Zoom and Handoffs
Zoom, Chicago, Miami, Spain, step-up, ghost, drag, Delay. The handoff family and its reads.
The base action of the family and the one to install first: a pin-down straight into a dribble handoff, from five-out with the post as the hub. The post takes a…
What the zoom does when the defense takes the handoff away, and the reason I trust it against a team that has scouted it: three counters from one picture, each…
Chicago action from Horns, the version Michigan ran in 2025–26: the point enters to the elbow big, who dribbles toward the wing; the point cuts to set a…
Miami action, a dribble handoff followed immediately by a ball screen. Once you know the name you will spot it in nearly every NBA and college game, and in…
Spain pick and roll, the stack ball screen: the post screens for the point at the top, and as the post rolls, a shooter stacked behind him back-screens the…
The step-up ball screen, set from below the ball with the screener's back to the baseline so the handler attacks up the sideline toward the middle, and what it…
The ghost screen, a ball screen that never gets set: the screener jogs toward the handler as if to set a ball screen, turns his shoulders to sell it, and before…
The transition ball screen, drawn from half court: the point pushes the ball up a side, the wings sprint to the deep corners, the first big fills the far slot…
Delay, the five-out offense with the big at the top as the hub, and its simplest trigger: the get, where a guard passes to the big and immediately chases the…
The zoom as a transition entry, for the possession where the break produces nothing and the ball is still alive, drawn from half court: the trailing big gets…
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