3.7: Cuts, Seals, Handoffs and Post Play

Chapter 3: Offense

What a player without the ball does when nobody screens for him: the post-up and the early seal, the cuts that punish a defender’s eyes (45, back, flash, stampede), the cuts that use a body (UCLA, Iverson), give and go, high-low, and the lift and pinch post that keep the floor spaced.

New terms introduced (17): 45 cut, Back cut, Basket cut, Boomerang, Cut, Early seal, Flash, Give and go, High-low, Iverson cut, L-cut, Lift, Pinch post, Post-up, Stampede cut, UCLA cut, V-cut. Diagrams: 14.

Two lectures of screens have made it look as if a player without the ball gets open only when a teammate stands in someone’s way. Most of the time he does not have a screen. He has his defender’s eyes, his defender’s feet, and his own body, and the actions in this lecture are what he does with those three things. A cut is a change of direction timed to the moment a defender is looking somewhere else. A seal is a body placed between a defender and the spot the ball is going. Both are older than any screen, and every offense that runs without a script, which is lecture 3.11, is built on players who know them.

Section 1 is the post-up and the early seal, the two seals. Section 2 is the cuts that punish a defender’s eyes: the 45 cut, the back cut, the flash and the stampede. Section 3 is the two cuts that use a teammate’s body without a screen being called: the UCLA cut and the Iverson cut. Section 4 is the two-man passing actions: give and go and high-low. Section 5 is the lift and the pinch post, which are not cuts to score but movements that keep the floor spaced so the cuts work. Section 6 is the cuts named for their shape, the basket cut, the V-cut and the L-cut, and the boomerang. Section 7 names the cuts heard for which there is no entry yet.

1 The two seals

The post-up is the oldest way to get a shot near the rim. A player, usually a big, establishes position on the block with his back to the basket and his defender behind him, shows a target hand, and takes an entry pass, as in Figure 1. What he has bought is not a shot but a position: the ball a few feet from the rim, the defender on his back, and every move from there is a move the defender has to guess at. A post-up is also the standard way to use a mismatch: a bigger player against a smaller defender goes to the block, because that is where size matters most.

Figure 1: The post-up. The big holds position on the block with his back to the basket and his defender sealed behind him; the entry pass comes from the wing.

Setup

The big at the block, chest to the passer, wide stance, defender behind him. The passer on the wing, in the big’s line of sight. The other three spaced so no second defender is near the block.

Trigger

The big has the defender on his back and a hand up; the passer has a clear angle.

Read

The passer reads the defender’s position. Behind the big: the entry pass to the target hand. Playing on the high side, between the big and the ball: the big steps toward the baseline and the pass is a bounce pass to the low side. Fronting, between the big and the passer: the lob over the top, if the weak-side help is far enough away. After the catch, the big reads the help: one defender on him, a post move; a second defender coming, the kick-out to the shooter the help left.

Payoff

The ball a few feet from the rim, a defender who has to guess, and a double team that opens a shooter if it comes.

Beaten by

Fronting the post with weak-side help behind, so the lob is contested; or a dig from the nearest guard on the catch. Both in lecture 4.4.

Action 1: The post-up: position first, then the pass, then the read.

The early seal is the post-up done fast, against a switch. When a defense switches a screen, for an instant a small defender is guarding the big. The big does not roll or pop; he turns and pins the small defender under the rim before the defense can send help or switch back, and the pass comes over the top, as in Figure 2. The window is one or two seconds, which is why it is called early. The defense’s answer, the scram switch, is a defender rotating to take the big off the small man, and it is taught in lecture 4.5.

Figure 2: The early seal. A ball screen has just been switched; a guard-sized defender is on the big. The big pins him under the rim before help arrives and the pass goes over the top.

Setup

A ball screen against a switching defense. The big screening, the handler above him, the other three spaced wide so no help is near the lane.

Trigger

The switch: the big’s defender takes the ball and the handler’s smaller defender takes the big.

Read

The big turns into the small defender and drives him toward the rim with his hip and legs, arm up. The handler reads the help. None coming: the lob or the entry now. A defender rotating to the big: the shooter that defender left is open, and the pass goes there instead.

Payoff

A layup for the big against a guard, or an open shooter where the help came from.

Beaten by

The scram switch, in which a third defender takes the big and the small defender rotates out to the perimeter, before the entry pass; or a defense that switches only screens where the big cannot seal in time. Lecture 4.5.

Action 2: The early seal: the instant a switch puts a small defender on the big, pin him.

