When dealing with a motion offense, your players’ ability to read and react to the defense is vital to success. I went over a couple of motion
drills for your wing players a couple of days ago, and today I’m going to be showing you guys a couple like-minded drills – but for your post players.
In the motion offense your post players – your 4-men especially – are going to have to have the ball in their hands in the high post and even on the perimeter here and there.
They might be a little bit uncomfortable at first, but this drill will show them the wealth of options that are available to them in the high post, and the easy scoring opportunities it can provide for them, and your offense.
Post Cuts
Have a coach stand on each wing, at about the foul line extended, with a line behind the player standing on the block with a ball. They’ll then throw the ball, and sprint up to the high post with their hands ready.
This is where players will have to imagine themselves in game situations and react accordingly, either creating their own shot from the high post, or reversing to the other coach and running either a screen and roll, slip screen, or a dribble handoff.
To start off focus on just flashing to the high post and either hitting the elbow jump shot or taking it strong to the hoop to the left and right sides.
Next, we will work on the reversal, and in this particular instance, the pick and roll. After catching the ball in the high post, the player will swing the ball across the court and step into a strong screen.
The coach will use it, and work the players hands with either a lob up over the defense or a nice low bounce pass.
Now if the defense is anticipating the pick and roll and positioning themselves to defend it, simply run a slip screen or a dribble hand-off. A slip screen is essentially a fake screen – take a couple steps towards the defender and then plant and dive, or slip, to the rim without actually ever touching the defender.
The dribble hand-off is something you’re going to want to reserve for your big men with a better ability to dribble the ball. When the reversal pass is denied, just take one or two dribbles towards the wing player and let him cut off of you, forcing his defender to chase around.
Coaching Tips
– Work in some off ball screens as well, to get them used to flashing to the ball after a screen with the proper footwork
– As always, making this a competition in your practice is a great idea – see who can go through the whole series without missing a shot!
If you’re looking for more info, you should definitely spend some time on my youtube page, there are tons of cool videos, and starting tomorrow, I’ll be adding new ones weekly!