Offense
The offense’s job in one sentence: get two defenders to guard one player, then pass to the one nobody is guarding. Every phase below is a different way to force that.
| Lecture | What it teaches |
|---|---|
| 2.2 The Analytics That Drove It | Points per possession as the currency, the arithmetic of the corner three, gravity, and how much of the modern game follows from one division. |
| 3.1 Transition Offense | The break in the order it unfolds: the outlet and push, the lanes and rim run, the numbers read, the trailer and secondary break, how transition is counted. |
| 3.2 Early Offense | The first action against a defense that is back but not organized: the drag and double drag, pistol, delay and the handoff, zoom, get action, and the flow that joins them. |
| 3.3 On-Ball Screens I: The Pick-and-Roll Family | The screen, the pick-and-roll, roll, pop, short roll, the step-up screen, the snake dribble, the lob and the 4-on-3 behind a trap. |
| 3.4 On-Ball Screens II: Named Ball-Screen Actions | Ram, Spain, ghost, slip and twist: the ball-screen actions that exist because the coverages got good at guarding the plain pick-and-roll, and the names heard for them that are not yet entries. |
| 3.5 Off-Ball Screens I: The Screen Types | Pin-down, flare, back screen, rip, cross screen, stagger: the six shapes a screen away from the ball can take, and the four reads a cutter makes off any of them. |
| 3.6 Off-Ball Screens II: Named Off-Ball Actions | Elevator, Hammer, Floppy, Loop and Wedge: the named actions built from the six screen shapes, each taken apart into its parts, plus the names heard that have no entry yet. |
| 3.7 Cuts, Seals, Handoffs and Post Play | 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. |
| 3.8 Sets and Systems | The alignment a team starts from and the script it runs: Horns, Zipper, the set play as a concept, and the named sets and plays heard that have no entry yet. |
| 3.9 Continuity and Read-Based Systems | Offenses that do not end: Princeton, Flex and dribble drive motion, each a whole system rather than an action, and what distinguishes a continuity from a set play. |
| 3.10 Spacing and Roles | The floor and its spots, the alignments, the gap and why its width decides everything, the drive, kick-out and skip pass, and the five roles as they are actually played now. |
| 3.11 Motion, Conceptual Offense, Reads and Counters | Offense run from rules rather than a script: motion, read and react, isolation and the mismatch, and the synthesis of every beaten-by slot in this chapter. |
| 3.12 Special Situations, Offense | Possessions that do not start with a live ball or a set defense: BLOB and SLOB, the box and stack sets they run from, the ATO, the press break and zone offense. |
| 3.13 Late Clock, Offense | When the clock, not the defense, is the constraint: the late-clock possession and the 2-for-1. |
Terms by family: transition offense · early offense · on-ball screens · off-ball screens · cuts and actions · sets and systems.