Improving Your Motion Offense on the Court

In order to run an effective offense at any stage of basketball, you will need to find a way to incorporate all of your players into the action and find a way to get them involved on every play. The current NBA Champions, the Golden State Warriors, thrive not only due to the litany of weapons they have at their disposal, but their ability to work for each other through screens and motion. While implementing a motion offense isn’t easy, it can be done if you are willing to give control to the players. There are many things that must be implemented for your motion offense to be successful.

First, you will want to make sure that your players are making hard cuts. Hard cuts have a dual benefit. This forces help from off-ball defenders and prevents the cutter’s defenders from helping. If any player that is in a position to help on defense notices an offensive player that is cutting hard to the rim while calling for the basketball, the defensive player will then instinctively rotate to provide help which opens up catch and shoot situations.

Screening is especially important in a motion offense as well. The key to making a strong screen is to not shy away from making contact with other players, otherwise, your opponent will easily be able to slip through. Be sure to teach big men proper positioning so that perimeter players can be opened up for reception of the ball, open shots, or further shot creation.

In a motion office, you will also want to have smart spacing. You cannot run plays effectively if players are watching and waiting within the same vicinity. Make sure there is noticeable distance with your players so that driving lanes can open and force the defense to make quick decisions.

Next to purposeful dribbling and making quick, crisp passes, the most important thing you can do in a motion offense is to, well, keep moving. Combining all of the fundamentals of basketball, you will always want to remain in constant motion. The ball should not stagnate at any moment and should always be moving. Unless you have a visible mismatch and want to take advantage of an isolation play, running a motion offense entails that all players remain in constant motion.