PAGE 24 | 16 2005 | FIBA ASSIST MAGAZINE

FIBA EUROPE

by Aito Garcia Reneses

COACHES - OFFENSE

Aito Garcia Reneses was head coach(and also general manager) of Barcelo-na (Spain) for many years, where he wonthree Division I championships, threeSpanish Cups, one Cup of Kings, two Cu-ps of Europe, and two Korac Cups. Hehas been head coach of Badalona(Spain) since 2003.

When we tell a player that he can playfreely, he will typically do what he doesbest, and only that. The player who canshoot three pointers only wants to shootthree pointers, and will not try to pass ordrive. The player with the quick first step,who drives from the right side, wants todrive only from the right side when he getsthe ball.This way of play is certainly free play,but it's misunderstood by the players.Everyone thinks he can do whatever hewants when he's told to do what hewants. Unfortunately, what players endup doing is only what they do best. Theynever try new moves or refinements ofthe fundamental offensive moves. Andthat is a shame.I tried to give my teams a lot of offensivefreedom, but, in the end, I could not. WhatI do now is teach my players a combina-tion between free play and organized play. I introduce this style of play at pre-seasonpractice, but, after a while, I understood Ineeded more time to develop this play.Many of our plays did not last long becau-se they had options of 8 and 12 seconds,and when these options ended, if wedidn't make a good shot, we continuedwith this free play that we learned at thebeginning of season. We never allow to

THE IMPORTANCE OF A FREE ATTACK

D.1 D.2 D.3

our players to do whatever they want,without rules and without the comprehen-sion of the play.So, when you plan your play, understand thatevery player cannot do whatever he wants.Instead, you should think about your globalidea of basketball, which rules you want toestablish in organized play and what youwould like to do.Establishing these rules, you should thinkabout the following points:1) Are you working with a team "in evolu-

tion" or with a competitive team;2) What is the nature and skills of your

players (are they are strong or not, shortor tall, good or so-so players, fast orslow?).

We will have different ways of free play, de-pending if we play with 5 players out, 4players out and 1 in, 3 out and 1 in, or with 2out and 3 in. As our philosophy of play, we tryto obtain an easy basket in every offense. Asa definition, the easiest basket is that onescored under the basket, but we haveplayers that can easily score from 4 or 6,25metres, so, when we talk about easy ba-skets, we cannot just mean only the ones un-der the basket, but those ones scoredwithout the pressure of the defense, alsooutside of the lane. The first seconds of ballpossession, during the phase called "offensi-ve transition," we try to get an easy basket,thereby forcing the defense to work and put-ting foul pressue on the opponents.We can achieve our aim of scoring an easybasket with a drive, a cut, or by getting theball in the lane.Let me now explain a common free play: 3players out and 2 in.

STARTING LINE UP 1-2-2

The goal is playing with three players on theperimeter (diagr. 1).These are the rules for the inside players:1) They cannot receive the ball unless they

go to basket.2) They must help their teammates: Making picks Cutting away from the ball Going for offensive rebounds.These are the rules for the player who hasthe ball: He must recognize if he has a shot option He must see the entire floor and recogni-

ze if one of his teammates has a bettershot option.

Here are the options for the position of thecenters:1) One is on one side and the other on the

opposite side of the low-post position atthe starting line up.

2) Two on the same side of the low-post po-sition (diagr. 2)

D.4

D.7

FIBA ASSIST MAGAZINE | 16 2005 | PAGE 25

D.5

D.6

D.9

D.10

D.8

D.11

D.12

D.13

3) Two in high-post position (diagr. 3).4) One in low-post position and the other

one in high-post position (diagr. 4).

The task of the perimeter offensive playeron the defensive help side-aside from themovement that we want to make-is tomake it difficult for the defender to see "theman-and-ball" at the same time. For this reason, we make a move (diagr. 5):a) Around the baseline; b) Getting closer to the defender.

We must try to make it as difficult as possi-ble, which then helps the player with theball. The task of the center is to help theperimeter players. In diagr. 6, we have a si-tuation where the center clears out whenthe perimeter player starts to drive towardthe baseline.In diagr. 7, we see a pick of the center andthe cut of the screened player in the laneand the help side.In diagr. 8, a pick is made on the playerwith the ball, and the cut in the corner bythe offensive player on the help side is ma-de to keep defensive help away.These are the rules that I give my centersso they can help their teammates. The mo-tions of the players away from the ball aremade in the following way:a) Diagr. 9: We pass the ball on one side

and we make a pick away on the helpside. The player, who receives the picktries to cut to basket; the picker comesback on the perimeter.

b) Diagr. 10: We pass the ball on one side,then we make a pick away from theball on the help side. The player, whoreceived the pick, tries to shoot fromthe perimeter, while the picker rolls tothe basket.

c) Diagr. 11: Passing and cutting. Theplayer passes the ball to one side, thenhe cuts to basket. After that, he cancome out to the strong or go to thehelp side.

d) Diag. 12: Clear out on the help side Wecan use this to play one-on-one. Spa-cing is important: don't forget that thedistance between the players must beat least 4 meters. Beginning from here,we create play situations for five-on-fi-ve. If, for example, there's a drive ofone perimeter player and defensivehelp from the defender of the low post(diagr. 13), the offensive center can:

1. Open himself to the corner. 2. Obtain a good position in the lane. If the other inside defender provides thesecond help, we pass the ball to the otherpost, who gets position in the lane.We never make a lob pass to the oppositeside of the court (diagr. 14).

