How would you recommend to initiate the motion offense? Last year we played a point, two wings and two players on the blocks. The wings would make V-cuts to get open to receive the initial pass of the offense.

As the season went on, it seemed like that v-cut and pass to the wing got easier for teams to defend.

I am thinking of starting all 4 players on the blocks or in the paint and either having a simple downscreen from the 4/5 man on each side to open up the 2/3 cutting up to the wing. Or just having the 2 and 3 start in the paint and make a good hard sprint/cut out to the wing.

3rd and 4th grade boys, by the way.

How about a simple 5 out pass and cut motion... if they over play... go back door. Just a thought.

You can start your posts on the wings and down screen for the you wing players ...

Or the wing players can drive their man to the block - come up the lane and break out any time they feel they have an advantage? Short/mid post/elbow. Changing the cut keeps the defenders off balance.

Yes, I plan to use the 5 out, pass and cut motion.

I was just looking for a way to ensure a safer pass to the wing than what we experienced at times last season.

Am I mistaken in my thinking that the 5 out motion is really based on either good cuts and passes for open looks, or the ballhandler being able to create in a one on one setting? Those two things seem to be what will make the offense click.

We ran a Princeton type offense 5 out ... things we looked for were takes from the wing.... hitting cutters - back door looks when they over played us and 3s if they got lazy and sagged.... occasionaly we would get a take from the top also.

We used this to get our players open at times -
Or the wing players can drive their man to the block - come up the lane and break out any time they feel they have an advantage? Short/mid post/elbow. Changing the cut keeps the defenders off balance.

Or you can back screen and step out, IF they don't give reverse help... you have a back door look if they do, you can get into your offense easier.

Here is what we ran -
http://www.coachesclipboard.net/OpenPostDoubleUp.html

We began to install our 5 out motion last night. One thing I'm seeing the kids have the biggest problem with is when they make a pass from the wing to the corner. When they cut through, there seems to be more hesitation on filling the 5 spots than in any other scenario. The natural thing to do is probably have the corner dribble to the wing and the wing replace the corner after the cut. But I don't want to put too many "rules" in place yet. The thing that made it easiest for the the kids last night was this sequence:

Wing passes to corner, wing cuts. Point fills the wing. Opposite wing fills to point, opposite corner fills to opposite wing. Cutting wing fills to opposite corner. We had cones out in the 5 spots and this seemed to really make sense to the kids.

Does this sound ok?

The rules are pretty simple which is good for kids of that age. using the cones helps a lot.... maybe you could bring the offense up a little higher so a kid doesn't get buried in corner?

Just a thought.

The cones were a big help. I'm looking to make this as easy as possible, with as little thinking as possible for the kids. The only real rules are: 1) If you pass the ball, you must cut to the basket, 2) Spread out and fill the 5 spots.

I will look into bringing the offense up a bit higher and getting our guys out of the corners.

We do a lot of dribble drive layups, dribble, crossover and lay it up or take a short jumper, give and go work, and then one on one stuff. I want this to be a wide open offense where anybody can play any position and score from it.

I like your ideas, you are teaching every kid how to play the game... not putting someone in a position and saying, YOU are the center.... no one knows where they will be playing once they get to the high school level. The center of today could be the point guard of tomorrow.

The less they have to think the easier it is for them to play.

The reasons I suggested bringing the offense up a little bit are, 1- keep them out of trap areas and 2- it gives them more room for back door opportunities.

I hope this helps and good luck.

For that grade level, maybe you can consider using the "short" corner instead of going all the way out to the 3-point line on the baseline. We had to do that in our league because the courts were narrower than normal but it ends up being a little easier to get the kids doing the movement.

RE: starting the offense. All good tips mentioned prior. What we will do is use 2 guards to help bring the ball down and put the opposite wing at the free throw line. As the ball comes across half-court, the wing at the free throw line will screen the other guard who doesn't have the ball. The other players can do the hard cuts, etc.

Good luck!

You could start by having the wing players set down screens for the corner players, who move up to fill the wing spots and receive a pass.

Or, If we are going to start with a pass to the right wing, I just have the wing player back cut and have the corner player fill the wing spot to receive the pass.

I'm teaching the girls to make a v-cut to get open on the wing. As the other teams learn to over play that, the wing player will back cut to the basket. This is the nice thing about this offense--there's an answer for just about anything the defense does.