Basketball Offense - Selecting Your Half-Court Offenses
From the Coach’s Clipboard Basketball Playbook, @ http://www.coachesclipboard.netBasketball half-court offenses can be categorized as:
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Coaches, don't try to use all of these basketball offenses for your team. Select an offense(s) and those plays that you feel best fit your team's personnel, size, quickness, and strengths. For a man-to-man offense, you can choose a free-lance motion offense, or a more structured, patterned offense like the Flex offense or the Shuffle offense. The Triangle Offense has features of both patterned and motion offenses. You will also need a zone offense. Put in a couple of set half-court plays and have a couple out-of-bounds plays and you are ready to go. Teach and establish your main offenses first, and you can add additional set plays as the season progresses. See "Teaching Basketball by Progression". |
Basketball Offense - Motion Offenses
Motion offenses teach kids to "play the game" and learn how to read the defense. Motion offense is not a set, patterned offense like the Flex or Shuffle, although you can certainly run set plays with any motion offense. Motion offenses work well against man-to-man defense, and sometimes will work against certain zones.
3-out, 2-in Motion Offense.
This offense has good court balance with three perimeter players and two post players, and gives you both inside and outside presence. Motion Offense (3-2) 3-2 Motion Options Simple 3-2 Motion Plays (youth teams) 3-2 Motion Plays (more advanced) 3-2 "Hi-Lo" 90 Series 2-Series Loyola Weave-Screen Plays Michigan Miami 3-2 Option Series Isolation 2 3-2 Mascot Motion Offense This 3-out, 2-in motion offense was important in our success over recent years, which included several trips to the state tournament (boys and girls). |
4-Out, 1-In Motion Offense.
A good offense for teams with good outside perimeter players and shooters, and a shortage of true inside post players. You open up the lanes for inside dribble-penetration, but still get a lot of 3-point shots. But you give up some inside presence and offensive rebounding. 4-Out, 1-In Motion Offense 4-Out "High" Offense Set Plays Topside and Counter, Flash, Slip, Swing, Fist, and Weave-Screen Plays (W2, W2-back, W3, W4) 4-Out "Low" Offense Set Plays Big, Big-15, Big-Left, Big-Down, Big-43, Big-Double, Loyola, Loyola-2, 53, 34, 13 and 24, Black, 52-Curl, 14, and Weave-Screen Plays (W2, W2-back, W3, W4) 41 Zone Offense Dribble-Drive Motion Offense |
Dribble-Drive Motion Offense.
The Dribble-Drive Motion Offense the latest "hot" offense, is a 4-out, perimeter-oriented offense, developed by Vance Walberg and adapted by John Calipari at Memphis. It features guard penetration and kick-out passes for 3-point shots. 5-Out Open-Post Motion Offense. The 5-out, "open post", offense is best for a team that has no strong inside post players, but has good outside perimeter players and shooters. Again, you open up the lanes for inside dribble-penetration, and get a lot of open 3-point shots. This offense can create problems for the defense when their "bigs" have to go away from the basket to defend on the perimeter, which is when you use your quickness to beat them off the dribble. But again you give up inside presence and offensive rebounding. You can also use this offense as a delay offense. Open Post Double-Up Offense Open Post (5-Out) Motion Offense Also see: 5-Out Zone Offense |
Basketball Offense - Set Offenses
1-3-1 Offense
The 1-3-1 offense is a simple offensive set, easy to learn, with good spacing, a high post and low post presence, and would be a good choice for youth and middle school teams. For attacking man-to-man defense, several simple motion patterns are presented below, and a few simple plays are referenced. Additionally, the 1-3-1 set works well against the most common zone you will see, the 2-3 zone defense. 1-3-1 Offense Loyola Isolation 2 Baseline 3 1-3-1 Offense vs the 2-3 Zone |
1-4 Stack Offense
The 1-4 stack offense is set high at the free-throw line extended with both post players at the elbows. This opens up the space underneath the basket for back-cuts and dribble-penetration. You can create various plays off of this set. Also look at the 1-4 low set. 1-4 Stack Plays (45, 41, G-town, Hoyas, 43, 93-Low) 1-4 Low Set (Pinball, Double-Cross, Scissors, Spurs) 90 Series Kentucky Loyola MSU Texas |
"4-Corners" Delay Offense
Use this offense late in a quarter, or late in the game to delay and run time off the clock. Spread the floor while still looking for an easy lay-up. 4-Corners Delay Offense 2-1-2 High-Post Offense This is an excellent offense if you have an athletic O4 who can shoot from the high post or take the ball to the hoop. O4 can also be a screener. Many options are possible, and you don't need a great point guard for this offense. 2-1-2 High-Post Offense |
