6 Most Popular Types of Offenses in Basketball

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We are currently in an era of the NBA in which offense is more important than ever.

If you aren’t watching closely, it can be difficult to distinguish what type of offense is being run since the game moves at such a fast pace.

Let’s take a look at the most popular offenses in basketball below: 

Motion Offense

The first offense that we will break down is the motion offense. The motion offense was originated by Henry Iba and Boomer Sullivan who were the head coach and assistant coach respectively at Oklahoma State.

 Later on, the offense would be tweaked and brought to the mainstream by Bob Knight, the head coach at Indiana at the time. In Knight’s version of the offense, he implemented screening which led to even more movement and involvement from the power forward and center positions. 

The pros of this offense is that it gets the whole team involved with the constant ball and player movement. Along with this, it helps space the floor getting shooters’ open shots. The defenses that motion offense works best against are man-to-man and zone defenses. The Princeton motion offense is one of the most famous motion offense sets in basketball history which predicates itself on fast movement and wearing opponents down throughout the course of the game. 

The cons of this offense is that it does not leave much opportunity for a star player to perform much isolation offense. Along with this, it puts a lot of trust in the playmaking and court-reading abilities of all five players in the offense. A motion offense is meant for very well-rounded teams and should be avoided by those that are a bit top-heavy in terms of talent. 

Transition/Fast Break Offense

Transition or fast break offense occurs when a team gets a steal or rebound and try to score quickly. Typically teams that have great defenses try to perfect their transition offense. Along with this, teams with a lot of athleticism thrive in transition.

 In the past, transition offense typically strictly meant pushing the ball toward the basket and trying to score a layup or dunk, however, in recent years, more and more teams have begun pushing for their players to begin pulling up or passing for threes instead.

 Regardless of if you are going for 2’s or 3’s in transition, there are almost no cons to having a bad fast-break offense. Some of the pros include getting easy shot attempts, it can be key it breaking a press defense, it can wear out opposing teams, and it gets the fans engaged in the game. 

Zone Offense

In higher levels of basketball, coaches will begin implementing advanced defensive schemes to try to trip up opposing offenses. As a result of this, multiple forms of offenses have been constructed as blueprints to beat a certain zone. 

The main zone offenses are offenses to beat a 2-3 zone, a 1-2-2 zone, a 2-1 zone, a 1-3-1 zone, a 4-out zone, and a box-and-1 zone. These offenses can take some time to learn, however, as opposing teams begin to roll out zone defenses, it is necessary that your team knows how to beat the defense. Some keys to running a zone offense include beating the defense up the floor. 

This allows you to get your offense running before the opposing team gets the chance to get their zone set up. Another tip is to press on defense. This helps keep the pace of the game high and once again allows you to get looks at the basket before the opposing team can get set up in their zone. A third thing to do to run a successful zone offense is to figure out what zone the defense is running as early as possible. 

This will allow you to know what offense your team should be running to beat the specific zone you are facing. The pros and cons of zone defense depend on which zone offense you run.  

Triangle Offense

The triangle offense was popularized by arguably the greatest head coach of all time Phil Jackson. Jackson implemented the offense during his historic run with the Chicago Bulls. This is one of the most difficult offenses to learn, and for the most part, is not used anywhere near as much as it was in the 90s. 

Like the motion offense, all five players are tasked with reading the defense in detail. According to Coaches Clipboard, “The basic structure of the offense is the “sideline triangle” on one side of the floor, and a “two-man game” on the weak side. The sideline triangle is formed by a post player on the block and two perimeter players, one in the corner and one on the wing, and can be set up on either side of the court (diagrams A and B). 

The “two-man” weakside offense consists of a guard at the top and a player at the weakside elbow-extended area. Players can interchange, but it’s usually best to have two post and three perimeter players. The Bulls were best known for running the Triangle back in the mid-90s during their run of 6 NBA titles.

Isolation Offense

The isolation offense was used most frequently in the NBA through the late 90s and early 2000s. This offense is used against a man-to-man defense. In an isolation offense, the offensive team’s best player is typically given the ball and the rest of the team stands out of his way. 

At times, a teammate will give him a screen, however, in a basic isolation offense, it is just the ballhandler in a one-on-one matchup. This is an offense best suited for teams that are top-heavy or have an elite scorer. A recent example of a team that frequently ran this offense was the Houston Rockets during their run with James Harden. 

Pick and Roll Offense

The final offense that we will cover is the pick-and-roll offense. The pick and roll are one of the fundamental offensive schemes. Even in a freelance offense where there is no “set plan” and players are free to do what they want, you will still run into pick and rolls.

In the pick-and-roll offense, a ballhandler typically at the top of the key or a corner will receive a screen from a big. After this, the big and the ballhandler will both drive to the basket. It is especially well suited for teams that have a skilled passing point guard as it is on the guard to either take the shot at the rim, pass to the big, or kick it to a teammate for an outside shot. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, there are six main types of offense in basketball. These are motion offense, transition/fast break offense, zone offense, triangle offense, isolation offense, and pick-and-roll offense. 

Each scheme has its own pros and cons and the optimal offense for your team depends on where the strong suits of your team lie along with what kind of defensive scheme the opposing team is running.