Written by Rick Torbett on September 18, 2009 – 11:38 AM
Q: I’ve been learning a great deal with the Read and React and hope to implement it this year. I had a few questions and thoughts that I hope you can help clarify for me.
1. When a player passes and basket cuts, on which side should they fill a spot (or does it not even matter)? For example, the wing passes to the point and then basket cuts. Should he return to his original side after the cut or should he cut and the fill a spot on the other side of the basket?
2. For the X-Cut after a post feed, I understand the slip screen that takes place. What does the other player that is not cutting do?
3. When teaching the various layers, are there certain layers that you think would be good to teach together?
A: 1. In order to accommodate all formations, it’s best to tell players to “fill out to ANY open spot”. These open spots might be ballside or weakside in 4 OUT or 3 OUT formations.
2. The spot where the X-Cut screen takes place will be vacated. The X-cutter who sets the screen will be cutting to the goal and the player who was screened will take the place on the perimeter from where the X-cutter came. Therefore this “vacated spot” will be filled by the next closest perimeter player and his/her spot will be filled by the next, etc.
3. Here are possibilities for combination teaching:
Layers 1 & 4
Layers 2 & 4
Layers 5 & 6
Layers 3 & 12
Layers 8, 9, & 11
Layers 4 & 10
I would not teach Layers 1 & 2 together because they need to be separated in the players’ minds.