This will be review for many, but one of the most common requests I’ve gotten since starting this blog is to “demystify” our offensive and defensive systems. Namely, to do a beginner to intermediate guide to help fans better understand what they’re seeing, what we’re doing, and what we’re trying to accomplish through our various sets. I reference the Pack Line, Sides, Inside Triangle, and 5-Out regularly in my work, calling out how certain things work within plays and how players are performing, but have never done my own break down on these systems, Cuts-Style.
Over the next several installation of Cuts, I’m going to focus on each of the three main offensive looks/variants that we showed last season – “Blocker/Mover” aka “Sides”, “Inside Triangle” aka “3-Man” and a 5-Out variant aka “Flow” (and some close-confusers of this offense), as well as tackling the Pack Line. The terminology can be confusing in and of itself because some different names are often used interchangeably depending on when you learned the term or your relation to the program. I’ll be using the more common name for each of the three throughout, but just know that the names above correspond as I’ve paired them so if you hear one, it’s the same the other. An additional challenge is that these offenses have different variations and are designed to be challenging to discern from each other on the court so that we can change between them within a game and defenses don’t always immediately know what we’re in. So, if you find yourself watching the games and not always being able to know what set we’re in or what’s going on – this series of posts is meant for you! And, if you do pick up this stuff quickly within a game, this series could still be good reminder for how we chose to use these throughout the season and will include the typical Cuts to illustrate.
Today, we’ll dive into the most iconic and most commonly used over the years of CTB’s offenses; “Blocker/Mover” or, “Sides.” “Blocker/Mover” being the traditional name for it, with “Sides” being the more current name (ostensibly designed to eliminate the potential stigma of only being “blockers” from post players and, instead, focusing on the symmetrical nature of the offense). It’s a continuous motion offense, meaning that the players are rarely stationary by design, looking to move the defense, read it, and react accordingly. There are also no prescriptive movements (although we do run a lot of set plays that look like they’re part of the Sides offense, which we’ll touch on at the end), meaning that the players have options at any given time and decide what to do based on their read of the play/defense/teammates rather than scripting any motion out at any given time. In fact, all of our offenses aside from the few designed plays in big moments, or after a half, or media timeout, work like this; which, again, can create intentional confusion. Nevertheless, there are core concepts that we’ll cover now that provide a framework through which the players play.
Sides is defined by three guard/wing positions 1-3 or, “Movers,” reading, working with, and running off of screens set by two post players 4-5 or, “Blockers.” The offense is set up in a symmetrical way with one guard at the top of the key and the other on each side of the court, most commonly working with the corresponding post player on their side (hence the name). The guards can transition between the respective areas and, when they do, they are replaced by another guard within the context of the flow of the offense. This maintains the same guard structure throughout of one up top and two on either side of the court. Similarly, the post players are looking to set quality screens for any of the three guards within their respective side, and then play off of those actions to help generate offensive advantage. For example, they might free up a guard off of a pin down screen, set a ball screen to work with them in a pick and roll (or pick and pop), dive to the bucket, or even look to post up their man. The offense can dictate that the post players stay in tight around the lane or extend wide to set screens out at the three-point line and everything in between, keeping that spacing structure of primarily splitting halves of the court with each other.
