Basketball Offensive Skills

Teaching Basketball Offensive Fundamentals

Play smart! Understand and know what the coach is looking for.

Play unselfishly. Always pass to the open man and don't force shots.

Protect the basketball. Handle the ball with sureness. Avoid turnovers.

Make the safe and easy pass. Don't force passes. Every pass does not have to lead to a score.

Pass away from the defense. Always know where the defense is, and pass away from it. Use two-handed grip as a passer.

Play under control. Don't have your mind made up about what you want to do. Read the numbers and take what the defense gives you in an organized and controlled matter.

Be patient. Don't play fast! A good rule to remember is to hurry, but don't rush. It's not how fast you go, it's what you do.

Don't force shots! Pass the ball when you are well defended.

Dribble the basketball with your head up and see the court.

Dribble the basketball north and south. Offensive basketball players should look to attack the gaps in the defense. No wasted dribbles.

Always know the time and score.

Maintain proper spacing of 15 to 18 feet. Spacing is offense and offense is spacing. Keep the basketball offense high and wide. Perimeter offensive players should stay above the NBA three point line, except of course when executing cuts or screening opportunities.

Make passes. As a general rule, we want our offensive basketball team on the court to make three passes before attempting a shot, other than a lay-up opportunity.

Catch-and-face. In our half-court basketball offense sets, we want our players to catch and face the basket in a triple threat position. This basketball offense stance allows our players to see the whole court and read the defense.

Always look to go inside first, before shooting outside shots! Our first objective every time down the floor is to go inside. We like for our post to touch the ball before any shots are taken.

Use a jump-stop in the post area. Keep the ball under chin, with elbows out.

Always look to dribble penetrate (slash) to the elbows. We love to play off the elbows offensively (jump shot, draw-and-kick, or kick-out).

Look to draw-and-kick. Anytime a weak-side defender rotates to stop ball, we look to pass to our open teammate. Use a bounce pass in the paint to hit the open teammate.

Get fouled! To win the big games, you must get to the free throw line, and then you must make them... Great players get to the foul line 7 to 8 times a game.

Communicate on all screens. Raise your weak hand to let the cutter know you're coming to screen for him. As you set the screen, call out your teammate's name.

Set tough, hard screens. Set your screen on the defender's numbers (headhunt). The screener should remain in a stationary position for a two count.

Always receive the screen late - Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait for the screener to jump stop and say your name before you begin your v-cut to get open.

Read the defense. Think before you move. Try to take advantage of what the defense gives you. Our cutter and screener must concentrate on their defender and not watch the ball. Cutters should always make their cuts away from their defender and "move with a purpose."

Move to be a great receiver! As a pass receiver, you must always step to the ball, show a hand-target, and call for the ball.

Backdoor cut when overplayed. When your defender has a foot and hand in the passing lane to deny you from catching the ball, change direction and cut behind the defender toward the basket with your lead hand up.

Fake a pass, to make a pass, and look to use a shot fake before you dribble.

Acknowledge (credit) the unselfish pass that leads to score. "Point to him," the assist guy. Let the fans know who made the play.

Crash the offensive boards. Players #3, #4, and #5 must crash the boards on every shot while players #1 and #2 sprint back to stop the fast break.

Rebound the offense. We want our shooter to always follow his shot with his hands up. Our other players (#3, #4, and #5) are responsible for weak-side rebounds. Most rebounds (75%) are grabbed on the weak-side of the basket. Players #1 and #2 hustle back to mid-court to stop our opponents fastbreak... No easy baskets!

Understand how to execute the

Understand how to execute the following man offenses: Flex, Princeton, Motion, and Triangle.

BBALL OFFENSE IS SIMPLE: Move

BBALL OFFENSE IS SIMPLE: Move your body and move the ball.

Man-to-man Defense

Man-to-man pressure defense enables us to get pressure on the ball at all times ("on-ball" defense), while still protecting the basket ("helpside defense"). I love watching a well-coached team that plays great man-to-man pressure defense. Here's the way we teach it.

