Hi. We've been using the "Michigan" offense detailed on this site this year for my son's 6th grade house team (8 players on the team, 1.5 hours of practice a week, 3 really good players): http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/plays/youth-offense-2.html

It's worked fine for us, but sometimes our kids get lazy and there isn't enough movement. They want to do just one pass for a quick score. After the initial down screen, they also are susceptible for the overplay by the defense on the pass to the wings.

We wanted to incorporate some more pick/roll action and someone suggested running a weave. I want something simple, involves all 5 guys and can get us some good looks. I would appreciate any constructive criticism you can provide. We don't have great guards, but have good bigs who can handle the ball. I was even thinking of running the bigs up top to force the defense's bigs to chase them around.

We start in a 3-2 formation with two guys on the blocks. Then we have two wings, each at a 45 degree angle to the guys on the blocks. The PG crosses the midcourt and calls the play. If he approaches the top of the key from the LEFT side, the guy on the right block comes up and sets a screen on the PG's defender. PG rubs off screen. He can either dribble to the hoop or pass to the roller. If he opts not to do either, the guy rolling returns to the post. Ball handler then dribbles to the wing on the right side, passes/hands off the ball to the right wing and simultaneously sets a screen. The guy who receives the ball then dribbles to the left. Guy on the left block comes up and sets a screen at the top of the key. Ball handler can either drive to the hoop or hit the guy rolling. If he does neither, he passes/hands off to the wing on the left and play continues. If the defense tries to deny the pass/hand-off to the wing, the wing then makes a backdoor cut.

I know this isn't brain surgery, but is this the proper way to run the weave? I've seen weaves with just the three guards up to doing everything, but I don't want our post players sitting around watching all day long.

Thanks for any comments out there.

I looked around a little bit for you .... found this site - just type these into your browser.

Basketball Weave Offense

X’s & O’s of Basketball: Ohio State's Dribble Weave Patterned Offense

X’s & O’s of Basketball: Texas Dribble Weave Motion Offense

Basketball Plays - Weave-Screen Plays, Coach's Clipboard Playbook

I hope these can help you out... I never ran the Dribble Weave - too many teams would trap us IF we did that too often.

Coach Sar,

Thanks for the reply, but the hyperlink doesn't appear to be there. Can you direct where to go?

I've talked to some who advocate just having one post player setting the screens up top. That allows the other post player to stray to the weak side to allow spacing whenever the ballhandler takes it to the hoop. I understand how that prevents too much congestion, but I kind of feel bad if that post guy is completely taken out of the play.

Any thoughts out there are appreciated. Thanks.

Just copy and paste those to your browser... the site should come up then.