Basketball Coaching Tip: How to Develop an Effective "Team" Oriented Offense

My players are 6'5 or smaller and very quick/athlete and all can shoot and dribble, what kind of offense do i run to get them all a shot within the 35 second shot clock.

Hi Vince,

That's a good question.

It really depends on your players strengths and weaknesses. And believe it or not, it depends on YOUR strengths, weaknesses, philosophy, and coaching style.

- Are you very knowledgeable on executing half court offense, reading screens, cuts, and so on?
- Do you prefer to run and gun?
- Are you good at teaching post moves to perimeter players?
- Do you prefer motion offenses or a patterned offense that are more controlled?

Many times it helps to focus on your strengths and not try to fake it.

For example, let's just imagine that you're very knowledge and believe in fast paced offenses that run, gun, cut, penetrate and kick. You know how to teach this style, you've run it before, and you believe in it.

Now if you try to implement a completely different style, it will be a challenge for you to learn the new style, and your players might see through you. They can tell when you believe in something or not.

So that's just one reason why you need to take your own strengths and weaknesses into account.

You also need to consider your players:

- Are your players good at posting up?
- Are they fast? Strong? Good ballhandlers? Good at penetrating and passing?
- Are your players good outside shooters?
- What are their backgrounds? What have they been taught? Reading screens, fast breaks, etc?

With that said there are MANY offenses that work well with a bunch of guards or perimeter players. However, I've seen many 6'5 and under players dominate in the post. Height is NOT the most important factor. Strength and footwork can help smaller players dominate bigger players in the post.

There are too many offenses to list here but here just a couple that work with guards.

- Swing (posts up ALL your players, even your point guard)
- Flex
- Cutters (5 perimeter players that utilize back doors cutting, penetration, and quickness. virtually no screening)
- 5 Out Motion
- 1-4 Series

I suggest that you do some searching on Google for basketball offenses. You can also check out this site that has lots of good offenses and some tips on choosing an offense:
http://www.coachesclipboard.net/BasketballOffenses.html

We'll also post an article about choosing an offense and diagram more good offenses on our own website, but we haven't gotten to that yet. :)
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/offenses.html

Hope this helps!

Jeff Haefner

Thanks good advice, yes i do love to fast break and play a pressing d traps and run and jump

hi can u all help me?? this coming weeks i have a 3 day camp coming up!! the weakness of the team is that they see opponets to play. eg if the opponents is not so good they are slack if the opponents is strong they play very good as to win them and they did hw can i change their attiude?? and how do i use 3days to increase their stamina?? can help me as their tourament is coming up soon

Hi Boon,

One way to fix your players' problem with not playing hard versus the weaker teams is to always stress "intensity." Have them practice with fierce "intensity" and don't accept anything less. If they don't use that intensity during practice, they don't play. If they buy into it, that intensity should transfer to the court against the weaker opponents.

In response to increasing their stamina in 3 days, there is not much you can do. To increase stamina, take time to schedule practice so all of the drills require hard work and continue at a fast pace to condition the players. If all else fails, condition them at the end of practice by running.

thks.. i will try on to it..:)