Team Offense

A team’s success depends on its members playing together. On offense, only one player handles the ball at a time, but the other players are always moving and positioning themselves to try to create scoring opportunities, either for the ball handler or for themselves. This section describes some of the basic offensive strategies that teams use.

Half-Court Offense

    The basic offensive setup is the half-court offense, in which the point guard, who generally functions as the leader of the team on the court, dribbles the ball up the court and allows his or her teammates enough time to set up in position. A team with a well-disciplined half-court offense keeps control of the tempo of a game by slowing down the pace each time it regains possession. This helps prevent the opponent from establishing its own, faster offensive rhythm.

A good half-court offense also carves up defenses by exposing weaknesses and by exploiting individual matchups. For example, a crisp half-court offense with precise passing may take advantage of defenders who do not cover their players tightly. Or an offensive team may repeatedly give the ball to a player who is taller and stronger than the defensive player matched up against him or her. This allows the offensive player to muscle the defender out of the way for a chance at an easy basket. One disadvantage of running the half-court offense is that it limits a team’s ability to move the ball quickly down the court.

Fast-Break Offense

     A team running a fast-break offense reacts quickly after a basket by the opposing team, passing the ball down the court for easy scoring opportunities before defenders can move back to cover open players. This is also called a transition game: During the transition time when possession of the ball changes, players are already moving into offensive position. A fast-break offense forces all players to run, so a well-conditioned team can tire out opponents. When tired, the opponents will usually play sloppy defense, giving the offense easy scoring opportunities.

A fast-break offense is especially effective if a team has big players who run the floor well, because they can outrun their defenders and force the defensive team to guard them with smaller players. This creates mismatches near the basket and also leaves the offensive team’s guards open for easy jump shots from the perimeter (the area at least 15 ft from the basket).

Playing Big

    The term playing big means that a team has players on the court who are taller, heavier, or both. Bigger players can force their way closer to the basket, creating shorter shots for themselves and opening up space for the guards on the perimeter to hit jump shots (shots in which the player jumps into the air and releases the ball toward the basket). Playing big also gives a team an advantage in rebounding, because taller players generally collect more rebounds (balls that bounce back into play after unsuccessful shots). The disadvantage of playing big is that smaller, quicker opponents may use their speed to play a fast-break game, and if a team’s big players are not mobile, they may not defend effectively against it.

Playing Small

     Not all teams can play several tall players at once, so playing small—stacking the lineup with shorter, faster players—is also a strategy. Smaller teams generally run good fast-break offenses and play an up-tempo game. Because most big players are not quick enough to defend well on the perimeter, smaller players who can pass effectively or create their own scoring opportunities by dribbling around bigger players can have a huge advantage. Smaller players are generally at a disadvantage in rebounding and in defending near the basket, however, because bigger, stronger opponents will overpower them.

Ball Movement

    The term ball movement means consistent passing from player to player, and from one side of the floor to the other. By swinging the ball across the floor, the offense forces the defense to shift constantly. This keeps defenders from setting themselves in position and makes them vulnerable to allowing an open path to the basket. An alert offensive player will use an open path to penetrate to the basket and score.

 Spreading the Court.

A team spreads the court when its players position themselves so that there are large spaces or gaps between them, and thus between the defenders as well. This makes it difficult for defenders to help one another when one defender is overmatched by a larger or faster player. Spreading the court is a particularly good strategy for an offense when one of its players is especially skilled at matching up against a single defender and scoring. After his or her teammates spread the court so that the defender is isolated, the offensive player can operate without any other defensive pressure.