Force to the sideline and baseline OR Deny Baseline. It depends on the coach.

Some coaches teaches their players to deny the baseline and force the ball handler into the paint where the helpside is located.

But then some coaches teach their on-ball defenders to force the ball toward the sideline and then down to the baseline. Once at the baseline, we do not allow penetration along the baseline, but try to trap there. Forcing the ball to one side immediately allows you to establish your helpside defense. When the ball is at the top of the key or in the middle, the low defenders must play fairly "straight up" and you must defend the entire court. But once the ball goes to the side, our weakside defenders can move into a helpside position (see below) and deny the pass into the post, and help prevent dribble-penetration. When the ball is in the corner, we only have to defend one half of the court and can load all five defenders toward that side. With the long skip pass to the other side, there is usually enough time (while the ball is in the air) for the defense to quickly rotate back.

How do you force the ball to the side? The on-ball defender at the top of the key, or on the wing, must close-out on the ball-handler with his sideline (outside) foot back and the middle (inside) foot forward. Have the defender put a little more of his/her weight on the front foot, so that if the ball-handler makes a quick dribble move toward the outside, the defender can push back off that front foot more quickly.

Some coaches deny the point to wing pass, but it might make more sense to let the pass go to the wing if we really want to force to the side. Once the ball is on the wing, we want to deny the pass back out to the point, and force the ball even further into the corner. Now realize that most often the pass to the low post comes from the wing. And once the ball gets into the low post, most of the time bad things happen... they either score or we foul. So it is very important to teach your post defenders to front the low post as the ball moves to the wing and corner areas. We must deny that pass into the post. But what about the "over-the-top" lob pass? First of all, this pass is a difficult pass to consistently complete... it is often thrown too high and out-of-bounds. But when this pass is made, the opposite low post defender (in "helpside") must immediately rotate over to double-team that pass, while the opposite wing defender (who should already be inside the paint in helpside) rotates down to cover the opposite low block.

Baseline dribble-penetration.

We also want to deny dribble-penetration along the baseline. If the on-ball defender gets beaten, the low post defender (who is fronting the low post) should immediately rotate to the baseline to stop the ball. Meanwhile, the opposite low post defender must immediately rotate to cover the vacated post player while the opposite wing defender rotates down toward the basket. Once we have the ball stopped at the baseline, we will try to trap here and get the five-second count, or get the ball-handler to make a bad desperation pass outside... something that we can intercept.

Keeping pressure on the ball, on-ball defense.

We want defensive pressure on the ball at all times. This will cause offensive turnovers and give their outside shooters difficulty getting the shot off. Assume the stance described above, forcing toward the baseline, and focus on the belly-button. Don't get your feet crossed unless you have to sprint back. Avoid “reaching-in” and taking a swipe at the ball, as this causes the defender to lose his/her balance and defensive stance and the offensive player can now beat him/her off the dribble. Reaching-in also leads to fouls. Keeping pressure on the outside harasses the offensive player and makes it difficult for him/her to see the floor and his/her teammates. An important part of denying that pass into the low post is keeping pressure on the ball, so that it is really difficult to make that pass. But won't playing up tight on the ball-handler allow him/her to beat the defender with a dribble move? Yes and no... read about "help and recover" below. The principle of help and recover is very important in denying dribble-penetration, once again pointing out that man-to-man defense is a "team defense", not just individual man-on-man. Also, our helpside low defenders should be in position to stop dribble-penetration, but at the risk of leaving an unguarded low post player... so we must teach our outside defenders how to work together with help and recover to keep the ball outside

Defensive positioning off the ball - Deny, Helpside, Help and Recover

See Diagram A below. First, pretend there is an imaginary line up the middle of the court called the "helpside line" (red line). And then also imagine a line drawn from the ball to each offensive player (green lines). We like to have our defenders one pass away from the ball in "deny", playing "on the line" This is especially true if we want to deny a pass back out from the corner to the wing and from the wing to the point. Depending on your own coaching philosophy and the opponent's strengths, you may or may not want to deny the pass from the point to the wing.

