Q: When the ball is passed from the wing to the corner, the wing cuts, but who fills the now vacated spot. In your DVDs, you mention that you should fill from the baseline up. Given that, should the corner player dribble up to the spot left open?

A: You’ve exposed a poor choice of wording that I used on the DVD. Empty spots should be filled by the next perimeter player without the ball. In this case, the wing will be filled by the top, the top will be filled by the other wing, etc.

When I said “filled from the baseline up”, I had the mental picture of someone who has just cut to the basket and is now looking to fill an empty spot. If the cutter begins to fill the empty spot in the corner but then notices that the wing is empty, then he/she should skip the corner and fill the wing. If he/she then notices that the top of the key is open, then he/she should skip filling the wing and fill the top of the key. In other words fill the empty spot that is furthest from the baseline and closest to the ball. If the ballhandler is not going to drive an open spot, then he needs someone one spot away in order to pass, or speed dribble or power dribble. Even if he decides to drive, I would prefer that someone is one spot away so that they can slide into the Natural Pitch or Safety Valve position (depending on which way the ball drives.)

Hope this helps to clear things up.