Coach ,

It won’t take Mark Cascio long to prove to you that implementing a modern motion offense is always a wise decision.

For those who don't know Mark Cascio is a championship basketball coach with 18 years of experience at the Division I and High School levels. During this time, his teams have won seven district titles, appeared in five Final Fours, and won a Louisiana State Championship in 2012. Coach Cascio was a head coach at the age of 21 and is the youngest coach to capture a state title in Louisiana at the age of 26. 

What is Modern Motion? 

What is Modern Motion?

Coach Cascio believes that if there are always single gaps on the floor within a modern motion offense, his team can always either pass, cut, or set screens, which will create an opportunity to either get the ball into the paint or facilitate an open shot.

Another vital aspect of a modern motion offense is that teams need to be free to execute transition offense when it presents itself. 

In addition, given how prevalent three-point shots are, having players more spread out along the perimeter rather than just standing right on top of the three-point line will lead to more spacing and scoring opportunities. 

While this may sound obvious, another integral part of running a modern motion offense is that the ball should perpetually be in motion. 

Coach Cascio ensures this by employing what he calls a “.5 rule” on offense. This means anytime a player has the ball, they have half of a second to either shoot, dribble, or pass. This means there’s no stagnancy or isolation in the game. 

Putting It All Together

Putting It All Together

The modern motion offense is versatile enough for a coach to be able to tinker with some components to make it best fit their team philosophy or roster. For example, if a coach prefers off-ball screening to on-ball screening, then can lean on more zoom concepts instead of chasing into a ball screen on most possessions. 

After the advantage has been created, the players just need to play natural and free basketball (in other words, making the right play when it presents itself) and success typically follows. 

A common misconception with the modern motion offense is that it isn’t effective for post players, or teams that don’t have elite attacking guards or adept shooters on the wings. 

But given how the offense is constantly moving (especially if a team employs the aforementioned .5 rule) post players can set back-screens for each other, ball-screen (pick and roll), and create space outside of the key for their guards to drive into the paint and kick it out to them, which often makes for an uncontested mid-range jumper or touch shot. 

Thank you Coach Cascio for sharing.

To learn more you can check our ‘The Modern Motion Offense’ course that breaks down how to keep what you love about motion while allowing for more player creativity, create more space, and use modern actions and triggers to create advantages, such as the two-sided break, zoom action, ball screens, split action, uphill DHOs, and more.

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