Virginia is often thought of as a guard-focused program, which is a fair description given CTB’s background, the bulk of our most talented players within his program historically, and how our offenses have been executed as a result. But it’s a misconception that Sides has to be a guard-focused offense just because the bigs are tasked with setting screens for the guards. It’s all in execution, how you chose to prioritize the play and the instructions that the coaching staff gives re: who has the freedom to shoot, pace of play, who they’re trying to get the most looks for, etc. In fact, you could run a guard off of a screen on the block to take an entry pass on the wing and then post up on the block with the big every single time down the court, if you wanted. You could play the screening action with the purpose of freeing up the post players most commonly. That’s just one important point of note that I wanted to call out about Sides before we really dive in – when people talk about our pace of play being slow or the offense being guard-heavy, that’s not inherently baked into the offense itself. That’s the execution of the offense – passing up good for great looks, wearing the defense down over the span of the game by forcing them to defend the actions for so long, most often playing to generate guard looks, etc. A team with less restraint or one trying to push the tempo could launch shots after the first pin down screen or force the action on the first pick and roll. You could also very easily say, “let’s try to post out of our action whenever we get an opportunity on the block,” or “let’s push the pick and roll out of these actions,” etc. So, both pace and where the shots are coming from is more of a team identity thing and less of something specific to Sides (of course you could argue the point that the screen actions necessitate that the offense takes a little longer than any clear out/isolation-style offenses but hopefully you get the main point that I’m making here). The way that we most commonly run the offense is with the intent of either creating a wide-open look and taking it or, more commonly, forcing the defense to react and defend over a longer period of time, increasing their fatigue, the likelihood that they make a mistake, and creating incremental advantage throughout the rotations/switches until a clean look eventually materializes. Pass up “good” for “great” is the way CTB has often described his philosophy around this. It’s very hard to play immaculate team defense for long periods of time without getting tired/making a mistake – and that’s what our version of Sides attempts to exploit.
All of this can be a little nebulous to talk about so let’s do the thing we do here… lots of illustrative Cuts! Here’s a first look at the offense playing out in full over time. I’m going to ask you to watch it first and then I’m going to talk through the action below and feel free to re-watch as we detail:
This is the game we blew the doors off of Clemson in the ACC Tournament. You’ve got Kihei Clark at point (#0), Reece Beekman (#2) starting on the lower side and Armaan Franklin (#4) at the free throw line as your three guards. Jayden Gardner (#1), and Kadin Shedrick (#21) are your two post players. To start the play, Gardner is lurking around Beekman threatening to set a pin down screen for him to release out to the wing. Instead, Beekman cuts past the rim and uses a Shedrick screen to get to the opposite wing. This is a standard motion that you’ll see in Sides and notice, already, that Beekman’s defender is having to worry about multiple things and ends up chasing Beekman out to where he takes the pass. Franklin, meanwhile, reads what Beekman has done and fills on the side he vacated, casually rubbing off of a Gardner screen and moving out to the wing. That’s the fill action that I’m talking about. Beekman started on the bottom (it’s really the right side but, given the video dynamic, I’m going to use top and bottom) side and then motioned over to the top side and Franklin filled for him at the bottom. Beekman takes the pass on the wing from Clark and there are a lot of things that could happen here. Shedrick could post on the block if he was so inclined or head up to set a screen for Beekman. Instead, Beekman dribbles back up top, pushing Clark to move to the bottom side, utilizing a flare screen from Gardner (more on this action later). Clark is moving into Franklin’s side so he vacates and runs baseline to the side that Beekman is vacating with his dribble, utilizing a Shedrick screen as he does so. All of this is to keep that guard spacing/balance that we talked about earlier always having a guard at the point and one on each side. Notice the symmetry they’re working to maintain and the motions they take to get there when a teammate in the same role leaves or comes into their area. Franklin takes the pass back on the wing that Beekman just vacated and we’re down to 11 on the shot clock. Think about how many reads/decisions the defenders of the guards have already had to make at this point, how many screens they’ve fought through and how much ground they’ve covered. Franklin passes it right back to Beekman up top, staying home on his side now and Clark who was drifting to the block with the option to replace for Franklin sees this, and uses Gardner’s pin down screen to bounce back out to his same wing. It’s a doozy of a screen, knocking Clark’s man to the floor, and from here it’s incremental advantage as Clemson tries to recover. A lot is happening simultaneously from here – Beekman’s man stays home to help on Clark as Beekman fades to Franklin’s wing as Gardner’s man tries to get halfway between Gardner and Clark to take up as much space as possible and deter an easy bucket at the hoop. On the back side, Franklin cuts to the baseline again with his man trailing him. Clark smartly passes it to Beekman because he’s drawn his man so he’s uncovered, and Shedrick’s man has to leave him from the high post to take the open Beekman. Shedrick dives to the block, pulling Gardner’s man’s attention and opening space for Beekman to drive. Clark’s man, who is now back up off of the floor, fills on Gardner since his man left for Shedrick. Beekman’s drive on the slower-footed post player draws his original man back to sag, which allows him to kick it back out to Clark for the wide open three with Jay Bilas left remarking about the ball movement.