2 Cuts that punish a defender’s eyes

A defender guarding a player without the ball has two jobs at once: see his man, and see the ball. Every cut in this section is timed to the moment he chooses the ball.

The 45 cut is the cut made when a teammate drives. The wing player’s defender turns his head to the drive and takes a step toward the lane to help. The wing cuts to the rim behind him at a 45-degree angle, and the driver drops the ball off, as in Figure 3. It is the base cut of read-and-react offense, taught in lecture 3.11: the drive is the trigger and the cut is the rule.

Figure 3: The 45 cut. The ball is driven from the left. The right wing’s defender turns to the drive; the wing cuts to the rim at 45 degrees behind him for the drop-off.

Setup

A driver on one side. A wing player on the other, one pass away, with his defender between him and the ball.

Trigger

The defender’s head turns to the drive, or his feet move toward the lane.

Read

The wing cuts to the rim at 45 degrees, behind the defender. The driver reads: cutter open at the rim, drop it off; the defender recovers to the cutter, the spot the cutter left is empty and the next player fills it for a kick-out; the rim protector steps to the cutter, the driver has the layup.

Payoff

A layup off a drive that did not itself reach the rim, from a defender who looked at the ball.

Beaten by

Helping with the eyes and not the feet, so the defender stays with his man and the drive is left to the rim protector; or a stunt, a fake step at the drive that keeps the defender close enough to recover. Lecture 4.4.

Action 3: The 45 cut: when the defender looks at the drive, cut behind him.

The back cut is the cut made against denial. A defender who is determined to stop a player catching the ball plays high, between his man and the passer, with an arm in the passing lane. That is the one moment he cannot see the rim, and the man he is guarding cuts behind him to it, as in Figure 4. It is also called the back door. Every read-based offense has a rule that says a denied player back cuts, because a defender who denies has already given up the rim.

Figure 4: The back cut. The wing’s defender plays high to deny the catch. The wing cuts back door behind him to the rim for a bounce pass.

Setup

A player one pass from the ball whose defender is denying the pass, high and in the lane.

Trigger

The defender’s hand is in the passing lane and his weight is toward the ball.

Read

The cutter takes one step toward the ball to bring the defender higher, then plants and cuts to the rim. The passer reads: cutter open, the bounce pass; the rim protector steps up, the cutter’s spot has emptied and the cutter’s teammate fills it; the defender recovers, the cutter continues through to the far side and the floor is reset.

Payoff

A layup against a defender who chose to deny the pass rather than protect the rim.

Beaten by

Denying with the ball-side foot and hand only, staying half a step lower than the man so the back cut is contested; or top-locking only when help is under the rim. Lecture 4.4.

Action 4: The back cut: the defender who denies has turned his back on the rim.

The flash is the cut into the empty spot. When the defense sags toward the ball, or shifts as a zone does, a spot opens up, usually at the free-throw line or the elbow, and a player on the weak side cuts across the lane into it and catches facing the basket, as in Figure 5. Against a zone the flash is the whole offense, which is why it is in lecture 3.12 as well; against man-to-man it is how a big gets the ball at the elbow to run the high-low of Section 4.

Figure 5: The flash. The defense has sagged toward the ball and left the free-throw line empty. The weak-side big flashes across the lane into it and catches facing the basket.

Setup

The ball on one side. A weak-side player, usually a big, on the block or the wing. An empty spot near the free-throw line, because the defense has shifted toward the ball.

Trigger

The spot opens: a defender leaves it to help, or a zone shifts.

Read

The flasher cuts into the spot with hands up. The passer reads: flasher open, the pass; the flasher’s defender beats him to the spot, the flasher turns and seals for a lob or cuts through to the other side. On the catch the flasher reads the low post behind the defense for the high-low, then the shot, then the drive.

Payoff

The ball in the middle of the defense, facing the basket, with the defense on the move.

Beaten by

A defender who bumps the flasher as he crosses the lane and keeps a body between him and the ball; in a zone, the middle defender whose job is exactly that spot. Lecture 4.6.

Action 5: The flash: cut into the spot the defense left.

The stampede cut is a cut made to the ball rather than away from it. A player about to receive a pass has a defender closing out at him from the paint. Instead of catching and then deciding, he is already moving toward the rim as the pass arrives, so he catches at full speed and goes straight past a defender who is still decelerating, as in Figure 6. It exists because closeouts got long: a defender who has helped in the paint has fifteen feet to cover to get back to his man, and a man who is moving when he catches makes those fifteen feet impossible.

Figure 6: The stampede cut. The wing’s defender is closing out from the paint. The wing is already sprinting to the rim as the pass arrives and catches at full speed past a defender who cannot change direction.

