Basketball Man & Zone Offenses

There are many basketball offenses to choose from and our guide will help you learn about various basketball offenses. Read through our guide, and check out our many Basketball Offenses Rental DVDs that can help you master any offense.

• Motion Offenses
• Set Offenses
• Read and React Offense
• Dribble Drive Offense
• Triangle Offense
• Pick and Roll Offense
• John Wooden's UCLA Offense
• Princeton Offense
• Patterned Offense
• Delay Game Offense
• Zone Offenses
• Transition or Press Offense

Pick & Roll Offense

The Pick and Roll Offense also known as a Ball Screen Offense utilizes ball screens to send players rolling towards the basket while other players spot up. Mastering the ball screen takes a lot of coaching and practice as players must be able to make the correct read and then make the best decision based on how the defense is playing.

Many defenses will hard hedge the ball screen and your team must practice how to counter this. The Pick & Roll is used a lot but it is a high-level basketball action. If teams are successful with it it's usually because the defense doesn't know how to play the screens at the high school level. Any screening action in basketball is good because the defense must communicate and/or have a plan on how to handle the screens. Screens can cause confusion and therefore breakdowns by the defense.

• Rent our Pick & Roll Offense DVDs
• Read our Pick & Roll Offense Guide

Patterned Offenses

Patterned Offenses move players from Point A, to Point B, to Point and so on. A classic example of a Patterned Offense would be the Flex Offense since a player must go to a certain spot after the ball is passed to a certain spot. These types of offenses are predictable so a team must be very good at executing the pattern and being able to counter the defense if they take option 1 away.

Patterned Offenses should not be used at the youth level because they take away learning how to play the game by making players do an action even if it may not be the best action to do. And if a player makes a mistake the entire offense will break down and it will have to start over to keep the flow going. Most youth teams that run a patterned offense won't run the pattern very much before everything breaks down and then it's one on one play.

• Rent our Flex Offense DVDs

Delay Offense

A delay offense is used to run the clock down when a team is competing against the clock more than the opponent. A Delay Offense can be a unique patterned offense or it can be the normal offense a team runs - they just don't shoot the ball. Often teams that are in a delay will only shoot the ball if they have a layup. The offense can be moved out further from the basket to create wider spacing and make it harder for the defense (who is behind) to trap the basketball and force turnovers.

Teams that run Pass & Cut can easily run a delay offense by just using the entire half-court and running pass & cut. This really spaces the floor and makes the defense chase the offensive players. There are special offenses that are typically running in delay situations but many coaches don't have the time to work on these. If you find yourself in situations where the games really matter and you need to run the clock, it's worth your time to spend 5 minutes every other day working on the delay game because many defensive teams are not very good at trapping when in a man-to-man defense. Typically delay offenses are better than end-of-game defenses.

Press Break Offense

The Press Break Offense is used to break a full-court or half-court press. The press break offense can be 1,2,3, or 4 players up trying to receive the ball inbounds. No matter how you start a press break it should always have good spacing to break the press. Any press break should end up (in relation to where the ball is)

• Ball Side Sideline - The player on Ball Side Slideline about 15 feet from the ball
• Middle - The player trying to receive the ball in the middle of the floor about 10 to 15 feet from the ball
• Reverse - One player behind the basketball ready to help reverse the ball to the other side of the floor
• Deep Diagnol - this player is on the opposite side of the floor of where the ball is and is the furthest player from the ball.

Successful press breaks have good spacing, use ball fakes, sharp & crisp passes, pivoting, and poise. Players need to practice all of these so that when intense defensive pressure comes they are able to stay calm and perform.

• Rent our Press Break DVDs

Zone Offenses

Most man-to-man offenses can be adapted or run against a zone but usually, it's best to have a separate zone attack. It's best if you can just adapt what you already do in your man-to-man-to-zone. Your typical zone will be a 2-3 and most teams will attack it with high-low action.

The key to beating a zone is to attack it where it's weak. Coach Bob Knight would overload the weak areas and make it very difficult to guard everyone. This will also force an opposing coach to be able to adjust to the overload. Zones are best attacked with at least one player in or around the basket if not two players. You can have different zone offenses against a 1-3-1, 2-3, 1-2-2, and 3-2 zone defense but it's best to keep it as simple as possible for your players.

• Rent our Zone Offense DVDs

Princeton Offense

Pete Carill is the inventor of the Princeton Offense and it's most famous for its back door action. Coach Carill was able to compete against and upset teams that were more talented than his with the Princeton's patient style.

• Read our Princeton Offense Guide - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3,& Part 4
• Read the Princeton Offense in Today's Game Blog Post
• Rent our Princeton Offense DVDs

Swing Offense

Bo Ryan created the Swing Offense and made it famous as Wisconsin. The premise of the Swing is to swing the ball from one side of the floor to the other to move the defense. If the ball doesn't move the defense doesn't have to move.

• Rent our Swing Offense DVDs
• Read our Swing Offense Guide