This motion offense uses four perimeter players and one post player, and is a good offense to use

when your team has good outside players and only a few post players. Generally, we like to run the 4-out motion offense against manto-man defenses. However, you can use the 4-out, 1-in set as a zone offense, although the rules are different (see4-Out, 1-In Zone Offense). The now popular "dribble-drive motion offense" uses a 4-out set and very little screening. Rick Torbett's "read and react offense" works very well in a 4-out set. Below, we examine three different "looks" in our 4-out offense, depending on where we want our post player to locate... "4-Out", "4-High", and "4-Low". You can also use the 4-out offense to post up any of your players inside, if you feel there is a defensive mismatch. For example, if a defensive player has four fouls, have your player that he is guarding set up as the inside post player. Then get the ball inside to him/her and attack the defender for the easy basket (since the defender is in foul trouble and will play "soft"), or force the fifth foul. You can change the inside player by just calling something like "4Out to John", where John is now the inside player. You can make the 4-out offense as complicated, or as simple, as you want. Youth teams should start out with just the basic 4-out motion offense, learning the motion rules and "how to play". You can add a few simple plays. High school and more advanced level teams that have more practice time, can expand and use the basic 4-out motion offense, and the "4-High" and "4-Low" sets. Each of these sets come with a number of set plays and options. We typically do not use all of these plays in one season. We pick those plays that best suit our current team personnel. Next season, as our players change, we may use other plays and options (or if we are blessed with several good post players, may use the 3-out, 2-in motion offense instead, and only sparingly use the 4-out offense). Use those plays that will best benefit your team. Importantly, don't overload your players and try to teach too much at once. Teach the basic motion and sets, and then add other plays and options gradually.

"4-Out" This is a more simple, free-lance style of 4-out motion offense that uses the rules explained below under "General Rules". Refer to the diagram to see the basic set-up for this offense.
With "4-Out", our post player moves as the ball moves, using the low blocks, anywhere up and down the lanes, paint area, elbows

and high post (free-throw line area)... basically anywhere he/she can get open for a pass inside. When the ball is on top (O1 or O2), O5 should locate at high-post, ball-side elbow area. If the ball is passed to O5 at the high post, O3 and O4 should be thinking about a back-cut to the hoop if they are being denied the pass. O5 passes to the back-cutter for the easy lay-up. When the ball is on the low wing, corner (O3 or O4), then O5 should move down to the ball-side low post. General Rules Perimeter players can fill any of the six spots shown in the From Jay Wright's diagram above, two top spots, two wing spots, and two corner "The 4-Out 1-In Motion spots. Outside players should be moving, screening for each Offense". other (on-ball screen and screen away). Additionally, hand-off screens work well. For example, O1 dribbles toward O2, hands the ball off to O2 while screening O2's defender. O2 comes From Jay Wright's around the screen and either shoots the three-pointer, or makes a DVD "Breakdown Drills dribble move inside (seeWeave-Screen Plays). for the 4-Out 1-In
Motion Offense".

Dibble-penetration, attacking the seams, is often possible when the post player is located on the opposite (weakside) low block. If you have good three-point shooters, you can go "inside-out" where a guard dribble-penetrates a seam and then kicks the pass outside (usually to the corner) to a wide open perimeter player for the three-point shot. For this reason, we often like to locate our best shooter O2 in the right corner. Pick and roll moves work. Give and go plays work (example: O2 passes to O4 and cuts to the hoop for the pass back from O4). If a dribble entry is made, the outside players rotate (example: O1 dribbles toward O2. O2 can either exchange with O1 and move to his/her spot, or O2 can rotate down to take O4s spot and O4 cuts through to take O3s spot, while O3 rotates out to the O1 spot). Four things you can do after making a pass:

Screen for the ball. Screen away. Cut to the basket (example: give and go, or back-cut). Backcut if the defender is denying the pass.

V-cut and pop back outside for the return pass and outside shot.

Rules without the ball:

If you have an under-play (defense sagging off), pop out to spread the defense. If you have an overplay (being denied), backcut. Someone dribbling at you, backcut (except for the weave plays). Fill the open spot when a teammate cuts inside. When someone dribble-penetrates, relocate. Screen away, and pop out. The most important rule is to keep moving.

