Coach ,

Last year I watched certain college and high school basketball teams struggle to find an offensive flow while trying to follow a certain system and play scripted calls.

As effective as it is to have structured offense, I notice that the best teams are able to just “free play”, especially in secondary transition. The teams that can do both get the job done.

Today I want to go over a few quick “FREE PLAY” non-scripted actions that I learned from former NBA and G-League Coach Jimmy Bradshaw, who spent most of his career with the Washington Wizards.

The reason I believe these will become effective for my team this year is because it gives my players the opportunity to let my players play and flow in the offense, and not be so rigid the whole game. This would in the past always help them to be more relaxed in our system later on. 

Let’s take a look at a few of the options we can run in transition without any scripted signal.

Swing Action

This is a non-scripted action, where players learn to play into each other’s strengths. Again, all our players really have to do is understand the proper spacing. Here we can see Tyler Herro swings the ball to Leonard and opens up the lane by fading to the corner. Leonard immediately sees Jimmy Butler who’s coming off the left side and goes into DHO with his strong hand. 

Swing Action

Dribble Action into Pick n Roll

Here we have our guard initiating DHO to the wing, the big reads the action and immediately comes to set the pick after the DHO. 

Dribble Action into PnR

Empty Corner DHO

This action is excellent if you have a forward who can bring the ball up the court. Just like Julius Randle dribbles out the ball, he initiates the offense by starting DHO to the empty corner. Especially when there is a mismatch and our big forward is comfortable bringing the ball up, it can stir up the defensive rotation, as they most of the time will wait for the guard to get the ball and initiate the offense. 

Empty Corner DHO

Drag PnR with Hard Roll

In this play, the Celtics take advantage of playing with a smaller lineup, and having Gordon Hayward playing 4-man, and bringing the ball up the court, the 5-man does a great job of setting in the angle that does not allow the defender to go under, and rolls to the basket - forcing the defense to switch, giving Hayward a mismatch opportunity. 

!PAY ATTENTION TO 5-MAN’s FOOTWORK ON THE PICK!

Drag PnR with Hard Roll

Again, non-scripted action. The offense made great reads off the spacing. This is something we can teach our players to automatically run in our secondary offense instead of automatically calling a play. Even when we play organized basketball, the free flow of offense gives our players a great opportunity to relax and just play every once in a while. This can make a huge difference in their confidence on the offensive end.

Thank you Coach Jimmy Bradshaw for sharing!

Always keep improving,

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