Phew! That was a lot, but it shows well how much strain the constant screening puts the defenders under and how the offense created incremental advantage over time, forcing reaction and rotations until it yielded a wide-open look. It’s important to call out again that none of that was scripted. The players followed rules in the sense that they knew where to go when certain things happened, but it was all just reading what each other was doing, where the vulnerabilities were in the defense, and then pushing on those areas. Each player on that possession intuitively knew where to go in order to maximize the advantage.
Let’s look at another from the same game:
This is with the same lineup except Isaac McKneely (#11) is in the game instead of Franklin. Clark is again at point and this time McKneely is manning the top quadrant and, rather than running off of screens, simply takes the pass on the wing. Beekman fakes coming off of the pin down screen from Gardner and again runs baseline as if he’s coming toward the opposite wing. Notice Clark, having passed to McKneely and seeing Beekman switching sides, floats to the bottom side to fill for Beekman, leaving McKneely at the point, just wing-extended. As Beekman runs his man into the Shedrick screen, his man tries to cheat and go over the top of it, so Beekman reads that and flattens out to the corner where McKneely passes him the ball. Now out of position from attempting to go over the screen rather than trailing, Shedrick’s man has to drop off of him to cut off Beekman’s wide-open path to the hoop. Shedrick rolls, now open, takes Beekman’s nice bounce pass, and finishes with the dunk. This opportunity materializes much more quickly and so we take it – but notice how just a couple of differences set up by previous action and Beekman’s quality read made this play. All it took was the threat of that back screen to get his man behind him, and then the repetition of him typically curling around that screen with a trailer and taking the pass on the wing. But as soon as his defender tried to anticipate where he was going and cheat the screen, Beekman just snapped his route off into the corner, changed the entire defensive angle, and then quickly pressed the advantage with Shedrick.
It’s easy to understand the Clemson defender’s mentality there. The majority of the time we run that baseline motion our player is going to come off of that screen and head to the wing. They would have defended a pin down screen many times before in that game. In fact, here’s a quick look in the first half with Caffaro (#22) playing his side a little higher. We see the same action with Clark passing it to Beekman to re-establish the point, Franklin cutting baseline out to the wing (and Gardner’s man shading that pass pretty hard), and Clark filling up top. But here, when Clark quickly pops back out to the three-point line Caffaro moves into the elbow to set the pin down, Clemson plays under it/doesn’t fight hard to get over, and Clark simply takes and drains the three.
Whether it’s a screen extended out at the three-point line like the above, or a screen closer to the hoop that the cutter uses to create space from his man and continue outside, that pin down action to free up a shooter is one of the most repetitive actions that Sides forces opponents to defend/respect. They have to worry about it coming from either direction, with their man either running down and popping back out on the same wing, or making that cut through the lane and out the other side. Defenders have to guard those actions honestly (or switch) or else we see adaptations like Beekman’s flat cut to (and From!) the corner.
Let’s take one more look at that pin down screen action, below, against Houston earlier in the season:
Ben Vander Plas (#5) is the only new player on the floor at one of the post positions. We have Shedrick alongside of him and McKneely, Beekman, and Clark at the guard slots. Watch how they force the repetition here and then break from it. Beekman initially goes over the top side of Shedrick’s screen to the bottom side of the court. We see the fill action as McKneely then cuts from the opposite corner through the lane, Clark fills behind him, Beekman comes out to the point, and passes the ball to McKneely on the wing that he just vacated. Meanwhile, BVP sets a flare screen on Clark’s man as he moves to the top side. This happens two more times in succession (for a total of four in a row), with Clark replacing McKneely and taking the pass and then Beekman replacing Clark – all through that same pin down screen motion off of Shedrick on the bottom side. But, on the last iteration, BVP sets the flare screen for Isaac McKneely who continues running as if he’s going to continue the cycle, but this time he stops, changes direction, and runs back off of BVP going the other direction to use that pin down to create an open three which he buries. Four successive replacement cycles, lull the defenders into a rhythm, and then snap it with a deviation for a quick open look!
