To beat a zone press, I would aim for a simple approach that focuses mainly on spacing and ball fakes.

In any trap situation, we want the following 3 options available: 1. Reversal pass (pass backwards to 1). In my opinion, this is the most important piece. Always have a safety available behind the ball. 2. Gut pass - The pass to the middle (to 5) . This is the pass that breaks the press 9 times out of 10. 3. Forward pass - The pass directly up the floor. This formation of 3 players around the trap is called the ‘cup’ by most coaches.

• If we are trapped and we are set up in a cup formation the defense can’t cover all 3 passing options without leaving the basket area open. (3) - spacing is critical.

• Ball Fakes. More often than not, 2 defenders will be assigned to the 3 players in the cup. This illustrates why ball fakes are critical against zone pressure A good ball fake to 4 or 5 will cause X2 and X5 to react and shift, leaving 1 open for the reversal pass.

• If you’re facing denial against the inbounds pass, you can start 2 and 3 on the elbows and pop them to the wings (or screen for each other and cross).
• The wing that doesn’t receive the pass (3) floats downcourt to provide the deep pass option
• When a wing catches, the weakside halfcourt player cuts to the ball. Some times a pass directly in to 5 will ‘gut’ the press before it even begins.
• The most important points here are:
  • 2 must immediately catch and read - look up the floor and survey. Younger kids in particular might tend to shy away from a trap by turning away instead of catching and reading. This will kill you every time. Get into the habit of catching and quickly reading. In the best case scenario, 2 would catch the pass and immediately hit 5 on the cut from behind the press.
  • 1 must step inbounds quickly to provide a reversal option. If the defense traps the pass immediately., we want to have the reversal pass covered just as quickly. 1 should step; to the ball, as most defenses that trap the inbounds pass will look to steal this pass

• The ball is reversed as 3 slides back up.
• When the ball hits 3 on the side, the middle player (5) makes a diagonal cut to the sideline.
• At the same time, the weakside midcourt player (4) cuts to the middle from behind the press.

• 4 and 5’s roles are identical - When the ball is reversed back to 2, 4 makes the diagonal cut to the sideline and 5 cuts to the middle.
• Note: The diagonal cut is very often open; however, the receiver also catches the pass at an awkward angle (if 2 passed to 4 here, 4 would be heading out of bounds). 4 has to catch and read before doing anything else - fundamentals!

• Any pass that breaks the defenses perimeter (up the middle or down the sideline) cues the team to follow simple fast break rules.
• On a pass up the sideline, everybody dives toward the basket.
• The middle player (4 here, 5 if the ball was on the other side of the floor). looks for the pass on the dive, then posts up on the low block - just like a secondary fast break.

• If the post pass isn’t there, we look for a quick reversal - just like a secondary break.

• On the gut pass, the sideline players break to the basket.
• The receiver faces the basket and looks for the pass to the sideline cutters.

• If the player receiving the gut pass has guard skills, he should also look to push the ball just like a fast break.