How to use screens for EASY baskets: Smart offense for basketball coaches
1. Overview of the R Action
This offensive set, known as R Action, is designed to create advantages in the ball screen game. The goal is to generate confusion, delay help defense, and allow strong ball screen players to attack downhill.
- Built to create ball screen advantages
- Uses multiple actions to occupy defenders
- Designed for players who thrive in the pick-and-roll
2. Cross Screen as the Initial Trigger
The action begins with a cross screen on the baseline. This screen acts primarily as a decoy, forcing defensive attention and shifting help responsibilities before the ball screen even occurs.
- Cross screen occupies the defense early
- Help defenders are forced to react
- Defensive positioning is disrupted
3. Sprinting Into the Ball Screen
Immediately after the cross screen, the screener sprints into the ball screen. This quick transition prevents the defense from resetting and creates a timing advantage.
- Sprint creates late help
- Defense struggles to communicate
- Ball handler attacks downhill with momentum
4. Why the Five Is Late to Help
The initial cross screen pulls the five into a help position, making it difficult to recover in time for the ball screen. As a result, the five is late to contain, allowing penetration and forcing the defense to collapse.
- Five-man help is delayed
- Paint protection breaks down
- Defensive rotations become rushed
5. Multiple Reads Out of the Action
Once penetration occurs, several options are available. The ball handler can hit the corner shooter, use the top-of-the-key safety valve, or dump the ball to the roller for a backside layup.
- Corner three off defensive collapse
- Safety valve pass at the top
- Backside layup if help stays home
6. Confusion Creates Shot Quality
The primary objective of R Action is controlled defensive confusion. With multiple actions happening quickly, defenders are forced into late, imperfect decisions that lead to high-quality shots.
- Confusion delays defensive help
- Late rotations create open looks
- Shot quality improves without forcing plays
7. Ideal Situations to Use R Action
This action is especially effective when a team has a ball handler who plays well off the screen and a screener who can create contact and roll hard. It works well against teams that rely heavily on help rotations.
- Strong ball screen guards
- Physical screeners who sprint into contact
- Defenses that over-help or switch late
8. Why R Action Produces Consistent Results
By layering a decoy screen with a quick ball screen, R Action creates timing advantages that are difficult to guard. Late help, collapsed defenses, and simple reads lead to consistent offensive success.
- Forces defensive mistakes
- Creates repeatable advantages
- Generates high-percentage scoring
Related Articles
5 Ways Any Basketball Player Can Earn More Playing Time
Want more playing time? Stop asking for it and start earning it. These five habits separate players coaches trust from players who stay stuck on the bench.
5 Ways to Practice Mental Toughness
Here are five ways to practice your mental toughness off the court. If you practice these five things, every day, you’ll develop greater self-discipline. You’ll become unstoppable in anything you do. It is five things you will have to rise above your feelings every day. That is how you build mental toughness. You develop, as a habit, a muscle of rising above your feelings to level of your aspirations and commitments.
PG Secrets to the Perfect Spin Move
Learn how to perfect the cross–spin–cross move with detailed footwork, body positioning, and timing cues that help you finish athletically and change direction at an elite level.
About PGC
PGC Basketball provides intense, no-nonsense basketball training for players and coaches. Our basketball camps are designed to teach players of all positions to play smart basketball, be coaches on the court, and be leaders in practices, games and in everyday life.
We combine our unique PGC culture with a variety of teaching methods and learning environments to maximize the learning potential of those that attend our sessions. In addition to spending 6-7 hours on the court each day, lessons will be reinforced through classroom sessions and video analysis.
Our goal at PGC is to empower you with the tools to fulfill your basketball dreams, while also assisting you in experiencing the joy of the journey.
To learn more about PGC Basketball, including additional basketball training tips and videos, visit our YouTube Channel or find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Share This Post