5 Out Ballscreen Motion Offense
Balancing Structure and Freedom
One of the hottest trends in basketball especially at the college level and below is the ballscreen motion offense. It’s growing popularity is due to its simplicity and flexibility to any roster. It allows coaches to maintain a degree of control of where the ball goes while giving players the spacing and freedom to make the right decisions within an offensive possession. It’s used at all levels from the Gonzaga Bulldogs, the Boston Celtics, to any youth team across the country. What we will cover in this article involves the various reads made within the offense as well as how to initiate the scheme with a five out alignment. The five out spacing allows all players to develop their skill sets and for coaches, it still allows them to run any set play they desire. We will also look at how it works against zone defenses. Keep an eye out for bonus content where I will share some of my favorite set plays to use with this offense.
Let’s start with the most important aspect of this attack. Every player in America has been told how important it is to set strong, physical screens and this system is no different. Without getting into the details of pick and roll defense, the elements that remain constant are the guard waiting for the screener to be set in place as well as the screener making contact and having their back pointed towards the paint which is where we want our guard to go. Having our screeners back facing the sideline only allows our guard to go sideways which is clearly not what we desire. If the player sets a good hard screen, we will be able to reverse the ball to the top of the key for an open high low pass. This is also known as our empty corner spacing.
Ball reversal
Once the ball has been reversed to the trailer (player at the top of the key) the continuity may begin. On every reversal, the guard at the wing will cut towards the rim looking to score. This is an important detail because if that player doesn’t cut to score, they won’t force the defense to help which will slow the progress on the offensive end. That cutter must never fake their cut or else you’ll run the risk of a turnover! As that guard cuts, the corner guard will sprint to the wing and receive a pass for the continuity to continue.
Baseline Drive
Now clearly teams aren’t going to back off and let you run your actions perfectly, especially on the pick and roll. Which leads us to what happens when the guard attacks the baseline with all of that free space. The screener will sprint to the corner on this drive and be prepared for a reverse pivot and kick out from the guard which we also call a safety valve. This action isn’t taught enough in today’s game and it should be since the entire defense is stuck inside in this situation. While the guard is driving baseline it’s important to always have a cutter diving to the rim which in this case, is our trailer. This gives our driver four passing options at all times. Hit the safety valve behind them, pass to the cutter, or skip to the opposite corner or wing for a shot as well.
High low and low to high passing
Chemistry between the four and five players are key since they will be looking for each other on every possession. No matter what, when one of them has the ball, the other must cut straight to the rim. This is a rule that never changes even against 2–3 zone defenses.
Filled corner
Our last read within the offense is our Filled corner series. At times the players on the wing will get caught watching and forget to cut. Another scenario is that maybe you don’t want your best ballhandler to cut away leaving a lesser skilled guard in a bad spot. In any case the guard may down screen the corner player for a handoff with the trailer. The corner guard may also set a flare screen for their teammate to go towards the corner before they receive a pass.
Kickstarting the offense
Those basic reads are the foundation of your offense and you are now ready to dive into various entries of the strategy! The wing, trail and dribble entries will give you plenty of options to begin your attack.
Wing entry
The first action is to simply hit ahead to the wing. The guard can either cut threw to the opposite corner (empty corner spacing) or follow into a ballscreen with the trailer and lift behind the play (filled corner spacing).
Trail entry
Passes to the trail are usually open since most teams won’t defend the five so far away from the rim. This area has the most entry opitions. The lead guard may cut throw it to the opposite corner but also may engage in down or flare screening action with the corner play. Players should always consider slipping to the basket since most teams practice switching to avoid a defensive breakdown.
Dribble entry
Our last entry is simple. Look to either dribble at the guard looking for a backdoor followed by a ballscreen or handoff with the guard .
2–3 zone offense
The final area we will go into is how this works against zone defense. Everyone’s job is the same in this case. The premise is to overload the weakside of the zone and then bring the ball towards that overload. When done properly, you will enjoy watching the defense make mistake after mistake. Everything depends on what the wing cutter decides to do on the reversal. They can cut to the high post for the popular 1–3–1 high spacing, down screen the bottom guard to get a jump shot, or receive a flare screen from the corner guard if the zone is cheating. In any case the key to beating zone defenses is to continue moving and cutting. We shouldn’t stop our player movement just because the defense doesn’t want to move around and this will help your players make quicker decisions and eliminate the guessing that takes place when seeing zone.
Well that does it for our 5 Out Ballscreen Motion offense! For bonus content or questions about adapting the system for your roster, feel free to email me at kjthescout@outlook.com or via twitter @KJ_the_scout.
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