Q: I will coach 7th grade boys in the fall. I have coached 3 years of YMCA basketball and 1 year of AAU. I want to use Read & React, but must be reasonably certain that I can make it work since I have little background to make an adjustment to a different offense. My plan is to use 4 OUT set.

4. If my quick point guard drives right past his defender, and my slower player in the corner attempts to circle right, won’t my slower player from the corner be in the way?

A: 1. You are correct that Layers 1-5 with 14 will suffice, but you might also want to look at Post Passing: what to do if a perimeter player feeds the post. There are four cuts, but the first two are simply basket cuts which feed directly into Layer 3. I’ve never had a problem with telling junior high players that feeding the post is “one pass away” as well as the perimeter, therefore they must basket cut either above or below the post. No problems.

2. It’s not necessarily true that your weak-side players need to be shooters (although shooters help in any situation!). When you skip the ball or swing the ball quickly to the weak side, defensive players must be able to execute a “Level 2″ defensive skill. (Level 1 would be the ability to be in the correct defensive position in relationship to the ball.) This “Level 2″ action would be the ability to Close Out without giving up their Level 1 position (a position that keeps the ball from being driven or passed into the lane). In other words, your weak-side offensive players can drive the ball more easily against a defender who is closing out. Also, when the ball changes sides of the floor, ball-side defenders must change their positions to become weak-side defenders. Can they do it before the ball is driven or passed into the lane? Watch the NBA playoffs and you’ll see that this is not as simple as we make it sound.

3. Assuming a 4 OUT 1 IN formation, if your right guard drives right (to the goal), then Circle Movement will place the left guard in the right guard position and the left wing will fill the left guard position. This will give you two guards. Your right wing will have circled to the right corner. The positions on the perimeter that are empty are: right wing, left wing, left corner.

What does the right corner player do after the right guard has driven? I can’t answer that until you tell me what the ballhandler did. Let’s pretend that the right guard was stopped and had to throw back to his safety valve. The right corner should fill up to the right wing in order to be one pass away from the ball. This is a good Layer 3 move because if his player steps over the Read Line to deny him the ball at the wing, then he can rear cut for a lay-up.

The penetrator, in this case, can remain in the post, fill out to the other wing, or even fill out to the right side corner. There are other things for him to do, like: screen for the post before filling out, use a pin screen provided by the post player while he fills out to the weak side, etc. But this stuff will come later as the players develop.

4. Yes. My solution is trade the slower player to an opposing team. (Just kidding!) Is the slower player slow because he is not reacting quickly enough or is he just too slow in general? If it’s the former, then drill more. If it’s the latter, tell the slower player to stop in the short corner. This will allow your quick point guard to get all the way to goal, but it will also provide a target for the point guard to pass to if the slow-corner-man’s defender stops the point guard’s penetration.

I hope this helps. I have always said that the best teachers of the game need to be coaching at your level. My hat’s off to you. When people ask me if I will ever return to coaching, I think about your level for two reasons: first, it takes some real creativity to teach, motivate, and coach at that level, and secondly, the players improve so quickly that you feel rewarded every day of practice.