Basket(ball) weaving part 1.

In studying the effectiveness and the usefulness of the Weave Offense, a coach can become a big fan of this old traditional offense for a variety of reasons.

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First, the offense could be used as a delay game to preserve a lead late in the game. The Weave Offense could also be used to milk some time off of the clock to get the last shot at the end of a quarter or half. In addition, the offense could be utilized to "shorten the game" because of a team's inferior talent level (due to injuries or foul trouble or just simply over-matched by the opposition's talent).

Any one of these uses of the offense is enough to invest a portion of time and effort to make the offense a successful part of a team's offensive package.

In this three part series, the general movement of the offense and the nine different options in the attacking part of the Weave Offense will be explained in detail. The various options not only allow the offensive team to be more unpredictable to defend, but also permit a team to either take advantage of individual offensive player's strengths that should be highlighted or of the opposition's (discovered) defensive weaknesses that should be exploited.

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The initial alignment offers the offense proper spacing and the opportunity for the offensive team to counter denial type pressure by the opposition's defense. The alignment also allows the offense to be ambidextrous and to initially attack either side of the court. 01 brings the ball across the time line with the ball centered up. 02 and 03 align themselves at the free throw line extended just outside of the three point line, 02 on the right side and 03 on the left side. 04 and 05 align themselves at the two elbow areas, with 04 on the right and 05 on the left side. See

Diag. 1.

The basic generic movement is simply for 01 to dribble toward either wing player (03 on the left and 02 on the right), with that player V-cutting before then scraping off o[pounds sterling] the outside shoulder of 01 to receive the basketball with 01's hand-off.

As that action on the ball takes place, 04 and 05 scrape off of each other with a high lane exchange cross screen to occupy their defenders and to pose the first inside scoring threat for the offense. The new ball handler then centers-up the ball via a dribble to either continue the basic movement or the new "attack" phase of the offense.

Diag. 2 illustrates that 02 receives the ball and then dribbles toward the middle of the floor to re-center the basketball and presumably to continue the same offensive movement (toward either wing area). This basic movement could be utilized any number of times and can be used to either take time off of the clock, to lull the defense to sleep, or to place offensive players in the desired locations before the offense becomes more of an attacking type of offensive scheme.

The dribbler who ultimately received the hand-off to begin the "attack" part of the offense and is going to center the ball up should be called the " hot dribbler." The number of handoffs that are included in the generic part of the offense can be dictated before the "attack" begins.

The longer the offense continues the basic movement of the dribble-hand-offs with none of the possible options, the more time can be run off (and the more the game can be "shortened").

For simplicity's sake in the diagrams, let's assume the basic movement is utilized only once before the specific option in the "attack" segment of the offense begins. Therefore, if 01 first hand-offs to 02, 02 could become the " hot dribbler." If 01 dribbles first to the left side and hands off the ball to 03, 03 could then become the "hot dribbler" and the "attack" portion of the offense could then begin with the following hand-off

The first option that can be utilized in the "attack" offense is appropriately called the "Roll Option. " In Diag. 3, 02 has received the last hand-off from 01 and has become the "hot dribbler." 02 is centering the ball up; 04 and 05 have again exchanged elbow positions. 02 then dribbles toward the wing where 03 i is located and makes the action hand-off to 03.

Once 03 receives the ball, he also dribbles toward the center of the court. This option then calls for 04 (now at the new Weakside elbow area) to step up to the top of the circle to set a ball-screen for 03 to use. 04 would then roll to the basket, while 05 sets a down screen for 02 on the newly declared weakside wing area.

01 breaks up and down the right (ballside) sideline to occupy his defender. This option becomes a two-man game between 03 and 04 and could be utilized as an outside or an inside attacking option.

Diag. 4 illustrates the "Roll Option" with 03 using the ball-screen set by 04. If nothing develops with the screen-roll action, 03 could go back to the basic weave movement and dribble toward 01 on the right wing. 01 could set his defender up and then rub off of 03, take the ball on the hand-off and center the ball back up (to continue the basic movement).

04 and 05 would break vertically straight up from their respective new "low-block" positions back to the elbow positions to re-set into the basic Weave Offense. See Diag. 5.

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The second option (called "Single") that can be effectively used is also an inside oriented movement first with the second threat being an outside threat on the weakside of the court.

