At the start of the 2025 NBA Playoffs, the Indiana Pacers odds were +8000 to make the NBA Finals (wish I’d have made that bet!).

That means:

• A $100 bet would pay back $8,000

• That there was a 1.23% chance of the Pacers making the Finals.

Somehow, the Pacers defied the odds and made it to Game 7 of the Finals. Were it not for Tyrese Haliburton’s injury, they might have won the championship.

What was the key to their Cinderella story? Their transition offense. As Steve Kerr has pointed out, the best offense is always transition offense!

Throughout the playoffs, the Pacers ranked top 3 in % of transition possessions as well as points per transition possession.

That allowed them to:

• Find great shots early in possessions

• Wear down opponents with superior conditioning over 48 minutes

And it wasn’t a special playbook that enabled them to be so potent in transition. Instead of plays, you need principles that travel—from your practice court to game night and back again.

That’s the basis ofGet Comfortable Playing At An Uncomfortable Pace With Rob Brost. It’s simple, it scales to any level (Coach Brost team shot >70 eFG%), and it turns stops (and even makes) into easy points.

In this breakdown we’ll cover Coach Brost’s five core transition offense principles.

Check out the video below to see how the 2024–25 Indiana Pacers executed them and learn plug-and-play teaching ideas you can use immediately to get your team playing faster and scoring more!

5 Principles Of Elite Basketball Transition Offense

1. The person closest to the basketball takes inbounds the ball as fast as possible after a made basket

   • The same person does not always inbound the ball.

   • If you have a specified inbounder, they may be far away from the basket causing it to take too much time for them to get to the ball.

   • If it is after a dead ball situation, you can have specific players inbound the ball.

2. Inbound to a ball handler quickly

   • Coach Brost does not have a specific person designated to bring the ball up either.

   • The goal of the ball handler is to pitch the ball ahead to a wing in the corner or passing across the street.

3. Run to Spots

   • Coach Brost has designated spots for players in his transition offense.

   • The inbounder trails the ball handler.

   • Usually, the left side has two wing players.

   • The ball handler will dribble up the right side.

     

   • If there is no fast break advantage, they flow right into our actions. This can be a high ball screen or a dribble hand-off action.

4. Be in transition 80% of the time

   • That means 80% of their offensive practice is dedicated to a transition offense.

   • Half court offense is overrated because a team is rarely running their half court offense.

   • If there were 100 possessions in a game, they are going to hold our opponents to 40% shooting .

   • That alone puts them in transition 60% of the time just off of missed shots.

   • If they turn their opponents over 20% of the time, that puts them at 80%.

   • 20% is a high percentage but teams usually turn the ball over 15 times a game, so that would be close to 20% in a real game situation.

5. Make one layup off opponents’ made baskets per quarter

   • After a made basket, many teams then turn and jog back on transition defense.

   • Don’t wait for them to get back.

   • Don’t stop to set up your offense because that also gives the defense time to set up their defense.

   • Coach Brost will call out actions, but he will not pull the ball out to set up his offense.

   • If you make one layup per quarter, that equates to four baskets a game.

   • When playing against good teams, eight points makes a HUGE difference.

Early Offense = Easy Points

The stats don’t lie. Transition offense = more points.

• At the NBA level, teams score about .94 points per possession in the half court

• In transition, that balloons to 1.24 points per possession

Start playing fast and watch your team’s offense blossom. For everything fast break basketball, check out our transition offense hub page.

And to learn more about Coach Brost’s system, check out Get Comfortable Playing At An Uncomfortable Pace.

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