure is an illusion in the mind of the offense.”
• It’s not the pressure itself that leads to most of the turnovers, it is the fear of the pressure that causes bad decisions and leads to turnovers.
• Most turnovers against pressure are stolen out of the air, not taking the ball from your hands.
• Fear of being pressured (fear of anything for that matter) is a “Mind Killer.” You can’t think when you’re afraid.
  Fear makes you frantic and flustered, agitated and confused.
• As coaches, we must help our players to develop a mindset to get over the fear and be cool, calm, and collected.
• Actually an opponent puts themselves at a disadvantage when pressing because they spread themselves out and have more territory to defend.

Getting open against defensive pressure

• Running a 4 way race.
• Players should run east and west or north and south, taking long strides, running in a straight line, and making sharp changes in direction.
• If the defense is on the side, run north and south. Players get in trouble when the run in curves.
• Get open by the 3rd or 4th step.

Spacing against defensive pressure

• You cannot have 2 players running away from the ball against pressure.
• Any time the ball is trapped, you need 3 available receivers near the player with the basketball and 1 at the basket to force the defense to guard the basket.
• You can usually fix your spacing just by moving one player.

Power Position Holding the basketball when being trapped while looking to pass out of the trap.

• Hold the ball with both hands and against the shoulder to establish 3 points of contact.
• Makes it much tougher for the defense to dislodge the basketball.
• Elbows wide, but not swinging. They are not swords to swing, they are spears.
• Wide Feet.
• Changing heights moving up and down-flexing and extending knees.
• Be ferocious when you are trapped.

Passing Out of a Trap

• Fake first before you attack the trap.
• Pass out of the trap with a “Piston Pass” an explosive driving pass from the shoulder. Pass as if you are trying to break a window with your fist. “Break the Glass on the Pass.”
• The windows to use to pass by a defensive player are directly over their head, by their ears, and by their arm pits.
• Ball handler must move the defenders hands and arms where you want them to be to make the pass with your eyes & body.

4 on 4 passing out of a trap drill

• Objective of the drill is for players to develop confidence in their ability to pass out of a trap while teammates learn the value of 3 nearby and available receivers.
• A space in the middle of the floor works best for the drill. The receives should to to the pass and meet it, so the group will constantly be moving and adjusting positions and spacing.
• Offense must hold the basketball for 5 seconds before passing out of the trap. The two trapping defenders count to 5.
• 2 defenders must always trap the basketball.
• Offense gets a point per completed pass.
• If the defense gets a deflection, offense and defense switch.
• Play to 10 points.

2 offense vs. 3 defense Full Court Drill

• Rule for the offensive players. If you have one defender guarding you, beat them. If you have two defenders guarding you, pass to the defense.
• Offense plays to score or get fouled at the opposite end basket from where they start. Make teams of 3 and make the drill competitive.

Closing Thoughts

• The moment a pass comes out of a trap, attack before the trappers can recover.
• Your mentality against a press is to get a layup, not just getting the ball across half court.
• You get layups by attacking immediately when the pass comes out of the trap.
• Your team’s mentality must be ‘You press us, you pay!

These ideas on Press Attack are from the Xavier Men’s Basketball Coaching Newsletter.

You can see their archives at this link.

The initial part of the post are some ideas on developing your press offense philosophy. At the end are some diagrams with ideas for formations for your press offense.

Just like every other Attack in your playbook, your press offense philosophy must:

1) Fit your personality
2) Fit your team personnel
3) Work against the very best opponent you must beat to reach your goals

You have to believe in it so you’re players will trust it will work for them on their toughest nights.

Develop Your Philosophy

This is where you must evaluate what type of attack fits you the best and temper that with the personnel currently on your roster. Here are some questions that will help you…

Do you simply want to safely break the back-court pressure or score as a result?
Do you have a player that can beat double teams?
Do you need to break the pressure with the bounce or the pass?
Do you understand the intention of the defense that is attacking you?

Our philosophy has always been to use the fewest players possible in breaking a full court press. To us, the fewer
people you bring into the back court, the more players there will be to attack the basket. We have also witnessed over the years that the quickest way to keep a team from pressuring you is to get a couple of easy baskets.

It’s just human nature to retreat and whether the coach actually calls the press off, you will see players become
WAY less aggressive if they give up a basket. This has worked anytime we had a player (hopefully a point guard or a big player) who could invite double teams and safely get the ball out of the pressure.

If your personnel is such that you CANNOT attack to score, then you need to have a philosophy of getting the ball safely out of the pressure so that you can execute in your half court offense.

We believe you must also know WHAT the defense is trying to achieve so that you can best plan the attack. If it’s a
turnover based defense, simply NOT turning it over frustrates that team. If they are trying to increase TEMPO, then
you can counter that by methodically breaking with the pass.

Implement Strategy

Once you have decided what you are going to do, you must practice it.

We have always used our second team to go against first team when working presses. This gives our team confidence that the ATTACK will work. We also NEVER run our PRESS against our PRESS BREAK for the same reason. There is nothing worse than seeing your own PRESS DEFENSE broken for lay-ups.

5-on-7 situations work well to create priority on crisp ball movement, cuts, and meeting passes.

Execute Tactics

Make a team pay for pressing you. Awareness and preparation are the two biggest keys to keeping your team confident and calm in these situations.

Diagrams created with FastDraw

Press Attack 1 Up

(Left Side Diagram) The most simplistic Press Break builds on the philosophy of only bringing as many players as you need into the back court.

This one works great if you have a point guard who cannot be denied 1-on-1 or even 1-on-2.

We clear out as much space as possible for the 1 to operate and space the other 3 players in the front court so that we can quickly attack the basket or flow into our half-court attack.

We also teach our 1 to “post-up” to receive the entry pass. Once inbounded 4 gets to the middle on a J Hookcut to be used as screen or release pass.

PRESSURE RELEASE: (Right Side Diagram Above)

We allow our 1 to work the first three seconds of the five count before we go to the pressure release.

Pressure release is to break the 3 up… this is a tough cut to defend… If the ball has not already been inbounded to the 1 it is because he is full fronted by his defender. We teach him to hold his defender off until 3 receives the inbounds pass.

On the catch 1 sprints to the diagonal and there is no way the X1 can catch up to him.

Press Attack 2 Up

Left Side Diagram. 1 sets screen for 2… 2 reads defense and breaks to corner or the basket. (Editor’s note: I would not have the player break as deep to the corner as the diagram shows.)

RED OPTION: If 2 goes to the corner, 1 rolls to basket.

GREEN OPTION: If 2 goes to basket, 1 simply goes along the exact same line back to the ball.

This works very well against switching defenses. We also use this anytime we need to inbound the ball safely to get fouled or run clock…

PRESSURE RELEASE: (Right Side Diagram Above)

Again, if the defense does get 1 and 2 fronted, we break 3 hard to the basketball. 1 and 2 hold of until the catch.

Press Attack 2 Up Big

(Left Side Diagram) Another 2-up look we have used brings our 5 player up to help break the pressure as a lot of teams are reluctant to bring THEIR big away from the basket.

1 cuts off the 5 screen. 5 then comes right back to ball and is usually wide open if X5 has helped at all on the cut.

1 can get open every time by running NOSE-TO-NOSE with the 5 player screening and making the proper read on defense.

PRESSURE RELEASE: (Right Side Diagram Above)

1 simple re-uses 5s screen… This is very difficult for a team to guard successfully two times in a row.