Basketball Offense - the Triangle Offense
The Triangle Offense, so important to the success of the Chicago Bulls and LA Lakers, is an offense that features a "sideline triangle" and a weakside "two-man game", and is effective against man-to-man defense. The offensive players always try to fill the five spots, and in this sense is similar somewhat to a patterned offense. There are however, unlimited options and, similar to a motion offense, players "read and react" to the defense. The offense stretches the defense with good spacing, creating problems for the helpside defense and trapping. Cutting and good passing are important keys. This offense takes a fair amount of practice time to learn, and you need "basketball-smart" players to run it effectively. Youth teams could perhaps use parts of it, as the offense does help players learn to read and react to the defenders, which is a good thing for kids to learn. This offense is described in detail on the Deluxe CD and the Coach's Clipboard's downloads, but is not on the web-site.Basketball Offense - Patterned Offenses
The Flex and Shuffle offenses are examples of patterned offenses, where players run a certain pattern of screens, cuts, passing, etc. There is continuity, or continuous flow from side to side. Teams that don't have strong inside post players may like these offenses (especially the Shuffle), as the players interchange positions. This can lead to defensive mis-matches. You can get easy baskets if you execute well. To be effective, however, I believe that you must have counters and options to confuse and take advantage of the defense, or otherwise the offense becomes too predictable. If used with younger kids, the kids might not learn to read defenses, but rather get familiar with just running a set pattern. A fair amount of practice time may be needed to learn these offenses.Shuffle Offense
The shuffle offense is an offense that has all five players rotate in each of the five shuffle positions. So this offense would be good for a team that has good ball-handlers but is not blessed with height or a strong dominant post player. There is continuity, and there are counters and options. This works best as a man-to-man offense. Shuffle Offense |
Flex Offense
The "Flex" is patterned offense featuring passing, screening, ball-reversal, options and counters. This offense is most effective against man-to-man defenses. Most scoring opportunities come off the "flex cut" inside, or a jump-shot from the elbows. Still you can run various options, counters, post plays, etc. Size mis-matches often occur due to the screening and defensive switching. A "High Flex" delay offense is also presented. Flex Offense High Flex Offense |
Swing Offense
This is not the same "Swing Offense" taught by Coach Bo Ryan at Wisconsin, an offense that combines elements of both the flex offense and the UCLA offense. This is a simple pass, cut, and fill offense that offers a variety of counter options based on how the defense chooses to play. It uses a 2-3 high set, or 4-out set. Swing Offense |
Thunder Offense
This offense is a variation of the Flex offense and is patterned offense. If you like running the "flex", you could use this offense as well. This offense is most effective against man-to-man defenses. Thunder Offense |
Basketball Offense - Zone Offenses
Most of the offenses listed above are most effective against man-to-man defense. Your team must have a zone offense(s) to counteract zone defenses. Read Zone Offense on general principles used in attacking any zone offense. The most common zone defense that you will see is the 2-3 zone, so I would have a 2-3 zone offense in my playbook. I would also have a zone offense that can be used against a 1-guard front zone defense (e.g. vs. the 1-2-2 zone, or 1-3-1 zone). If your team has one special star player, take a look at the "box-and-1" offense. If you play 4-out or 5-out (open post) man-to-man offense, take a look at the 4-out and 5-out zone offenses.
In summary, your offense can be as simple or as complicated as you want. Youth teams would be best served by keeping things as simple as possible, stressing learning fundamentals more than learning plays and sets. A simple man-to-man offense, a simple zone offense and a couple out-of-bounds plays is all you need, and all you will have time to practice. High school teams that practice every day can develop more detailed and multiple offenses, with options and plays. But again, simplicity is often the best.