That clip above is also great about illustrating probably the most iconic/recognizable motion within Sides by showing it on repeat – point passes to wing, opposite wing cuts through the lane and then off of a pin down, point uses flare screen to replace opposite wing, initial wing passes either to the cutter coming to his side or back to the point after using the flare screen and replaces to the point. Here’s a quick look, below, at that pass back to the cutter off of the flare screen for an open three if the defense sleeps on it, helps too much, or doesn’t respect it:
Potentially now you’re starting to see how some of the above is coming together as a cohesive set of options. Above we have Clark, Beekman, and McKneely as the guards again but also Ryan Dunn (#13) with Shedrick in the post. They start the play with Beekman faking a couple of directions and eventually popping back out on his same side after a Dunn pin down. His man fights over the screen such that when Beekman catches it, Dunn immediately sets another screen on the defender going the other direction and Beekman drives at the hoop. Clemson defends it pretty well sending both defenders at Beekman, not respecting Dunn’s ability (or desire) to stay put or pop back out for a jump shot; they clog the middle. Dunn dives into the congestion, so Beekman passes the ball back out to Clark at the point. McKneely rotates up and takes a pass back from Clark, now establishing himself at the point and Clark on the bottom side, you’ll notice Clark signal to Beekman to cut through to the top side at this point, which he does. Similar action here as we’ve seen, and McKneely passes it to Beekman after he’s finished his cut, Clark cuts through baseline, now establishing Beekman as the point again but as McKneely replaces on the bottom side, Dunn sets a very good flare screen, catching his man, and Beekman anticipates it wonderfully, leading McKneely into space with a pass over the screeners to the wing, which McKneely catches in rhythm in space and drains. When defenders don’t stay honest or respect these more repetitive motions of the offense, we are normally quick to identify it and will attempt to punish it.
Now let’s introduce another wrinkle. This time we see our starting line up at the beginning of the season in the game, with Franklin, Beekman, and Clark at the guard slots and Gardner and Shedrick in the post. Franklin has the ball at the point, passes down to Clark, establishing a new point, and Beekman makes that baseline cut. Franklin floats to that top side and Gardner sets a screen for him as if he’s going to continue on a baseline cut himself. His man adjusts to it and Gardner immediately turns and sets a screen the other direction. This one is out near the three-point line and, rather than being designed to pin Franklin’s man for a three, Franklin snaps a sharp curl around it and catches the ball moving toward the hoop, exploding down the now vacated lane and forcing Gardner’s defender to choose between stopping the drive or staying near Gardner. He chooses incorrectly and Franklin finishes the layup (and if he had taken Franklin, Gardner would have had a good look moving toward the rim himself).
Again, the action and the set up are similar but the location of the screen and its intent were entirely different, and Franklin used this setup from Gardner to attack the rim rather than to create an outside shot.
Alright, so we’ve illustrated the common flow patterns within the offense and some of the most common actions that can adapt to what the defense is doing to create opportunity (or just exploiting a good screen!). Let’s take a look at some other intentional variations, starting with the two-man pick and roll from the wing:
In the clip above, we have Gardner and Shedrick again in the post, with Clark, Beekman, and IMK on the wings. Shedrick moves to set a ball screen for Clark at the point (an action that we haven’t discussed yet but will in a little) and then pops out to the three-point line to offer a passing outlet to get the ball back down to Beekman at the bottom side. This is another common action of the offense where sometimes a post will help reverse the action or switch sides by offering a passing outlet like Shedrick does here. But now, with Beekman having the ball on the low side, Shedrick sets a ball screen for him, which he uses to probe the driving lane. Gardner is on the opposite elbow and his midrange game keeps his man from helping much, and Beekman does a good job of prolonging his drive and holding the double team support from Shedrick’s man, eventually getting deep into the lane, drawing both, and finding Kadin for the easy dunk.
This is always an element that Sides can employ – not just setting screens for cutters, but presenting a pick and roll option pretty much anywhere on the court because the spacing is usually such that there’s room for a guard and a post to operate.
