Zone Offense play
Zone Offense: Baseline Runner vs 2-3
- Court
- Half court
- Length
- 14 steps
About this play
The runner: the best shooter lives on the baseline and runs corner to corner behind the zone, so the forwards have to pass him off across three defenders. From Basketball For Coaches' "Baseline Swing" and Coach's Clipboard's runner options: the ball goes to the wing and back out, the runner cuts along the baseline under the forwards and the middle to the far side, the ball swings to that wing, and the weak post screens the forward who is trying to follow, leaving the runner in the open short corner or corner. The read is whether the forward follows the runner or stays home: a forward who follows leaves the block, and a forward who stays leaves the corner. The counter is for the forward who anticipates the run and jumps out early to the corner: the runner cuts back hard to his original spot, and the ball-side post who was screening steps into the vacated block for the direct pass. Why it works: HoopTactics' reads for the 2-3 say that when the baseline player rotates out to cover the wing, it opens the low post, and that is exactly what the early jump does. Common mistakes: the runner going on the pass instead of the catch, the screener screening air because the forward never left, and the swing pass being thrown before the runner has cleared the middle. I learned the runner from Basketball For Coaches' Baseline Swing and Coach's Clipboard's Zone-23 runner, with HoopTactics supplying the read on the early forward; Breakthrough Basketball's five plays video shows it running.
