Category 01 — Offense · Sections A & B · Eight Plays
Every play animates. Press Run the play to watch it build one step at a time, Step to advance manually, or click any numbered step in the teaching list to jump straight to that moment. Every diagram also prints as a complete static play.
The methodology
Great offense creates advantages
Great offense doesn't score points. Advantages do. Every set in this book, every cut and screen and drive, exists to bend the defense out of position and create an edge. A step. A closeout coming too hard. A help defender two feet out of place. That edge is the whole game. Spacing is how you manufacture it. Five players stretch the floor and the defense has to guard grass, so every drive has a lane and every kickout has a shooter. Space isn't geometry for its own sake. It's leverage.
Here's the part most teams miss. One advantage is rarely the finish. It's the start of a chain. You drive, the defense collapses to stop the ball, and now somebody is open. Hit him, and the scramble creates the next opening. Advantage becomes disadvantage becomes advantage, until the best shot falls out of the possession. That's why we play fast off the catch. Half a second to shoot, drive, or pass. Read what the defense gives you instead of running a memorized route, and never hold the edge long enough for them to recover.
The best offense creates a numbers edge and refuses to waste it. The extra pass beats the good shot when it turns into a great one. Trust it. The plays that follow are openers, not answers. Learn the why and they all start to work.
Before you start
Read this first: the floor
Every play in this book is described using the same spots. Learn these and you can run any diagram in the system without a translator.
The half court — every spot named in this book
The Paint
The rectangle under the basket, 12 feet wide and 19 feet deep from baseline to free throw line. Also called the lane or the key.An offensive player can only stand in it for three seconds. Nearly every defensive rule in this book exists to protect it.
The Elbows
The two corners where the free throw line meets the edge of the paint.Best passing angle on the floor — a player there sees both sides and the rim.
The Blocks
The short marks on the lane line nearest the baseline, where players line up for free throws.Where post players work and rebounding position is won.
The Wings
Outside the three-point line, roughly level with the free throw line, both sides.Most offense starts here — a player can shoot, drive, or pass with equal ease.
The Corners
Behind the arc near the baseline, both sides.Shortest three on the floor and the hardest spot for a defense to help from.
Top of the Key
Straight out from the rim, above the free throw circle.Where most possessions begin and the ball handler can see all four teammates.
Strong side / weak side: the strong side is whichever half of the floor the ball is on. The weak side (or help side) is the other half.
Reading the diagrams: Offensive players are the numbered circles 1–5, by position — 1 the point guard, 2 the shooting guard, 3 the small forward (wing), 4 the power forward, 5 the center. Their defenders are the X’s: X1 guards 1, X5 guards 5, and so on down the line — the number always names who they’re assigned to. A solid arrow is a cut, a squiggle is a dribble, a dashed line is a pass, and a short bar is a screen.
Before you start
Read this second: the words
Nine terms. Every play in Sections A and B uses at least one.
Screen (a.k.a. Pick)
A player stops and stands still to block the path of a teammate's defender. The screener must be completely stationary at contact, with a wide base — still moving is a foul.
On-ball vs. Off-ball Screen
On-ball is set for the player holding the ball. Off-ball is set for a teammate elsewhere on the floor.
Roll
After screening, the screener pivots and cuts hard to the rim. The opposite choice is a pop — stepping back out for a shot.
Slip
The screener fakes the screen and cuts to the rim before contact, used when the defense jumps out early.
Backdoor Cut
When a defender overplays to deny a pass, the offensive player cuts sharply behind them toward the rim.
Give & Go
Pass, then immediately cut to the rim looking for it back. The oldest play in basketball and still one of the best.
Spacing
Keeping 12 to 15 feet between teammates so one defender can never guard two players.
Help Side
Defenders away from the ball sinking toward the paint to protect the rim, ready to rotate.
Tag
A weak-side defender briefly bumping a cutter — usually a roller — then recovering.
Bonus · Beyond the 24
Two principles that outrank any play
These aren't plays and they aren't counted among the 24. They're the two habits that decide whether the plays in this book ever produce points. A team that runs all eight offensive plays badly and gets these two right will outscore a team that does the opposite.