Your Basketball Dictionary for Offense

Overview

This instructional video explains common basketball offensive actions, illustrated with clips from tournament upsets involving Furman, Princeton, and FDU. It is a terminology guide rather than a recap of one specific game, and it does not provide timestamps for individual plays.

Ball Screens

The presenter introduces three common types of ball screens:

• Get screen: Directs the ball handler toward the middle.
• Step-up (or alley) screen: Directs the ball handler toward the sideline.
• Flat screen: Leaves either direction open.

After setting a screen, the big can roll toward the basket or pop out behind the three-point line. Other variations include:

• Slip (called a “shocker” action in the video): The screener moves toward the basket without making contact.
• Ghost: The screener feints a screen, then slips out to shoot.
• Flip: The screener changes from one screen angle to another.
• Twist: The screener turns a step-up screen into a get screen.

The ball handler can reject the screen and go the opposite way, or snake around it by weaving back across the court to create space. Probing means holding off a defender while waiting for the help defender to commit. A guard may also load the gun by coming off the screen, pausing as the big defender helps, and then rising for a shot.

Passing options include the pocket pass to a big on a short roll. As the defense collapses on the roll, a perimeter teammate may move into the open space for a shake, lift, or fill pass. When one big rolls and another fills the vacated space, the action is called a yo-yo or roll replace.

Off-Ball Screens

A down screen, or pin down, sends a teammate toward the perimeter. The receiver can:

• Curl tightly toward the basket.
• Fade away from the pass.
• Reject the screen and cut toward the rim.

A flare screen sends a teammate away from the ball. A rip screen is an angled back screen, commonly set by a guard to free a big near the block. A shuffle screen is similar but set higher, often by a big for a perimeter player.

The video also describes a cross screen–down screen sequence: a player screens for a big, then receives a screen in turn. This is also known as screen the screener.

Spacing and Movement

In transition, a big running straight to the rim can create an open opportunity. Bigs may also occupy the dunker spot or short corner—areas beside the basket and outside the paint—where they can become available when a defender helps on a drive.

A post-up is positioning with one’s back to the basket, often against a smaller defender. On the perimeter, a backdoor cut punishes a defender who jumps into the passing lane; it depends on good timing and a good pass. A 45 cut is a diagonal cut made when the defender is not watching, often during a drive or pick-and-pop.

Passing

• Extra pass: Also called a one more or one-time; moves the ball on after a defender helps, trading a good shot for a better one.
• DHO: Dribble handoff.
• Hammer pass: A pass to the opposite corner after a baseline drive draws help.
• High-low: Also called a passing triangle; sends the ball from high near the top of the key to a player posting up closer to the basket.

Closing Notes

The video notes that a short guide cannot cover every offensive term and that the channel plans to explore more concepts, including defense.

Presenter/source: The Film Room; no individual presenter is named.