I'm coaching a 5th grade Boy's team. We are using your "Cutters" play as our offense. For most of our kids this is their first time playing organized basketball. In practice (2x a week, 1hr 15min)we work on our fundamentals and are improving. When we practice running our offense against a defense we have a heck of a time making that first pass to the wing. Any thoughts,suggestions,drills?

I have found the best thing to do is have the wing player cut right away. In other words, if the player with the ball looks at you and you're covered, cut to the basket hard! 9 times out of 10, the player filling the open spot (coming from the corner to the wing) will be open. If that player is covered, he or she should cut too. It takes a little practice but the cutting action will get players open. Either the cutter will be open for an easy basket or the player filling on the wing will be open.

It all comes back to making sure the players follow the rules (watch the cutter, the cutter watches for the ball, cut to the rim hard, etc).

As far as drills, just practice the offense half court against a tough defense that is denying the wing.

Thanks for the great site. I'm on your email list, but I just registered to ask this very question! Last year I tried a 3 out 2 in motion and they had trouble with the first pass and would resort to just dribbling around. I tried to teach the wing to v-cut or back cut but when it didn't work there wasn't much of a plan B. I was thinking of having the wing back cut and the point dribble to the wing (the opposite wing would fill the point), but this is much better!

A couple of questions about Cutters. Do you assign the kids numbers, i.e., 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. I'd assume not, but I can see where it would be best to have 1, 2, and 3 be your best ball handlers. Also, I was thinking of teaching them the numbers associated with the areas so I could call out screens if they were stuck. E.g, "2-4" would mean 2 would downscreen for 4. This would be another way to make that first pass.

Too complicated? These are 6th graders by the way.

For the offense, you don't need to assign numbers. The players just need to know the 5 spots (which is easy) and fill an empty spot. With that said, at a higher level we would run a numbered break. 4 inbounded the ball, 5 sprinted to the rim / right block, 1 curled to the ball to bring it up, 2 sprinted the right lane, 3 sprinted the left lane (staying wide!), then 4 trailed and filled the top of the key (usually open for a three pointer). From there we had a secondary break (screen the screener action) and then went right into the cutters motion offense.

The only reason to assign numbers is make your transition offense run smoother, run set plays, or run set inbounds plays. Otherwise for the cutters offense, your point guard can just pull the ball back and make sure the players are set. If the point is good, they should direct traffic and make sure the offense is set up.

You mentioned 1,2,3 being your best ball handlers. For the cutters offense I don't think that matters because all the positions are interchangeable. Once your team learns the offense, it looks more like a wheel. All 5 players are almost circling until the defense breaks down. Sometimes you need to run the offense for 30-60 seconds to get it to break down. That means every player will cycle through each spot quite a few times.

Additional screens and options too complicated for this age? Probably. It's probably best to just get them to cut like I mentioned in the early post. But hopefully this gives you some ideas for the offense and how it all works together.

BTW, in case someone is wondering "what is the cutters offense", here it is:
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/offense/cutters.html