5-Out play
5-Out: Middle Drive, 45 Cut and the Kick-Up
- Court
- Half court
- Length
- 8 steps
About this play
The reactions to a drive from the top. Why they matter: a middle drive in 5-out is driven into a single gap, so the drive-side wing shakes up to the slot to stay in the driver's vision, the drive-side corner drifts deeper, the weak wing makes the 45 cut to the rim if his defender turns to help, and the weak corner lifts to fill behind him. Everyone sprints one step and gets his chest to the ball. Counter shown: the scouted defense helps from the top, the slot defender stunting down at the drive, so the kick-up goes to the wing who lifted and he drives the gap the first driver emptied; when the corner defender helps on that drive, the kick goes to the corner and one more pass finds the relocated driver. Rule: after a kick-up the driver relocates to the spot behind the receiver, never into the lane. The drive reactions here are pulled from Breakthrough Basketball's 5-out guide and the Read and React glossary, and PGC's piece on wing drives in 5-out is what got me thinking about the kick-up; read them if you want to go deeper.