Here’s another look, below, against Pittsburgh (apologies for the mixed media formatting). The look starts off with Franklin cutting to the top side off of the baseline motion action. He takes the pass with his man recovering late over the top side of the screener (Dunn), so Dunn sets another screen there to pin Franklin’s man high, away from Franklin’s path to the basket. Franklin gets by his man through this action but Dunn’s man stays glued to him and doesn’t help, which lends to the help side defender having to drop down to help, leaving Shedrick to stop the drive. Shedrick recognizes this and dives to the center of the lane, making himself available for the dunk.
Neither Franklin nor Dunn finish the opportunity here but it was a great opportunity created through their two-man ball screening action on the wing. It allowed Franklin to beat his man, forcing help from elsewhere, which led to the easy bucket from Shedrick, who recognized and reacted to the opening.
This next one below is just an example against UNC in the ACC Tournament of the post defender not doing enough to stop the drive after the ball scree and Beekman too easily cuts through the middle for the lane for the layup. An easy look/option out of Sides that we’ll happily take:
Once again, this time against Illinois. The action takes a different turn but it’s the same principles at play here. This is a scarcely used lineup with Clark, Beekman, and this time Ryan Dunn at the guard slots, and Gardner and Vander Plas in the post. Clark cuts down through the center of the lane and he and Dunn time pop outs to the wing from their respective pin down screens. Clark curls around the BVP screen and pushes the action into the paint, in an action resembling that curl screen from Franklin earlier in this piece, drawing both his man and BVP’s man on the Illinois side. Instead of rolling to the hoop, BVP uses this opportunity to pop out to the three-point line and is wide-open, which would have likely created a shot but his previous defender reaches and causes Clark to bobble the ball, delaying the pass. By the time the pass reaches BVP on the perimeter, Illinois is able to recover, but they’ve switched men so BVP has a much smaller defender on him. All of the switches and shifts cause Illinois to be concerned about the mismatch and they rotate accordingly. If you freeze at 20:29, you’ll see Gardner being fronted by a smaller man in the post, who is also threatening to help on BVP – and actually leaves to do so at 20:30. The opposite wing, responsible for Beekman at the point is pinching down to help the lane with Gardner, and Dunn is drawing his defender with his cut in from the corner. Having drawn the double team, BVP throws a cross-court pass to Beekman, the open man. This sends the Illinois defense scattered and trying to recover, and Beekman is able to utilize a pump fake to get his man in the air, drive to the bucket and draw the foul.
It’s a different style of look because much of the ball handling was done by BVP isolating his mismatch, but the initial flow that created the switch is from that Sides action with Clark curling and probing the middle. Then the guards maintained their spacing integrity (with Gardner threatening the lane) to finish the opportunity.
Here’s another two-man element seen in a slightly different way, below, and man is it pretty. You’ll see the familiar movement action with Beekman cutting through to the bottom side and Clark using Caffaro’s flare screen to the top side. They do this twice, actually, with Clark consistently flaring and popping out of Caffaro screens stationed out wide. Eventually, Caffaro catches Clark’s man enough to force a switch. Once they get it, Caffaro moves down to the post in an attempt to post up on the size mismatch, but he’s fronted, making the pass difficult. This is where the real brilliance of the play comes in – Jayden Gardner sees this, flashes to the high post, takes the pass from Clark, and immediately uses the improved passing angle to get the lob to Caffaro for the basket and the foul.
This clip illustrates so much – both from some more nuanced variations of Sides as Beekman probed the lane early and Clark stayed home on the top side (technically rotating between that and the point), running off of various Caffaro screens until a mismatch was created and then everything clicked into action from there. Gardner’s recognition on this was incredibly good, because he also noticed the mismatch and the problem with the passing angle, and took it on himself to convert the opportunity with that high to low post pass and Caffaro maintaining the seal. You can tell that was his intention from how immediately he made the pass after receiving the ball. It also illustrates how the offense doesn’t have to be just one thing – both post players were leveraged here to provide the assist and the finish because of how the opportunity presented itself.
Here’s another variation, below, (and during it you actually hear Jay Bilas talking about the Gardner/Caffaro pass above), where we run through our offensive motions until Gardner baits Clemson into thinking he’s going to set another pin down screen for Franklin but instead slips it and cuts right to the rim. Clark finds him with a great pass for an easy two. Pretty. Intuitive.