Set Plays You can run any of the set plays listed below under the 4-High and 4-Low sets... just make sure you start the post player in the correct spot.

"4-High" Motion Offense

Sometimes we want our post player to locate at the high post. This takes the defending post player away from the hoop and allows our post player to go 1on-1 with defender from the free-throw line area. This also opens up the inside underneath for backcuts or dribble-penetration from the wings and corners. Our high post player can be used as a screener for our perimeter players. He/she may set two or three perimeter screens, and then, once a big-little mis-match occurs (by the defense switching the screens), will post up inside. Additionally, certain plays run better off the 4-High set. 4-High may work well against teams that like to full-front our post player. Our post player moves up to the high post, and if still full-fronted, seals the defender, and cuts to the hoop for the over-the-top lob pass. Or our post player can seal the defender as the pass goes to the corner, and then cuts to the hoop for the pass from the corner.

4-High Set Plays

"Topside" and "Counter" "Flash" "Slip" "Swing" "Fist" Weave-Screen Plays - "W2", W2-back", "W3", "W4"

Transition into 4-Out Offense After a rebound, the wings O2 and O3 sprint wide up the court all the way to the corners. By going deep into the corners, we open the court with better spacing. For a wing entry pass, they can then cut up to the wing for the pass. The first "big" up the court sprints low in the paint or low block area. O1 speeddribbles up the court and our rebounder (here O4) trails up the court to fill the opposite top spot. From here we have lots of options. If our point guard is good at attacking the defender, he/she might just try to make a dribble-move and attack the seam up the right lane line for a lay-up, or for a kick-out pass to our shooter O2 in the corner. We can also just start the offense here in the "4-Low" set. To start the "4-High" set, O5 simply flashes up to the high post. We could also start here with a quick hitter play.

"4-Low"

Sometimes we like our post player staying down low, moving from low block to low block, or from short-corner to short-corner. The 4-Low set opens up the top and the lane for 1-on-1 dribble-penetration and cuts from the top. We also

use this set to run our "Big" series of plays, where we post-up our "big" 1-on-1 with the defender.

The short-corner to short-corner strategy is used if the defense has a big, strong inside post defender, or shot blocker, that we feel our post player cannot consistently beat in a 1-on-1 post-up situation. So if our post player can hit a couple shots from the short-corner, hopefully this will draw their big defender outside away from the hoop. Taking the shot-blocker away from the hoop then allows our smaller, quicker post player to beat the defender with a shot-fake and dribble move.
4-Low Set Plays

"Big Series" - Big, Big-15, Big-Left, BigDown, Big-43, Big-Double "Loyola" and Loyola-2 "53" "34" "13" and "24" "Black" "52-Curl" "14" Weave-Screen Plays - "W2", W2-back", "W3", "W4"

4-Out motion offense and our low post player is double-teamed...

Teams that play good man-to-man defense, will double-team our low post player, making it tough to score inside. Usually the double-team (help defender) comes from the opposite wing when we feed the low post from the wing or corner (diagram B below). There are a couple things you can do.

Feed the low post from the top ("hi-lo" plays like the "Big" series), because the helpside defense is not established when the ball is at the top of the key (diagram A below). After feeding the low post from the wing or corner, your post player gets double-teamed by help coming from the opposite wing (diagram B). Teach your post player to immediately skip pass out to the opposite wing (where

the help defender came from), and then follow the pass and immediately re-post on the opposite side, for the quick pass back inside (from O4 in diagram C). Oftentimes, the new helpside defender (X2) will be late in rotating over to double-team, and O5 has a better chance to score 1-on-1 vs the X5 defender.

"4-Out Quick Hitters"

In addition to the plays listed above, here are more good quick hitting actions that you can run right from the initial transition.