Defenders whose man is two passes away are in "helpside", and are "up the line" sagging into the lane (paint) area. This helpside positioning almost looks like a zone away from the ball and puts our defenders in a better position to help prevent inside passing and dribble-penetration. Helpside defenders should never lose sight of their man and should use their peripheral vision to always see the ball and their man. Some coaches call this the "pistols position" pretending that your index fingers are pistols, with one pistol pointing at the ball and the other pointing at your man. Some use the term "ball-you-man" to emphasize this point. Once the ball gets down in the corner, all helpside defenders should have one foot on the helpside line.

Help and Recover.

This is necessary because when you play tight pressure defense on the ball, there are going to be times when the on-ball defender gets beaten off the dribble. To help stop dribble-penetration, the adjacent perimeter defender gives help, trying to deny the dribble move. Here is a tip... if you are playing against a team with a very good penetrating guard, rather than playing a "full-denial", defenders one pass away can play a little up the line and step or two toward the ball in order to help stop the dribble penetration. On the other hand, if one of the help defenders is guarding their star outside three-point shooter, you would probably rather keep that defender in a deny position and not leave his man to give help. It helps to know your opponent.

Defending post players.

We want to make every effort to keep the ball out of the low post, as most of the time when the ball gets down there, the opponent either scores or we commit a foul. One way to motivate our players is to explain that by keeping the ball out of the low post, they reduce their chances of getting into foul trouble and sitting the bench. So I believe it is wise to front the low post, either 1/2 or 3/4 front (from the baseline side), or full front (if the post player is not very tall). Your post defenders must work hard with good footwork to accomplish this. Some coaches prefer to full-front the low post, while others are concerned about giving up rebounding position and the lob pass over the top, and prefer to 1/2 or 3/4 front. As mentioned above, our helpside defenders rotate quickly to defend the lob pass into the low post. Equally important in denying the pass into the post, the on-ball defender must pressure the ball and make it difficult to make the pass into the post.

We would also like to keep the ball out of the high post (elbow or free-throw line area). Here we will 1/2 or 3/4 front the high post. The technique here is for the defender to keep his feet between his man and the basket but have one arm and hand wrapped around in front of the high post player in the passing lane.

Double-teaming a dominant low post player. See the two diagrams below. Against a star post player, 1/2 or 3/4 front with your post defender from the baseline side. If he/she receives the pass, have your opposite wing defender (who should already be in the paint in helpside) drop down and double from the lane side to prevent the move to the lane. This is preferable to double-teaming with the opposite post player, as that would leave the remaining offensive post player unguarded. Using the opposite wing to double may make you susceptible to the opposite wing kick-out and three-pointer, but this may be preferred if that wing player is not a good shooter. If he/she hits a few, it's back to the drawing board!

Defending cutters.

Another important aspect is to deny the pass to a cutter moving through the lane. Here the defender must try to keep between his man and the ball, denying the pass. One technique the defender can use is to "bump the cutter" off his/her intended pathway by getting position and riding the cutter away from the basket. “Bumping” may not be a good term as it may imply “hitting” the cutter, or something “dirty”. Rather, it means getting inside position on the cutter, or at least an arm in front in the passing lane, much like the ½ or ¾ fronting of a post player. The defender tries to beat the cutter to a certain spot on the floor, which really is no different than two players fighting for rebounding position… both are entitled to that spot on the floor, it just depends on who gets there first. So the defender must use good footwork and establish position over the cutter... you cannot simply push or hold the offensive player. Examples of cuts to defend against are the "give and go" cut, a cut from the weakside wing (either with or without a screen), flash cuts to either high or low post, back-cuts, etc.

