Four Out Motion - Drive & Space

The majority of our advantages with Four Out Motion are going to be created by screening actions, but when teams increase the pressure drive & space opportunities emerge.

When we use the term Motion Offense we are referring to a conceptual offense that asks our players to be guided by a certain set of If/Then statements. Those rules then allow us to make appropriate reads based on how the defense plays our actions. In our first Four Out Motion post, we laid out our Four Out Motion offense spacing, roles & design to give us a base to work from. We dug into the reads involved in using Down Screens & Flare Screens - and used diagrams and clips to demonstrate how we might react to certain defensive approaches.

In this post, I wanted to get into some of the Dribble Drive opportunities that present themselves in a Motion Offense. Due to our Four Out Spacing, there are two general areas in which dribble-drive opportunities come from; the Slot & the Wing. One of the things I really like about Four Out Spacing is that we have no single gaps and theoretically very few dribble drives are met with heavy "one pass away" resistance. From these two areas, the Slot & Wing, we are going to look into what triggers should lead to these drives and how to extend these advantages with the Quick Pitch and Drop Pass options.

Pressure Releases Concepts -

Before we get into the specific Drive & Space opportunities that present themselves in Motion Offense I think it is worthwhile to touch on some Pressure Release concepts that we should probably have in place. One thing I talked about in my Offensive Installation thread earlier this Fall was the need to prepare our team to counter defensive pressure. At some point in every game, you are going to face a scenario where the defense takes away your main create action and it is up to us as coaches to prepare our players to deal with this.

DHO into a Post Up -

One of the most common pressure releases we will teach is the Slot to Wing DHO. I have written extensively on this subject and feel like no matter what system you run - this action can serve as a pressure release.

Duck In:

In our 4 Out Motion, this action triggered a great opportunity for the 5 Man to duck in and great a deep post up. If you can get some backside action from the 3,4 to occupy the help defense this action can be highly productive.

Backside Action:

Whenever we made the slot to Wing DHO we automatically asked our backside player to conduct a screening action. Depending on the position of our Screeners and Cutters we would either conduct a Down Screen or Flare Screen.

Wave Through -

Another common pressure release that we used with Four Out Motion is the "Wave Through". If a team attempted to deny the Slot to Slot pass across the top we would simply wave him through and backfill from the corner.

Denial:

The key read for the ball handler would be the stance of the X4 defender. If he was even hinting that he was going to deny just wave him through and let's keep playing.

Dive & Fill:

Once we wave the slot player through we are expecting his spot to be backfilled from the corner. Ideally, we are delivering this pass to the slot where we can just continue to down screen and flow into our half-court offense. If the pressure was good enough to disrupt that action as well then we would try to conduct a slot to slot DHO to keep the ball moving.

Slot Drives -

One of the most common driving scenarios that will appear in Four Out Motion is the slot drive. As we said in the introduction the majority of our advantages will be created through screening actions, but we should not ignore the core concepts of drive & space basketball. There will most certainly be teams on your schedule who choose to battle your Motion Concepts with a pressure defense approach. In these cases, we need to make sure that we make them pay with our Drive & Space game.

Slot Drives -

We defined the Slot as an area at a height of the NBA three-point line and width of one step beyond the lane line.

Recognize Gaps:

When defenses decide that they are going to try and deny passes to the Slot and Corner then we need to be prepared to attack this area of the floor with the dribble.

Fighting Pressure:

One of the reasons why I prefer Four Out Motion to Five Out versions is the perimeter gaps that it creates for players. In a Four Out Motion system, we are not worrying about single gaps and are just focused on whether or not we should drive or simply move the basketball into the next action.

Slot Drive, QP & Drop Pass - Regardless of what Create Action we choose to employ the Drive & Space rules do not change. Whenever we get a drive from a perimeter player we are trying to give him the Drop Pass and Quick Pitch options.

Drop Pass:

One teaching point we would stress with our 5 Man is that we need to release and circle away from any perimeter drive. In the clips that we see below or in the Wing Drives section you should see our 5 Man looking to release.

Quick Pitch (QP):

The Quick Pitch is perhaps the Drive & Space reaction that we practice the most. The instinct of high school defenders is to always collapse on the ball - and when they do that we need to make them pay. On slot drives, this will often lead to collapses from the corner defender and clean kick-out reads for our players.

Wing Drives -

In Motion Offenses, the Wing Drive opportunities will occur at a much lower clip than the Slot Drive version. However, despite their lower frequency they still represent a great opportunity to extend advantages and create scores. Often times the Wing Drives will happen when the ball is passed from Slot to Wing and the Post Entry pass is not open. If we have good Four Out Spacing there will almost always be a chance for the basketball to be driven at the Elbow collapsing the defense.

Wing Drives -

From a passing perspective - there really isn't anything different on a Wing Drive than a Slot Drive. If the ball can not get to the rack we are trying to provide a Drop Pass and Quick Pitch option.

Drop Pass:

On most Wing Drives the Post Player is on the ball side and so a "slip" to the baseline is the most common way they can prepare to receive a drop pass.

Quick Pitch:

On the backside, we have two players who should be positioning themselves to receive a quick pitch pass. In this diagram, we are presenting a really common scenario where there is a corner and "45" option on the backside of the drive. Who gets the kick-out pass wholly depends on which defender decides to help on the drive.

Concluding Thoughts -

There is a misconception with Motion Offense that the only way we can create advantages is with off-the-ball screening. Although that is our preferred way to create advantages there will most certainly be a time where we have to create them through other means. Whether we are running Motion, DDM, or Motion Strong Action we need to be able to use the Dribble Drive as a weapon in our offensive attack. In Four Out Motion, those screening actions will put stress on the defense and as defenses recognize this they frequently decide to put more pressure on those perimeter touches. Our counter is to now attack those defenses with our Dribble Drive principles and make them pay.

If you liked this post and want to be notified of future ones be sure to subscribe to our website in the Coaches Corner: www.coachlynchbasketball.com/coachescorner.

Coach Lynch Contact Info:

Email - mflynch21@yahoo.com

Twitter - @CoachLynch_21

YouTube - Check out My Channel https://bit.ly/3lfbvSp