Setup

A player on the perimeter whose defender has sunk into the paint to help. The ball with a passer who can see him.

Trigger

The passer picks him up and the defender starts to close out.

Read

The receiver starts his drive before the catch, toward the rim, at an angle past the closing defender. He catches on the move. If the defender is closing out square, the receiver goes by him. If the defender has stopped short and stayed low, the receiver pulls up. If the rim protector has stepped up, the receiver drops the ball off or kicks it out.

Payoff

A drive that beats the closeout before it happens.

Beaten by

A short, choppy closeout that never overruns the receiver, conceding the pull-up to stop the drive; or help so early the receiver is never left. Lecture 4.4.

Action 6: The stampede: catch already moving, and the closeout is beaten before it arrives.

3 Cuts that use a body

Two cuts use a teammate as an obstacle without a screen being set for them by name. In each, the teammate is standing where he was going to stand anyway, and the cutter runs past him so that his defender cannot.

The UCLA cut starts with a pass. The player at the top passes to the wing and then cuts down the lane line to the ball-side block, running his defender into the big standing at the elbow, as in Figure 7. The big’s stance is a back screen whether or not anyone called it one, and the cutter arrives on the block for a post feed from the wing. It is the entry to the high-post offense the cut is named for, and it appears in dozens of sets because it turns the point guard into a post threat with one pass.

Figure 7: The UCLA cut. The passer at the top feeds the wing and cuts down the lane line to the block, past the big at the elbow. The big’s body is a back screen on the cutter’s defender.

Setup

A guard at the top with the ball. A big at the ball-side elbow. A wing on that side to receive the pass.

Trigger

The pass to the wing; the guard’s defender turns to watch it.

Read

The guard cuts down the lane line past the big. If his defender is caught on the big, the guard posts on the block and the wing feeds him. If the defender goes under the big to the block first, the guard curls back to the elbow for a catch, or the big slips to the rim behind everyone. If the defense switches, the big’s defender has a guard on the block and the big has a mismatch at the elbow.

Payoff

A guard on the block with a defender behind him, or a big at the elbow with a small defender.

Beaten by

The defender jumping to the ball side of the big before the cut and riding the cutter to the block; or a switch. Lecture 4.5.

Action 7: The UCLA cut: pass to the wing, then down the lane line past the big.

The Iverson cut runs wing to wing across the top, over two bigs standing at the two elbows, as in Figure 8. The cutter’s defender has to get past two bodies in a row, and the cutter catches on the far wing already moving toward the basket side of the floor. It is named for the player it was designed to get the ball to, and the team that ran it did so because he was best with the ball moving into a catch rather than standing waiting for one. It is also called a Piston cut.

Figure 8: The Iverson cut. The wing cuts across the top of the key over two bigs at the elbows to the far wing, and catches on the move. His defender has two bodies to get around.

Setup

Two bigs at the two elbows. The ball at the top or the far slot. The cutter on one wing.

Trigger

The cutter runs at the near elbow.

Read

The cutter goes over both bigs. If his defender trails, he catches on the far wing and attacks the closeout. If the defender goes under the bigs to beat him to the far wing, the cutter stops at the second big and curls it to the rim. If a big’s defender switches onto the cutter, that big slips to the rim.

Payoff

A catch on the far wing at speed, with the defender two bodies behind, and the whole side of the floor ahead of the cutter.

Beaten by

The defender going under both bigs along the free-throw line and meeting the cutter at the far wing, conceding the curl; or switching at the second elbow. Lecture 4.5.

Action 8: The Iverson cut: wing to wing, over both elbows, catching on the move.

4 Two-man passing actions

Give and go is the oldest two-man action in the sport: pass, cut to the rim, get it back, as in Figure 9. It works because a defender relaxes for one step when his man gives up the ball, and one step is enough. The get action of lecture 3.2 is the give and go with a handoff in place of the return pass.

Figure 9: Give and go. The player at the top passes to the wing; his defender relaxes and turns to the ball. The passer cuts to the rim and takes the return pass.

Setup

Two players one pass apart, with the lane empty behind the passer’s defender.

Trigger

The pass; the passer’s defender takes his one step off.

Read

The passer cuts to the rim. If his defender is late, the return pass. If his defender recovers to the cut, the passer continues through and the floor resets with the ball on the wing. If the rim protector steps up to the cutter, the receiver drives the space he left.

Payoff

A layup two passes after the possession began.

Beaten by

Jumping to the ball on the pass, so the defender is between his man and the rim before the cut starts, which is the first rule of every man-to-man defense. Lecture 4.4.