One special circumstance... defending the curl cut. See the diagrams below. A good quick guard will sometimes run down low and curl around a post player in order to lose his man. I believe the best defense here is for the defender to "chase" the offensive player around the screen as closely as possible. Sometimes I'll see the defender instead just drop back outside thinking the cutter will be coming back out to his original spot or the perimeter. The right-hand diagram below illustrates the error in this thinking. A good offensive player will read this and pop out to the corner instead for the skip pass and open three-pointer.

Defending against screens

You must have a plan for defending against screens. Of utmost importance is communication between defenders and calling out the screens before they are actually set.

Inside post screens should be switched, since you usually do not end up with a size-quickness mis-match here (see below). On outside perimeter screens, you must decide whether you want to switch these screens, try to fight over them, or slide through (under) them. Switching on the outside could occasionally lead to size and quickness mis-match, especially if a post player steps outside to set a screen for a guard. Here are some ways to deal with various screens.

On-ball screens.

You can try to fight over these screens rather than switching, especially if there is a "big-little" mismatch (such as when a post player steps outside and sets the on-ball screen). Otherwise, you could simply switch the screen if no size or quickness advantage is given up.

Off-ball screens.

Oftentimes, if the defenders communicate well, the screened defender can simply slide through this screen). It is also easy to switch these screens, as long as a mis-match does not occur.

But if the offensive player coming around the screen is a very good shooter, then it is best to fight over the top of the screen (or switch it).

Inside Post Screens.

As stated above, it is best to switch inside screens. Here you are usually not giving up a size or quickness advantage, and switching gives us the best chance to deny the pass into the low post.

Here is a simple rule to use. The defender fronting the low post always takes the low cutter, while the other defender always takes the high cutter.

"Being Deceptive"

A Smart Player is Never Predictable

Written by Tilden Corbett

For Sam and Peter Murphy

How to move without the ball (Read the Defense):

V-Cuts

Curls

Flashing

The High Shot

Pick and Roll (PNR)

Pick and Pop (PNP)

How to move with the ball:

Receiving the ball (Triple Threat)

Ball fakes

Jabs

Hands up

Step Backs

Low Post Moves (Drops Step, Up and Under, Spin, The Front)

Pass and Pick Away (PPA)

Drive and Dish (DND)

Give and Go

Reading the Offense:

Eye Reading

The Fake Open Man

Helpside and Recover

Tricks of the Trade:

Pick Your Man

The Fake Open Man

Trapping

The Back Door Signal

The Importance of COMMUNICATION

Verbal:

Defense: (Deny All Inside Scoring)

“Get Back”, “Help-side”, “Trap”, “Watch Mine”, “Deny”, “Switch”, “Slide”, “Look Around”, “Cutter”, “Deny Paint”, “Watch Mine”, “Watch My Back”, “Cut Off Baseline”, “Rotate”, “See Both”, “Back Door”, “Pick Left”, “Pick Right”, “Go Through”, “That’s weak”, “Step Up”, “Get on Top of That”, “Show Yourself”, “Watch Shooter”, “Hands Up (Leland)”, “Get Low (Nash)”, “See the World”, “1-Press 4 Help”, “Man Check”, “Box Out”, “Match Up”, “Find Yours”, etc.

Offense: (Execute)

“Swing It (The Ball)”, “Come Through”, “Motion”, “Pop Out”, “Turn Up The Volume”, “Execute”, “Flash”, “Stay Ball-side”, “For Me”, “For You”, “On Time”, “Stay Put”, “Other Side”, “Rub Off”, “Roll”, “Outlet”, “Crash the Boards”, “Read It”, “Look at the Hand”, “Cut Through”, “GNG”, “DND”, “PNR”, “PPA”, “PNP”, “Box Out”, “Follow Your Shot”, etc.

