Lafayette's 4-out 1-in Motion Offense

I like reading books by John Feinstein, in fact I'm reading one right now, and one of his quirks is a fascination with Patriot League basketball. I watched part of the Lafayette game against Rutgers and this was just a really nice illustration of what a 4-out 1-in motion offense looks like, especially when you run it against a team more talented than you. The key here is patience and ball movement, make the defense guard all 5 players. Heck, it's called motion offense for a reason, because all 5 guys should be moving. Anyways, watch the video and read my thoughts below,



Basic Rules:

I think with any motion offense, you want to have just a few basic rules. When watching the video, you can pretty much guess what they are,

1. Post keeps moving from block to block across the lane looking for the post-entry.
2. Double-side (ball-side), drive, fill
3. Single-side (weak-side), L-cut, fill and replace



Once the rules are established, you simply emphasize to your team to move the ball. If you are in practice, a good rule would be 10 passes before you shoot.

The result of the play looks simple enough, the post gets the ball, does a drop step baseline and scores. How would that play work if it wasn't motion and was just straight up key-wing-post? I would guess that the wing defender would come and double the post, resulting in a much tougher shot. That's why the motion works, players are always moving causing the defense to move with the motion. This creates 1-on-1 opportunities and takes away the concept of help defense. Also, motion-based offenses are difficult to trap because of all the motion and cutting.

I wrote about Utah Jazz and their 4-out motion offense and how great they are at running it. But don't be fooled, motion offenses require patience and discipline. It discourages the 1-on-5 concept, and players initially will reject it because once they get the ball, they don't want to give it up. You have to keep working at it and be patient as a coach and allow your players to adapt to it.

There are plenty of notes on motion offense principles but I would highly recommend taking a look at coach John Carrier's notes, he does a great job breaking down the many options out of a 4-out 1-in, he's a guru of the offense. You can find them at the X's and O's Basketball forum. For video instruction, one video worth taking a look at for sure is Jay Wright's DVD on Breakdown Drills for the 4-out Motion Offense. Coach Wright is the highly successful coach at Villanova.