Improving Zone Offense

I often hear coaches complain about the thought of having to play against a zone defense. When we don't have shooters a zone defense can become a daunting task to successfully attack. This article is going to discuss things we can use to help us against these difficult defenses. Zone offense is one of those topics that most coaches seem to put on the back burner. This is probably why many of our teams struggle to score against zones. When I ask zone defensive coaches why they play zone; their response is they have yet to see a zone offense as good as the team's man offense. My intention is to change this philosophy. We need to start working and devote more practice time to our zone actions. If you don't play a zone defense; I suggest you put one in so your team can practice against it. Over the past two years we've developed a zone attack that our players and coaches have found a great deal of confidence in.

8 RULES FOR ATTACKING ZONES:

RULE #1: GAP THE ZONE.
The old adage in basketball is even front zone = odd guard front and an odd front zone = an even guard front. This might be an old principle, but it does place your players in the gaps of the zone and automatically begins to distort it. This forces the zone defenders to communicate. Now they must decide who is taking the next pass. This can create confusion and leave two defenders on the ball. Recently, we've found ourselves becoming less concerned with even and odd fronts, but we normally begin in these classic alignments. So many teams play with match-up principles that our focus has shifted to creating player movement.

RULE #2: PUSH THE TEMPO.
Another great way to attack a zone is to challenge your opponent to get back defensively. Look for quick strikes against the zone where you have an offensive advantage before the defense gets set. This also leads to great offensive rebounding opportunities while the defense is scattered. During the 2011-12 season, we found this to be such an important concept that we put in a zone early offense. We've always ran various man to man secondary breaks, but we had never explored the concept against zones. We're glad that we did and it has become a staple of our zone attack ever since.

RULE #3: TURN THE BASKETBALL.
When we play against zones we want to get the ball moving to make the zone chase us. A quick turn of the basketball (or reversal) creates gaps in the zone that your cutters can find, or your drivers can drive. Sometimes we don't even worry about running offense until the ball has been turned or skipped once. This is also a great time for weak side duck-in action if we need a paint touch from a post. Ball movement is a critical component to running effective zone offense. We want the ball to slow down on the wings and speed up on the top. We never want the ball to stick on the top of the key.

RULE #4: FAKE A PASS TO MAKE A PASS.
Sometimes against a zone all you need is one defensive player to be spaced. We tell our kids to "fake a pass to make a pass." The zone is taught to move on the flight of the ball. Any type of pass fake will begin to move some, if not all, of the zone defenders. This creates gaps for passing angles or drives into the lane.

RULE #5: GET PAINT TOUCHES.
The most important aspect to any good zone offense is the ability to get paint touches. When our guards become three point happy we play what we call "red light-green light." This is where we won't allow a perimeter shot until we've got a paint touch. This can be off a post feed or a perimeter drive into the paint. The most common ways we get paint touches are off a short corner catch with a dive from the high post, or a high post catch with movement behind the zone from the short corner. We also get low post duck-ins on ball reversal, and perimeter paint touches when we punch the gaps with the dribble. Even if our guards can't get to the paint, we force two defenders to guard one. The extra pass may allow a teammate an open gap to drive or an open look.

RULE #6: SCREEN THE ZONE.
Screening the zone is another great way to distort the zone and get players out of position. You can screen exterior defenders for three-point shots, or interior defenders for post touches. The things you must consider when screening are who will cover the ball, and who is responsible for covering the specific area you wish to attack. Also, ball screens are effective because there is no hedge. This automatically puts the offense into a 5 on 4 advantage. This has become a favorite action of ours over the past two years.

RULE #7: DRAG AND FILL.
Drag and fill is a concept that we are using with greater regularity because of the ball and player movement that it provides. It has quickly become my favorite way to distort a zone defense. The idea involves having an offensive player use two dribbles to "drag" the zone defender out of her area, and then fill the open area with a shooter. A quick return pass leads to an open look, or it forces the zone to lift a bottom defender, thus allowing a short corner catch in her area. This concept becomes very effective when you drag and fill in the corner or on the wings.

RULE #8: FOUR TO THE GLASS.
The final phase of a great zone offense is to attack the glass. Zone defenses don't have clear block out assignments, which makes it easier to offensive rebound. We send four players to the offensive boards with one getting back for transition defense. Tell your kids every shot is like a pass to you, so go get it. Make sure they do not run into backs. We tell our kids to get low and get even. We like to get two offensive players on the weak side, as only 28% of missed shots are rebounded on the strong side.

If you would like to see our zone offense in action you can click on the link below. The clips were taken from the 2012-2013 championship season. 

CLINTON ZONE OFFENSE CLIPS

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