Basketball Motion Offenses

By Dr. James Gels, From the Coach’s Clipboard Basketball Playbook
"Helping coaches coach better..."

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• General
• 3-2 Motion Offense
• 4-Out, 1-In Motion Offense
• Dribble-Drive Motion Offense
• Open Post (5-Out) Motion Offense
• Read and React Offense

"We do not have an offense that involves patterns. I do not believe in teaching plays, I believe in teaching our kids how to make plays." - Bob Knight

General

Motion offenses teach players 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 against certain zones.

See:

• Fundamental Precepts of Offense
• Motion Offense Principles
  Motion offense concepts/principles that apply to all man and motion offenses.
• Slam Motion Offense
  A simple approach to teaching motion offense.
• Bob Hurley:Motion Offense
  Motion offense used by legendary high school coach Bob Hurley.
• Blocker Mover Offense
  Dick Bennett's motion offense featuring multiple screens from "blockers" and scoring opportunities for "movers". Several sets can be used.
• Attacking the Pack Line Defense
• Duke Transition and Early Motion Options
  Duke's motion options off transition.
• Hoiberg Transition to Early Offense Actions
  Fred Hoiberg runs these basic actions in transition, as an "early offense" attack.
• Pistol Actions - for early offense.

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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. Good offensive rebounding possibilities.

See:

• 3-2 Motion Offense
  Start with this detailed discussion of our own high school 3-2 motion offense.
• 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

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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. Open up the lanes for dribble penetration, and get a lot of open 3-point shots. But you give up some inside presence and offensive rebounding.

See:

• 4-Out, 1-In Motion Offense
  Start here to learn about the 4-out offense.
• How to Use Your Post Player in the 4-Out Offense
  Use your post player in the low post, or high post, or as a screener.
• Quick Hitters for the 4-Out Offense
  Run these right out of transition into 4-out.
• 4-Out "High" Offense Set Plays
  Plays that use a high post player.
• 4-Out "Low" Offense Set Plays
  Plays that use a low post player.
• 50-Series
  Plays that use your post player as a screener.
• 41 Zone Offense and Zone Plays
  How to use the 4-out offense vs zones.
• Slice Offense
  This is a 4-out motion offense featuring dribble-drive aspects as well as pass and cut, screening, pick and roll, and high post actions.
• Slice Offense Quick Hitters and BLOBs

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Dribble-Drive Motion Offense

The Dribble-Drive Motion Offense is a popular 4-out, perimeter-oriented offense, developed by Vance Walberg and adapted by John Calipari. It features guard dribble penetration and kick-out passes for 3-point shots.

See:

• Dribble-Drive Motion Offense
  All the details of this offense.
• The Dribble-Drive Motion Offense - Running the Offense
  Examples of actions and how to run the offense.
• Dribble-Drive Zone Offense
  How to use the dribble-drive offense against zones.

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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 perimeter players and shooters. Open up the lanes for dribble-penetration, and get a lot of open 3-point shots.

This offense creates problems for the defense when their "bigs" have to go away from the basket to defend on the perimeter. This is when you use your quickness to attack them off the dribble. You give up inside presence and offensive rebounding. You can also use this as a delay offense.

See:

• Open Post (5-Out) Motion Offense
  The basic rules and options.
• 5-Out Quick Hitters
  Play actions for the 5-out offense.
• Open Post Double-Up Offense
  This is a patterned 5-out offense from coach Ken Sartini.
• 5-Out Zone Offense
  How to use the 5-out offense against zones.

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Read and React Offense

Consider Rick Torbett's Read and React Offense for your entire program, starting with your youth teams and progressing up. It is very flexible, and adapts to any set (3-out, 4-out, and 5-out) or any style of play. It can be used against both man-to-man and zone defenses, and more importantly is a system for player and team development.

It is a great way of teaching offense as it is taught in "layers". The first two layers could be your young youth team's entire offense. Then each subsequent year, you can add another layer or two, so that by the time they are high school varsity players, all 17 layers are in place.

The Read and React offense teaches players "how to play", rather than running plays or patterns.

See:

• Notes on the Read and React Offense
  The basic rules, layers, and details of the offense.
• 3-Out Read and React Offense
  Using the read and react with a 3-out, 2-in set.
• Read and React Zone Offense
  How to use the read and react offense against zones.

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Related pages:

• Selecting Your Half-Court Offense(s)
  
• Set Offenses
• Patterned offenses (Flex, Swing, Shuffle, more)
  
• Zone Offenses

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