Action 9: Give and go: pass, cut, get it back.

High-low is the two-big passing action. One big is at the high post, the free-throw line or an elbow; the other is at the low post on a block. The ball goes to the high post, and as it arrives the low post seals his defender on his hip, so that the high post can drop the ball over the top to him at the rim, as in Figure 10. Against a defense that fronts the low post, the high-low is the answer: the fronting defender is in front, the seal holds him there, and the pass comes from above where he cannot reach it.

Figure 10: High-low. The wing feeds the high post at the free-throw line. The low post seals his defender on his hip as the pass arrives, and the high post drops the ball over the top to him.

Setup

One big at the high post, one at the low post on the opposite block. The ball on a wing with a passing angle to the high post.

Trigger

The pass to the high post.

Read

The low post seals his defender as the ball is in the air, holding him on the hip away from where the pass will come. The high post catches and reads: the seal held, the pass over the top; the defender fought around to the high side, the low post steps to the baseline side for a bounce pass; the help came from the weak side, the shooter it left is open for a skip. If nothing is there, the high post faces up and the action is a pinch post.

Payoff

A catch at the rim against a defender who has been sealed, thrown from an angle the seal made safe.

Beaten by

The low defender playing behind rather than fronting, so there is no seal to hold; or the weak-side low man arriving on the catch. Lecture 4.4.

Action 10: High-low: the high post catches, the low post seals, the pass goes over the top.

5 Movements that keep the floor spaced

Two entries in this lecture are not cuts to score. They are movements a player makes so that the cuts and drives around him work.

The lift is the corner player’s move when the ball is driven baseline on his side. If he stays in the corner, the driver has no pass: the defender who helps on the drive comes from the corner, and the corner is then covered by the rim protector’s rotation. If he lifts to the wing as the drive starts, he is a kick-out target the help defender has to leave to guard, and the drive gets a second option. The lift is a spacing rule, not a cut: the player is moving to stay one pass away from the ball.

The pinch post is the big catching at the weak-side elbow, facing the ball, with nobody else on his side of the floor. From there he has a handoff for a guard cutting past him, a shot, a drive, or the pass to a back cutter, and the offenses that use it, the Princeton and the triangle of lecture 3.9, use it as the hub of everything on that side. It is a spot as much as an action, and it is named here so that the phrase means something when it is heard.

6 Cuts named for their shape, and the boomerang

A cut is any quick move by a player without the ball to get open for a pass or to clear space for a teammate, and every named cut in this lecture is one kind of it. Three more are named for the path they draw rather than for what the defender is doing, and one more action is named for what the ball does.

The basket cut is the plainest: any hard cut straight to the rim (Figure 11). It needs no read beyond an open path. A defender watching the ball or standing a step off has to turn and run with the cutter, and a defender who does not is beaten to the rim.

Figure 11: The basket cut. The wing’s defender is a step off him on the baseline side, watching the ball. The wing cuts hard on a straight line to the rim for the pass from the top.

The V-cut is how a perimeter player gets open without a screen (Figure 12). He steps in toward the lane, which moves his defender that way, plants, and comes straight back out to a spot a little higher on the wing. The two legs make a V, and the catch comes a step higher and wider than the defender, which is enough to face up.

Figure 12: The V-cut. The wing steps in toward the lane, plants, and comes back out higher on the wing to catch the pass from the top.

The L-cut is the same idea for a player who starts inside (Figure 13). He runs up the lane line from the block to the elbow, which makes his defender guard the lane first, then turns flat and cuts out to the wing. The turn at the elbow is a change of direction the defender has to follow from behind.

Figure 13: The L-cut. From the right block straight up the lane line to the elbow, then flat out to the wing for the pass from the top.

Setup

A perimeter player one pass from the ball, guarded close; for the L-cut, a player starting on the block.

Trigger

The defender is playing him tight enough that a straight move to the catch would be denied.

Read

The cutter moves his defender first, in toward the lane on the V-cut, up the lane line on the L-cut, then changes direction hard to the catch. Defender follows him in, the catch outside; defender stays high in the lane, the back cut of Section 2; defender cuts him off at the elbow, the L-cut keeps going to the basket.

Payoff

A catch facing the basket with the defender a step behind, without a screen being set.

Beaten by

The defender refusing to be moved and holding the passing lane, which gives up the back cut; or beating the cutter to the elbow and stepping into the turn. Lecture 4.4.

Action 11: The V-cut and the L-cut: move the defender one way, catch the other.