Diag. 6 illustrates the scenario after 01 has handed off the basketball to the new "hot dribbler" (02), who centers the ball up before dribbling toward 03 on his particular side of the floor. 04 and 05 have again exchanged positions with their high lane exchange cross screen. 03 also does what he needs to do in order to get open and receive 02's hand-off and if 03 is to become the "hot dribbler," 04 steps up to set the same type of ball screen as before at the top of the key.

As 03 comes hard off of the ball screen, 05 flashes across the lane from the new weakside high-post elbow area to the new ballside low-post area. 03 first looks to hit 05 on his aggressive post-up or to hit 01 on his flare-cut to the deep corner. 01 may have a better passing angle than 03 to deliver the ball inside.

As this action takes place on the new ballside of the court, 04 (instead of rolling to the basket as in the "Roll Option") steps toward the weakside wing area to set an off-the-ball screen for 02 to use as he breaks to the top of the key. See Diag. 7. As 03 looks to go inside to 05, this option additionally provides the offense with a potential three point scoring opportunity (for 02) as well as occupying the weakside defense, thus weakening its ballside interior defense (X5 on 05).

If no inside shot is created for 05 and 03 elects not to attack the defense from behind the three-point line (with 02), 03 can continue his dribble toward 01 on the right side of the court.

Diag. 8 illustrates 01 coming back from the deep corner to receive the weave hand-off from 03. 01 dribbles toward the center of the court, 02 empties back to his wing area, 03 occupies his new wing area and both 05 and 04 break straight up to the elbow areas to renew the basic Weave Offense movement.

The ball is retained by the offense thereby making the offense a continual offense that is preventing the opposition from scoring.

The third "attack" option can be descriptively called "pressure." This option could be called by the offensive team but also could be activated by an overly aggressive defense that is attempting to take away the Weave's hand-offs.

Again, for simplicity's sake, 01 runs the basic movement toward 02 and makes the hand-off to him as 04 and 05 again make a high-lane exchange cross screen. 02 becomes the "hot dribbler" as he dribbles toward the top of the key. See Diag. 9.

As 02 continues his dribble toward 03 for the expected hand-off, 04 screens high for 05. See Diag. 10. Either because the "pressure" option is called or because of the anticipated hard denial pressure by X3 and X1, 04 steps up to the top of the key.

If 03 cannot receive the ball on the hand-off by 01, 03 simply continues his cut and curls off of 04's screen to look for a lob pass from 01. 05 dives to the new ballside low post and also looks for the ball from 01.

If 01 cannot make either inside pass, he should be able to hit 04, who steps out to the top of the key after back screening for 03. When that reversal pass is made, 05 can duck in and look for an inside pass from 05. If not open, 05 should then receive a ("small on big") lane exchange back screen by 03.

This action should free up either 05 or 03 in the middle of the lane (where there is no helpside and support defense). See Diag. 12.

If 04 still cannot make an inside pass, 04 can dribble toward either wing (to 01 or towards 02) to continue the weave action. This triggers 05 and 03 to break straight up the lane line to the elbow areas to continue the offensive weave action. See Diag. 13.

The quantity of options used should be determined by the athletic abilities and talents of the players as well as their mental capacity. One team might be able to integrate all three or more options, while another team might be able to handle only one or two.

The coaching staff must accurately evaluate and then make that all important decision. The number of basic hand-offs before the "action" offense and the "hot dribbler" begin must also be decided upon as well as how that number and option is to be communicated.

One method could possibly be to combine both the name and, the number of repetitions of the basic offense such as "3-Lob." This would mean that there should be three basic "dead" hand-offs (and lane-exchange screens) before the nexthan-doff becoming the "live" hand-off with the "lob" option being executed.

Another example would be if the offense wanted to take a small amount of time off of the clock by executing the basic hand-offs five times before then attacking the opposition's defense on their interior by running the "single" option. That could be signaled from the bench with the name "5-Single."

Again, advantages of this offense are that the offense can dictate tempo, be balanced symmetrically so that the offense can attack both the left and the right side, can also be balanced as an inside and outside scoring threat, and that the scoring threats are spread out over several players.

It is important to remember that a good ball possession offense is also an outstanding defense.

The Weave Offense can serve a team well, both offensively as well as defensively and be an integral part of a team's overall success.

By John Kimble, Former Coach, Crestview(FL) High School