"45" - Hi-Lo Option

Here's a good option when you have strong inside post player. This action is simple but effective and continuous. The rules are simple - (1) whenever O4 receives the pass on the perimeter, we look for the quick hi-lo pass into O5 posting up, and (2) if the hi-lo is not open, O4 passes to a perimeter player, follows and runs a screen and pop. Diagram A shows O1 coming up the right side in transition. O4 fills to the top, middle and gets the pass from O1. O5 immediately posts-up and O4 passes to O5 for the inside post-move. O1 down-screens for O2 and they exchange (to occupy their defenders, keeping them out of the paint so they can't help on O5). Not shown in the diagrams, after running this a couple times, the X4 defender might hard pressure O4 to help prevent the hi-lo pass. O4 could give a pass-fake, and dribble-drive around X4 up the right side of the lane for the lay-up (with pass options to O5 and O1). Diagram B shows that the hi-lo was not open. O4 passes to O3, follows the pass and ball-screens for O3. After screening, O4 pops outside. O3 can attack

for a lay-up, but also has a possible dump pass to O5, and kick-out pass options to O2 and O1. In diagram C, O3's dribble was stopped. O3 might pass back to O4. Following our rules, O4 looks for the quick hi-lo pass into O5. If not open, O4 passes to O2, follows the pass and ball-screens for O2, and O2 and O4 run the pick and pop.

Wing Entry, Ball-Screen

O2 cuts up to the wing and gets the entry pass from O1 (diagram 1). O1 can cut through to either corner. O4 then ball-screens for O2. O2 might not use the ball-screen and here drives hard to the baseline (diagram 2). Diagram 3

shows O2 using the ball-screen and the "pick and pop" option with O4 popping out to the arc after the screen. Notice O2's kick-out pass options to O3 or O1. As O2 turns the corner of the ball-screen, O5 posts up hard inside and could get the quick pass from O2.

If the kick-out pass goes to either O3 or O1, either could shoot the open 3point shot, or pass inside to O5 posting up (diagram 4). Diagram 5 shows O2's dribble-penetration being stopped or trapped by the defense. Here O2 reverses and passes to O4 in the corner for an open shot, or perhaps a shotfake and dribble-drive. O5 cleans up the back-side rebound. If O4 is not a good outside shooter, we will use the "pick and roll" option instead (diagram 6). After the ball-screen, O4 cuts to the hoop and O5 cuts

out and replaces O4 on the arc. This allows for spacing for the pass to the O4 on the roll cut. If O2 passes back out to O5, O5 looks to either shoot or make the hi-lo pass inside to O4 posting up.

The defense may deny the pass to the wing. But we can still get the ball to the wing by using either a dribble hand-off or (2) a shallow cut. Diagram 7 shows that O1 dribbles to the wing and hands-off (weave-screen) to O2. O1 clears to the corner. From here we can run the pick and roll or pick and pop options with O4 screening for O2. Diagram 8 again shows O1 dribbling to the wing, and here O2 makes a shallow cut inside and then back outside. O1 now passes back to O2 (diagram 9) and the ball-screen options with O4 are again in play. This diagram also shows another simple option... instead of passing to O2, O1

might pass to O5 posting up.

Diagram 10 shows that O2 has dribble-penetrated around the O4 ball-screen ("pick and pop"), but gets stopped inside. O2 passes back to O4 on top. O4 can either shoot the open shot, or look for the hi-lo pass inside to O5 posting up. Diagram 11 shows O2 and O4 running the pick and roll option as O5 replaces O4 on top. If the pass goes back to O5, he also has the same options or shooting or passing hi-lo to O4 posting up.

If neither the shot nor the hi-lo pass are good options, O5 dribbles to O1 for a dribble hand-off (diagram 13). O1 and O5 can run either a pick and pop or a pick and roll (diagram 14).

Wing Entry - Left

Similar to the wing entry above, but this time we'll run it to the left side. This time, O1 passes to O4 and cuts through to the right corner, and O5 re-locates to the right low block. Meanwhile, O4 passes to O3 and follows the pass and ball-screens for O3. Now we have O3 and O4 running the pick and roll on the left side (diagram B). Notice the good spacing with O1, O2 and O5 all on the opposite side. Now O3 has the options of scoring, passing to O4 rolling inside, or to O5 on the opposite block, or to O2 or a 3-point shot.