FIBA EUROPE

COACHES - OFFENSE

PAGE 26 | 16 2005 | FIBA ASSIST MAGAZINE

D.14

D.17

D.15

D.16

D.19

D.20

D.18

D.21

D.22

D.23

But, there is this exception (see diagr. 8). Ifthe away-from-the ball-defender is helpingand close to the ball, and he is then picked bya center, there is a big risk of losing the ballbecause the defense is packed. In this casewe can make a lob pass.We must work on faking to receive the ball.a) Play without the ball, using the "V" cut

(diagr. 15). Out/in. OGoing away/getting closer. b) Using the center, cutting on him and co-

ming out (diagr. 16).We practice these aspects of play with thethree perimeters players, working with th-ree-on-three drills.In diagr. 17, we play the screen away from theball with the player, who receives the screenand cuts to basket, while the screener comesback to the perimeter for a shot. The playerwith the ball will pass the ball to him.

Details:a) It's important that the player, who recei-

ves the pick, goes away from his defen-der.

b) The picker, who comes back to the peri-meter, must shoot if he receives the ball.

c) Make a quick cut to the basket.

In diagr. 18, we continue with the pick awayfrom the ball: the player, who receives thepick moves around the perimeter to receiveand shoot, while the picker rolls to the ba-sket.

Details:Importance of the timing of the pick: the of-fensive player brings his defender to the pick,and then changes his direction to basketwhen the pick is coming.

In diagr. 19, we pass and cut. The player, whopasses, cuts to basket. We must finish with astrong layup, taking only one step.

Details:Bring the defender away from the ball, befo-re the cut.

More details to work on: The players, who should receive the

pass, must fake to receive the ball. Facing the basket. On the left side everyone must pass with

the right hand.

It is very important to work in a methodicalway on the back door cut. The perimeterplayer moves to receive a pass, and, whenhe gets to the three-point line, quickly chan-ges direction to the basket and make a backdoor cut. The passer dribbles to improve theangle of passing (diagr. 20).

THE TASKS OF THE CENTER

Let's come back to the free play. At the be-ginning, we played for the three perimeterplayers, but now, we will use the centers forthe free play.The center will not ask to have the ball, if hedoesn't have perfect position in the lane (dia-gr. 21).If there's a good defense on the post (guar-ded in a three/quarters stance), we can usethe high post to get the ball to the low post:we pass the ball to the high post, and fromhim to the low post (diagr. 22).If the defender tries to recover his position onthe low post, he must pivot to have a goodposition on the baseline (diagr. 23). The ball ispassed out from the high post to the wing,who dribbles to the corner to get a betterpassing angle. The wing passes to the lowpost, who is keeping his position.In the final part of the practice, we changethe goal of five-on-five: we put the perimeterplayers to the service of the inside players,who work to obtain the position.When the low-post player finally receivesthe ball, he must immediately play one-on-one. The perimeter player, 2, after havingpassed the ball to the low-post player, willnot stay in the same position where his de-fender can help and recover. In that case, hecan (diagr. 24):a) Go away from the ball in the middle of the

court.b) Go to the corner near the baseline. c) Cut to the basket.

This is a good two-on-two drill to improve thecoordination and timing between the twocenters (diagr. 25).One center receives the ball and plays one-on-one. The other offensive player, observinghis teammate's move, looks for a passing lineif the defender helps out. If he can shoot, theteammate works to get a possible offensiverebound.Again, one basic rule for the free play with in-side players is that when the high post hasthe ball, none of the perimeter players canstay behind.Moreover, if, after the passing, 1 moves in adifferent position (diagr. 26) and his defenderhelps on the center, the perimeter player willbe free to receive the pass back and shoot.Anyways, at the end of these details, wewant to underline that the most importantgoal is to improve the fundamentals. We can-not do that with organized play, nor with freeplay.We need to impress the players on how im-portant it is to be consistent. However, our words must be confirmed bythe facts. We cannot pretend to have a de-fensive team if we have better offensive thandefensive players.

FIBA ASSIST MAGAZINE | 16 2005 | PAGE 27

D.24

D.25

D.26

Practice on free play is made during the pre-season; with the competitive teams, I need itto face up the final seconds of ball posses-sion, when we don't obtain a clear optionwith the two systems.Another important key: the defense mustwork hard in practice in order for the offenseto improve.

Before beginning, you have to remember to:1) Respect the spaces:The least distance between the perimeterplayers is 4 metres. Shorter distances mean a limitation of ac-tion space in the drives of the players withthe ball without provoking the defensivehelps.

2) The use of the dribble:A player must dribble to penetrate. If he doe-sn't, I only want that he dribbles to improvethe passing angles. Two dribbles in the sameposition are useless.

3) Shooting if the defenders float.When the ball is kicked out after a drive or aplayer receives the ball on a cut, he mustshoot if the defender is floating. We don't ha-ve to drive against a player who's floating.