"However I find that the players don't score off basket cuts that often. The other team normally smartens up and sees what the offense is and with split line help it can be an easy offense to stop in my opinion. "

Timing on basket cuts and successfully passing to the open player following the cut is usually an underdeveloped skill in the younger age groups. All the more reason to persevere and develop the necessary skills to get scores from these options.

But as others have pointed out, there are many fundamental skills to work on other than passing and cutting: movement following the drive from the wing/top of key, screening on/off ball, post play etc. Most important of all: you can never work on spacing too much (in my opinion).

Besides, spending time learning offensive patterns has an opportunity cost: learning the fundamental skills to execute plays. All the more reason to go with a motion offense.

Sorry I should have been more specific.

By motion I mean a 5 out pass and cut offense. Whenever a player passes the ball, they make a basket cut and the other players rotate around to the other spots.

It also incorporates back cuts and one the rules I am going to implement this season is whenever a player dribbles at you then you back cut. Or if you can't get open back cut through and let someone else replace you.

Does that sound like a good place to start offensively? Thanks for all the advice so far.

You're starting in the right place Bill. It's important to time the basket cuts though to give the player who would be making the pass to the cutter time to make an effective pass.

When you're drilling your pass and cut, it's a good idea to get the cutter to wait a second after they pass before they cut to see what their defender does. If the defender jumps into the passing lane, the cutter should cut behind the defender, if the defender doesn't move, then the cutter should cut over the top. The passer must also pass the ball early to the cutter. If they wait too long the cutter will be too deep to have time to catch and make a decision if they are in a position to score or not.

Also important to make sure the cutters clear out of the key quickly after they've made their backdoor cut. Often, the player defending the cut will take a few steps away from the split line before returning there (if at all) if they clear out faster.

"Dribble ats" are a good way to keep to keep the offense flowing and players moving, especially if you have a player forget to back cut. The player with the ball can dribble toward them and force them to cut and keep things moving.

You might also want to look at the concept of drafting. Drafting is where a perimeter player penetrates on the back of a back door cutter. After a player passes and cuts, there's a hole where the cutting player started which is a great area to drive into as the defense will be adjusting and having to worry about their own player moving. The help defense also sags in a little to help with the cutter so it there's often a nice juicy gap in the defense to attack.

Good Luck!

I have many more simple but effective offenses to implement after this lot learn motion.

I just find at this age group its easier to teach one offense at a time and until they truly get the hang of this one I will not be teaching any other offense.

I like the idea of passing it off early Pauly B, that will definitely be something that I emphasize to them from now on.

Whats the preferable option in terms of passing to a back cutter or just off a general basket cut? Bounce pass? Chest pass? Overhead pass?

I think it really depends on the situation and where the defenders are, but what would be the best pass to emphasize to them off a cut or back cut?

You want to get the ball to the back door cutter as quickly as possible. The cutter should have a target hand up so the passer knows where the cutter wants the ball. Bounce passes tend to be slower than overhead/chest passes so the best option is to go with a good hard flat chest/overhead pass, especially if you have really young kids. That being said, if you think your kids can accurately hit a cutter using a hard bounce pass then go for it.

Good idea to get you players to work on pass fakes so they're not telegraphing their passes. Otherwise, good defenders will read where the pass is going and pick them off.

I'd suggest having a look at this also.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xAzANFC74c

Chest passing to cutters is difficult when defenders have active hands or are up in the grill of the ball-handler. Overhead passing is often telegraphed at the younger age groups and also takes away the ability to drive/shoot.

Push passing (with or without a bounce depending on the defense) from triple threat is the way to go; also allows the possibility to draft the cutter if the defender takes away the pass by crowding the ball handler.

Thanks for the responses on what pass to make.

See what I mean though lol! Everybody has a different opinion on what pass to make.

I agree that a push pass is ideal, however if they are on their weaker hand they will struggle big time.

Overhead passing can be good, however they are also more likely to get deflected.

A chest pass would only work if the player was clear of the defender.

I honestly like to teach my players how to throw a good bounce pass as it is good for the smaller guards so they don't have to pass into hands or over taller players which can be difficult.

It truly depends on what the defense is doing in my opinion, but I can't expect the kids to read the defense perfectly each time.

@Bill, it sounds like you need to focus on teaching and developing the basics more, so your team can all use both hands to pass the ball and they can all do the basic skill correctly on both sides of their body mate...

Walk before they can run, then they will run better!

All good points and Bear is spot on with the skills. If players can't dribble with either hand, not watch the court when they dribble, catch a ball, pivot, or shoot properly you are behind the 8 ball immediately.

Motion is pretty basic, but with a few core rules to create movement. There are more complicated offenses out there, but motion is the most basic one to start with and the concepts of motion evolve into the more complicated offenses.

Someone's comment about transition is correct. Biggest problem with a lot of junior teams is the ball hogs who think they can get the ball on the inbound pass, dribble around 3 defenders, go coast to coast and lay it up.

Aim of any team should be to keep the ball in their front court. I like a rule of "limit of 3" when bringing the ball out of the back - 3 dribbles in the back court, 3 secs in back court, 3 passes to the key.

Have rules to your motion and limit the options depending on the ability of the kids to learn.

For me teach:
1) pass and cut and clear
2) Back doors
3) Ball swing
4) Spacing and rotating
5) Player movement on driving

If any under 14's do that well, you have done a great job.