Baseline Offense

So here's a topic I'd like to throw out to all the basketball coaches or ex players on this board. That is, the failure of so many teams I watch to use the baseline as an offensive weapon.

This has been one of my criticisms of our Griz but when I watched Portland against Michigan State, I noticed the same thing: Portland never too advantage of baseline cuts and so their offense was concentrated from the mid-post area out to beyond the three-point line which made it so much smaller an area for Michigan State to defend. It seems to me that baseline cuts would lead to lob dunks, drop-offs to post players or kick-outs to less heavily guarded three-point shooters. I see the pro's using the baseline much more than college offenses and I don't understand why.

As to fast breaks. It's obvious that the big advantage of the fast break is to attack a defense before it gets set up. If you play the slow-paced brand of basketball we play, we're always confronting a defense that is set up, in place, crouched down, ready to defend. Not only is the slow pace boring, I don't see in the long run how it improves an offense.

Any reaction from the experts out there?

No claims to coaching knowledge here (I coached h.s. jv hoops for 1 year). I thoroughly learned Marv Harshmann's famed Hi-Lo offense by taking "Coaching Basketball" from Jud Heathcoate, but the guy I learned the most from was Jim Brandenburg, who alternated as a lecturer with Jud. He espoused a flexing offensive attack he called "Gaps" where the offensive attack adjusted, based upon the defense an opponent used. Those gaps included baselines, the space between the baseline and the free throw line, and even angular attacks when opponents used perimeter trapping Ds. I believe that coach DeCuire utilizes a style of gaps attack, usually later in the season. My two bits.

Do you mean baseline screens like the flex O, backdoor cuts, or those cuts where the defense is collapsing on the ball handler and throws an alley-oop to the cutting big?

Any of which would be welcomed, we do use some screening action where guards cross screen for the big then come off a down screen...that being said we have no shooters so the screening defender can stay and bump the big.

Based off last game especially, Air Force adjusted after the 1st ten minutes and packed the paint and helped from the wing, which tightened Brandon's dribbling lanes (because we didn't make a 3 until 39 min into the game). To your point, that would be a good opportunity for backdoor cuts. That being said, I don't think our wings do a good job sprinting to the corner in FB scenarios - seems like they stop at the wing a lot. We actually looked to advance the ball up the court more last game, but there was poor spacing.

With how much teams help when the ball is in the paint, whether it be on Bannan, Thomas, or Whitney, our off-ball guards have to do a better job of relocating to get in the passer's line of vision and outside their defender's vision. How many times does Brandon get to the paint and hold the ball & pivot looking for an open player? As soon as the off-ball defender leaves to help, there should be a relocation, whether that be for an open 3 or a cut.