What offense is best to use with talent ranging from very advanced to a first time player. I coach a 5-6 grade team. I have two 4 th graders. One is bedt plater, he has usually ben pPG,the other is a quik active decent penetrator and good jump shooter. I have avery goog 6th grader who is tallest on team,and is tough. He usually in past has played everythinfg but not center or posting up,hes a good athlete. I have two othrrs that are athletic and pretty good players,problem is i have 3 bigger kids that have never played and they cant really plug n play with any offensiv style that the main 6 are suited for

Based on the different skills levels and age group, I'd suggest a 5 out motion with cutters. You can keep it simple and add more moving parts as you go along (e.g. screens). The reason I like the 5 out motion with cutters is because it encourages movement, more ball touches, and keeps kids from getting stuck in a single position. I also like it because it gives kids simple rules when they pass and when they are off ball.

You might try poking around here, a lot of good info on how and which offense to choose:

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/Offense/offensiveTheory.html

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/offense/cutters.html

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/offenses.html

thanks Rob,I been wavering between the 5out or the 4out 1 in,because my "bigman" really could dominatej, but i really cant see a few of these kids being effective in the pass and cut aspect other than learning how to keep active. I should have added this is a league with 7 games and a weekend of two playoff games. I was leaning toward those two, the 5 out seems easier but I do want my big to be able to be the valuable part that he can be. Also wondered how taking the ball out of my very good pt guard to stand in corner until he works his way back to the top is beneficial. He can get to the basket all dayu long, hes havin a little trouble finishing , luckily hes my son and i think its just him trying to emuate NBA players and flippin it instead of shootinng his layup more overhanded, so I will keep worklimg on that with him.He has great dribbling,prettyu good passing in instincts too. Im just worried im underusing him,but him driving to basket or whoever ends up with a pass just sjhooting or driving like they are out playing playground basketbal isnt gonna take us too far and thats kind of where we are at. Thanks. I probly sound like im going in circles. Im probly overthinking it, I have managed to get two more one hour prac a week instead of the original just one hour fifteen prac ,so I got plentyopportunites , my main goal is to get them passing,and cutting , the 5 out or 4 n 1 does seem to have a lot o f standing but i like how it gets them used to cutting and looking for cutters. thats what i want initially , not gonna win many games counting on yr olds jump shots. THanks

More important than which offense you run will be your coaching philosophy. I'm assuming this is a recreational league with no tryouts since you have kids who've never played and a mix of ages on one team. When I coached in rec leagues, I made it clear to the parents we weren't concerned with the W's and L's or the standings. Teaching fundamental skills, making sure their kids received fair play-time and ball touches, and having fun were our main goals. Not an easy task as some coaches will do whatever it takes to win in those rec leagues.

The practical side is you have to choose some type of offense to run, I get that. I wouldn't get too hung up on if the offense as a whole is being executed correctly, but more if the individual skills within the offense are being worked on by the kids in games. Are they making proper cuts? Good passes? Taking good shots? Knowing when to dribble? Why to dribble? Boxing out?

Good luck with your season!

thanks rob thats correct , teaching them something the key, I just get hung up on things,like last week,we played a experienced team who just came off playing out at TheOmaha Sports Academy for a 10 game or so session, I m familiar with it cause my 4th grade son plays on a team of mostly fourth graders who play in a 5th grade midlevel league their,and them kids can play out there,so I know this team is decent and at least familiar with each other,anyway. they are one of the two teams who have all kids who have at least played one year of organized basetball. We were down by one with 5min to go, lost by 8, and may have won had we not missed a ton of layups .Anyway they didnt play their lesser talented kids so I pulled back after initially attempting to just for the fact that my kids had no chance of guarding any of the other teams 5, I feel like im telling the kids who are playing their asses off that "hey play hard just dont expect to win" because they have no chance to if the others play close to as much as them. But yes as long as the lesser talented ones are at practices and want to try I cant ignore them and worry about wins only,theres a fine line. Good news is we are nt the Fire, the team we beat 58-9 the previoius week, if I was that coach I would be in a corner crying and not on here . Best thing is I got 2 4th graders and a 5th grader starting on my 5-6 grade team. Next two years I will be sitting back smiling while the other teams are on here desperately searching for a magic bullet to will lesser talented kids to victorys Thanks. what would you suggest with a real good big man and a great and real good off gueard, basically a real; decent topo six players. 5out,fout one in. is four out one in ,the same as 4out one in motion and is there such a thing as 4 out one in cutters, or all these basically the same thing.