There are just a lot of options on how you can play it, including the post. Here they attempt a set play (more on this later) and when it doesn’t work they move back into Sides. Jayden Gardner finds an opportunity to post his man on the top block, Beekman throws him the pass from the point, and he uses a quick one-on-one move to draw a foul on the help side defender.
This next one, below, is staple Sides low-to-low action. McKneely and Dunn and Beekman are the guards with Gardner and Shedrick in the post. Gardner’s pin down screen for McKneely forces his defender to switch in order to deter the outside shot. Gardner uses that opportunity to post up the smaller defender and spins baseline, drawing help side defense and finding Shedrick again diving/making himself available to exploit the vacancy.
If he didn’t draw help, Gardner could have just taken advantage of the smaller defender there…. Like he does here in the clip below against Illinois where he simply posts up after freeing Beekman on a pin down and his move is so quick the defense doesn’t have an opportunity to react/help in time.
There’s no switch in the clip above, nor does there have to be. Gardner just liked his one-on-one and took advantage. Exploiting mismatches when you get them is a big part of the plan as we’ve seen several times above, and that includes when you like the matchup even before switches. Here’s another look, below, from that same Illinois game. They’re attempting to slow Beekman down with Terrance Shannon Jr. Franklin is on the top side and Clark starts on the bottom near the hoop with Beekman at the point. Beekman drives toward the bottom side, isolating Shannon, Clark runs up through the lane off of a screen at the high post, occupying his man, replacing at the point, and effectively clearing everything out for the Beekman drive as the post players remain high at the elbow so there there’s no viable help for Shannon.
This is a great individual play by Beekman and it’s within the context of Sides principles that the space is cleared, help defenders occupied/distracted, and he’s allowed to work his magic.
Up until this point, I’ve mostly focused on the “sides” part of Sides, and how the screening action creates openings there and how the positions replace themselves or isolate those areas. The ball screens can come at the point too, though, which is another element of which defenders must be aware. In the clip below, we see typical Sides motion at the beginning of the play, defining the sides with Clark, Franklin, and Beekman at the guard spots and Gardner and Shedrick at the post. There’s some neat variation when the ball toes to Clark on the bottom side wing, though, where rather than the ball screen coming from Shedrick, who is posting on that side, Gardner comes across from the opposite high post to set the ball screen and Shedrick replaces him (the replacement balance doesn’t just happen with the guard slots). Shedrick then sets a ball screen for Beekman when the ball goes back out to him at the point, and rolls to the high post where he’s wide open for a midrange jumper. Several different angles of attack here to keep the defenders guessing and to change up the danger zones on the floor.
Here’s a look against JMU, below, where we keep both of our wings, in this case Isaac McKneely and Ryan Dunn, stationary with bost post players on either block in a very traditional looking offensive set. The thought here is clearly that we’ll keep the post players home to try to take advantage of JMU inside. BVP initially attempts to post up but is fronted, so Gardner sets a ball screen for Clark that he takes all the way into the lane for the finish. Notice BVP clearing out up to the three point line as this is happening to ensure he’s not allowing help into the play. There’s none of that motion action we’ve seen a lot of here, but the spacing and locations are the same, we just play it as an attempt to post up and then work a ball screen in at the point. This is what I meant above about how we could just post the block every possession if we wanted to.
And one final variant of this, below. This time we see Franklin motion under the rim to get to the wing on the top side and Gardner is on the wing extended to deliver the entry pass. Shedrick posts up on the block and Franklin attempts to drive, which gets cluttered and Shedrick isn’t able to react in time to pull his man away from the lane. The ball goes back to Jayden and we’re a little out of whack now as we’ve overloaded the top Side with both Kadin and Gardner consistently in that area. To correct, Gardner drops the ball to Franklin who passes it back out to the point to Beekman. Gardner sinks to the baseline and Shedrick moves to the bottom side but sets a ball screen toward that side for Beekman in the process. Illinois crosses up their defense and switch men, but don’t get out enough on Beekman who simply stays behind the screen and drains the open look from three.