Non-verbal:

Back Door Signal, Player Control, Use against tight playing defenders

Come Through Hand Wave, Use to tell teammate to rub off pick

Pick, Arm Raise, Use when setting or calling for picks

Watch My Back, Illegal Procedure (in football), Use when fronting a Post Player

Throw Into the Lane, Head Nod with Eye Contact, The “Pick Your Man” trick

Point Guard Cheat Sheet

OFFENSE / TRANSITION

Be a Leader

Be feisty – Play with an attitude – Play Hard

Read the defense as you bring the ball up

Call out the offense as you bring the ball up

Insure players are in the correct position

Start the play as soon as you cross half court

Dribble with a purpose. Don’t over-dribble. Keep your eyes on the rim and not on the ball as you’re dribbling it. You need to see the entire floor when you have the ball. This means you’ll need to improve your dribbling and ball protection.

Look for your shooters. They should be getting there shots

Balance the floor by backing out the ball

Pass first shoot second

Swing the ball quickly against the zone

Look to penetrate gaps and dish if the defense collapses

Throw ball fakes

Don’t telegraph your passes

Don’t favor one side over the other – distribute ball evenly

Pass the ball into the High Post but don’t force it between defenders

Try to avoid bouncing the ball to the HP – keep ball high

Insure your HP man has his hands high to receive ball

Always show a target when at the top of the key as you swing the ball along the perimeter

Remind wings to skip the ball in a zone

Pass the ball on-time to shooters for rhythm shooting

Be an extension of the coach on the floor

Always play in control – never look rushed

Control the tempo of the game – Know when to slow it down and know when to push the ball in transition

Recognize quickly when our opponents setup a press

In a full court press, v-cut hard to get the ball

Look to pass against a full court press

Avoid getting trapped in corners

Stay calm against a full court press

Develop great ball control (Passing, Dribbling, and Shooting)

Pass the ball on-time to shooters for rhythm shooting

DEFENSE (Communication)

See the entire floor and direct (Talk)

Insure that EVERYONE is talking on defense. If they are not, then tell them to.

Insure they are calling out picks

Insure they’re denying baseline, posts, & paint

Insure that they are bumping cutters

Insure that help-side players have 1 foot in the paint and seeing both ball and man

Insure they “Close the Door” when the LP gets the ball. After closing the door, the man guarding passer should deny the ball back out. The other 2 players will go into a tandem by dropping under the rim and below the FT line

Insure they have there hands up

Insure that they match up at tip-off, time-outs and substitutions

Be feisty – Play with an attitude – Play Hard

Insure that every player is hustling back on defense – not jogging

Go to the ball when you see a player may be stuck in the corner with the ball or has lost his dribble.

Insure that players are closing out quickly when their man receives the ball

Great defense will keep us in the game when we are struggling on offense

"Just Me"

The below is a poem that I've been sharing for at least 10 years with all of my youth basketball players. It is filled with really great basketball wisdom

by Tom Krause

"From the time I was little, I knew I was great
'cause the people would tell me, "You'll make it - just wait."
But they never did tell me how great I would be
If I ever played someone who was greater than me.

When I'm in the back yard, I'm king with the ball
To swish all those baskets is no sweat at all.
But all of a sudden there's a defender in my face
Who doesn't seem to realize that I'm king of this place.

So the pressure gets to me; I rush with the ball.
My passes to teammates could go through the wall.
My jumpers not falling, my dribbles not sure.
My hand is not steady; my eye is not pure.

The fault is my teammates - they don't understand.
The fault is my coaches - what a terrible plan.
The fault is the call by the blind referee.
But the fault is not mine; I'm the greatest, you see.

Then finally it hit me when I started to see
That the face in the mirror looked exactly like me.
It wasn't my teammates who were dropping the ball,
and it wasn't my coach shooting bricks at the wall.

That face in the mirror that was always so great
Had some room for improvement instead of just hate.
So I stopped blaming others and I started to grow.
My play got much better and it started to show.

And all of my teammates didn't seem quite so bad.
I learned to depend on the good friends I had.
Now I like myself better since I started to see
That I was lousy being great - I'm much better being me."

Never compete to be better than everyone else – compete to be better than yourself. ~Tilden