The boomerang is a pass followed at once by the pass straight back (Figure 14). The first handler catches again on the move with his dribble still alive, against a defender who relaxed the moment the ball left. It is how a team goes back to a mismatch a switch has just given it: the ball leaves the mismatch for one pass so it can come back to it moving.

Figure 14: The boomerang. A switch has left a big guarding the guard at the left slot. The guard passes across, steps out, and gets the ball straight back, then drives past the big with his dribble unused.

Setup

A handler with an advantage he cannot use from a standstill, usually a slower defender after a switch.

Trigger

The handler passes and his defender relaxes or turns to follow the ball.

Read

The handler steps into space as he passes and the ball comes straight back. Defender still sagging, the drive; defender closing out hard, the pass on or the pull-up; help arriving early, the kick-out to the helper’s man.

Payoff

The mismatch attacked from a live dribble on the move instead of from a standstill.

Beaten by

The on-ball defender staying attached when the ball leaves and denying the return pass; and help arriving early on the drive the mismatch invites. Lecture 4.5.

Action 12: The boomerang: send the ball away for one pass so it comes back moving.

7 Names heard for which there is no entry yet

The glossaries describe several more cuts and post actions by one publisher only, so each has a description here and no entry until a second source names it. The diff is data/sources/glossary_diff_2026-09-21.md.

• Curl, fade and straight. The reads off a screen taught in lecture 3.5, which the glossaries also list as cuts.
• Shallow cut. A cut made in front of the ball to a new spot beside the handler, so the two exchange positions; the wave is its cousin, a cut made to create a double gap.
• Rub and brush screen. A cut made so the cutter or his defender gets in the path of a different defender without contact, so it works like a screen but is not one under the rules.
• Duck-in. A post player stepping into the lane and sealing his defender with his inside foot the moment the defender is in a help position.
• Slice. A cut from the opposite corner through the lane, sometimes off a screen, to the top of the key.
• Split cut. After a post entry, the two perimeter players nearest the post screen for one another and cut in opposite directions, so the post has two cutters to read.
• Barkley. Dribbling from the perimeter into the block for a post-up, as the player it is named for did.
• Dive and reverse seal. A dive is a cut from the high post to the low post; a reverse seal is the low post holding his defender on the outside hip as the ball is reversed, which is the seal the high-low depends on.
• Slash. A cut from the opposite wing into the lane, made in front of the help defender rather than behind him. The 45 cut above waits for the helper to turn his head and goes behind him; a slash crosses his front instead.
• Drift. A guard steps in toward the high post and then comes back out to the perimeter to receive the pass, which is the step in and back out of the V-cut of Section 6, run at the high post rather than at the wing. The word is also used as an ordinary verb for a shooter sliding along the arc to the corner, as he does on the hammer of lecture 3.6.
• Scissor. Two players run around a teammate at the high post, each looking for a handoff as he goes past. The split cut above is the same idea with the post passing out to a cutter instead of handing the ball off, and the handoff here is the one the pinch post of Section 5 is placed to give.
• Wing exchange and dribble push. Two names for perimeter players trading spots: in a wing exchange the two wing players swap, each taking the wing the other left, and in a dribble push the handler dribbles at a teammate and pushes him away from the ball. The shallow cut above is the other answer to that dribble, where the teammate cuts in front of the ball instead of moving away from it.
• Valpo. A program’s name for a called play rather than a name for a concept, so hearing it tells you which play a team has called and nothing about the family it belongs to. The action is a post player catching the ball and looking to hit a wing player running for a shot.
• Weave. Continuous dribble handoffs among the guards on the perimeter, each handler dribbling at a teammate and handing off as the next one comes past, so the ball keeps moving without a pass and every handoff is a chance to turn the corner. It is also called nova.
• Chop. A slash or an open cut into the lane made directly behind a pick-and-roll, into the space the two defenders on the ball have left while they deal with the screen.
• Fill cut. Any cut into a spot another attacker has just left, so the offense keeps its spacing and its movement; the lift above is one, made for a specific reason.
• Pitch. A dribbler pivots and passes back to a player lifting up from the corner for a shot: a short pass going backward, to a shooter moving toward the ball.
• X. The two post players crossing each other, the 4 and the 5 trading sides of the lane, so their defenders have to exchange or chase through each other. The one glossary that names it gives it a single line, so this description is no more than the word it names.

The idea to carry into lecture 3.8 is that the screens of lectures 3.5 and 3.6 and the cuts of this one are what a team’s set plays are made of. The next lecture is about the sets themselves: the alignments a team starts from and the scripts it runs from them.