So now that we’ve seen the core principles, identified the most common motions that we force our opponents to defend, and highlighted the many variants we can use off of those sets to generate different looks and take advantage of whatever the defense gives us, let’s take one more look at sustained Sides for a long possession:
Notice many of the concepts at play here: you’ve got a baseline cut from Franklin to take the ball on the wing, you’ve got a fake pin down and then post up/touch from Shedrick who draws attention from the point and kicks it out, another baseline rotation from Franklin to the bottom causing a switch with a flare screen replacement, an attempted post by Gardner, a dribble drive to the paint by Franklin drawing defenders with a kick out to Clark at the point the point. By this time the defense is over-rotating, and finally a little pump fake and a drive right to the rim for a layup from Clark. Incremental advantage leading to a clean open look.
The last element to this that I want to illustrate through tape is that because Sides often starts with similar looks and employs some repetitive motions, it’s a good frame/decoy from which to run set plays that deviate from the traditional rules. We most commonly run these after time outs, after the half, toward the end of a game, etc. Here are just a couple of quick examples:
This one below Clark has the ball out of bounds on the sideline and Beekman catches the ball at the point with Franklin on the nearside block. Normally, Franklin would cut baseline from here off of one screen to fill the top side and set the offense. Instead, he cuts diagonally up through the lane through an elevator screen from both bigs and drills the open look from three.
It’s important to note again that this is a designed play – but it’s easy to see how it could be a natural part of Sides with just a little co-ordination from the post players. That’s also what makes it so effective when the defender is used to trailing Franklin here and running some direction off of the screen and all-of-the-sudden has the elevator doors shut on him.
Here, below, we’ve got another designed play after the half. Beekman and Franklin set up as if they’re going to start the normal Sides offense but, while Beekman takes the pin down to the win and collects the ball, Franklin sets a back screen for Shedrick as opposed to vice-versa. This frees Shedrick up on the block, he draws the double team, and BVP dives down the lane for the pass and easy bucket.
Again, this is very clearly drawn up to be executed in this way by how much everyone on the team was on the same page (likely, it was drawn up to get Shedrick open to score but when he drew the double BVP naturally dove). But, importantly, there’s nothing about this flow that would be unnatural to happen in sides, it’d just take a lot of creativity/communication/experience playing together for that back screen from Franklin on Shedrick to happen organically. The efficacy would come through how often Houston would have defended Franklin popping out to the three-point line there, for him to become the screener instead.
Last example of these although there are many more this one I found particularly fun because it’s similar Sides baseline motion only they’re setting double screens for the cutter, increasingly getting more staggered until the post is more in organic sides positioning and then Clark plays off of the screens and finds Caffaro in good positioning under the rim.
Again, very similar conceptually, but with the design of changing how the screeners co-ordinate and interact with the cutters.
In Conclusion
So now, you should hopefully be able to recognize the Sides offense, the key concepts it’s trying to accomplish and, when paired with my other upcoming pieces, will be able to differentiate it from our other offenses. The strength of the offense is how adaptable it is and how you don’t have to play it any specific way. It provides a framework of rules which allows for familiarity of behavior in how all five players work together, but gives them the freedom to react to how the defense is playing and respond accordingly. When the offense is clicking, seeing things in the same way, etc., it can be very hard to defend. But the defining feature is that you should have the point up top, shading to either side accordingly, one guard and post on each side, with each of those respective groupings filling for each other as they move between the respective areas. The post players set intuitive screens for the guards as they move throughout their side (sometimes swapping themselves) and then play off of those actions. This is important to remember when thinking about our other offenses later, because they are also motion/read based without scripted action; but the structure of the offense and the guardrails are different.
You may notice, I didn’t spend any time focusing on when the offense didn’t work (which can be true of any offense when you don’t execute it well but can be true more often depending on the circumstances and style of opponent). Right now, for these pieces, my goal is to illustrate what the offense is trying to accomplish, how it works/all comes together when executed well, and how to differentiate them from each other. I may opine some, after having documented all three, about the pros and cons of each and when we’re best served to utilize them but, unlike my other pieces where studied opinion is a big part of the intent, the goal here is primarily informational. If you didn’t previously, you now have a good understanding of the Sides offense. If you did previously, hopefully you’ve now had some fun strolling through some memories of our guys executing!
Next time, we’ll tackle the “Inside Triangle” or, “3-Man.” Until then!
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