Flex Offense coaching guide

July 26, 2008

The Flex: explained in simple, teachable terms

ALSO AVAILABLE: Watch a Complete online animated video tutorial on the flex. The entire basic flex is broken down into parts and explained.

flex offense

Offensive floor positions and Terminology

There are 3 primary positions in the flex - Guard, Wing, and Post. These terms refer to areas of the court, not to individual players’ positions within the team.
Since players interchange positions in the flex offense, it is most effectively run with versatile players who possess at least an understanding of ‘how to play the game’ - fundamental principles of play regardless of position.
Post players must understand and develop perimeter skills. Since every player in the flex is required to handle the ball on the perimeter, every player must develop the ability to catch, pass, make decisions and move actively on the perimeter in order for the Offense to function at all. Perimeter players will often find themselves in the basket area and can benefit greatly from an understanding of matchups, positioning and rebounding angles.

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The Flex Offense begins in a 1-4 low set. Though the Flex is one of the most team-oriented offenses in basketball, starting the action in a 1-4 low set may require the point guard to be able to handle pressure defenses reasonably well.It is important in all offenses for the point guard to pick a side when initiating the offense. If the offense were initiated from the middle, the point guard would most likely have a difficult passing angle to the wings.
The post players are cued by the side that 1 chooses. The weak-side post player pops to a guard spot when 1 leaves the middle

flex

If 4 is overplayed on the pop-out, he has plenty of space to run a backdoor cut to the basket for a layup. 3 fills the guard spot. 4 clears to the weak side corner if he does not receive the backdoor pass.

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Another option if 4 is overplayed, is to screen away for 3. As we will see in a moment, this follows our basic rule to ‘re-screen’ -accept the pressure and screen away to the baseline - against denial defense.

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Since 3 and 4 are the only two offensive players on this side of the floor, there is ample space for 3 to read his defender on 4’s screen. In this example, 3’s defender trails around the screen, so 3 curls the screen, while 4 rolls back to the ball.

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Now we enter the meat of the offense. The first rule of the Flex Offense is : On any Guard to Guard pass, the weak side wing player (2) runs a flex cut off of the post (5). 2 must influence his man by taking 2 steps towards the baseline before executing a hard change of speed, change of direction cut to come off of 5’s screen.

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It is important for the post player (5) to take one step up and one step off the block to set the screen on the flex cut. In most standard (non-switching) man to man defenses, 2’s defender will attempt to bump 2 and fight over the top of the screen as shown. By stepping up and off the block to set the screen, 5 gives 2 room to back-cut the screen if X2 aggressively tries to ride 2 over the screen.

	1 starts towards the baseline after passing to 4. 1 down screens for 5 immediately after 5 sets the screen for 2. This is called screen the screener action because 1 screens for 5 immediately after 5’s screen for 2. This screen the screener sequence is the defining sequence of any flex offense. 1 pops to the corner after screening for 5 in order to balance the floor.
	Screening the screener can be very effective. If 5 and 2 execute properly on their screen, X5 might be forced to help cover 2 momentarily in order to prevent a layup, as shown. Sometimes this is all the space 5 needs to get an open look coming off of the down screen.
	The Second rule of the Flex Offense: On any Guard to Wing Pass, the passer screens away to baseline, as shown. Once a team has Rules 1 and 2 down, they are running the basic action of the flex offense. Again the rules are: 1. On any Guard to Guard Pass, the weak side Wing runs a flex cut, followed by a down screen from the Guard who passed the ball. 2, On any Guard to Wing Pass, the passer screens away to the baseline. These are only the basics movements. Far too many teams stop here and call it a day. Many teams will even stop one step earlier and spend the entire possession completing only the Guard to Guard pass, looking to score off the flex cut and/or down screen over and over and over again. These teams aren’t really running a sound offense as much as they are looking for the cheap bucket. Many of these teams don’t realize how close they are to a complete, fundamentally sound offense. What’s worse is…by presenting the defense with so few challenges, the flex often becomes steadily less effective over the course of game. By executing just a few fundamental offensive concepts, these teams can place significantly greater stress on the defense, resulting in much more diverse scoring opportunities within the same basic scheme.
	This rule is a basic principle of almost all continuity offenses such as flex, motion, and the like. We DO NOT pass the ball to stationary players on the perimeter. So..what it really boils down to is: if you’re not moving, you’re making a mistake. If a player finds himself standing on the perimeter , he screens away to the baseline.
	This illustrates the same principle from a different position on the floor. One of the most common and frustrating fundamental errors players make on offense is to go to a spot and call or wave for the ball. Sometimes, this player is frustrated himself, because he didn’t receive the pass when he was open. Even if a teammate did miss an open pass, it is critical for the waving player to realize that this reaction causes a much bigger immediate problem for the team In any motion-type of offense like the flex, and particularly against pressure defenses, any player that finds himself standing and calling for the ball probably hasn’t been open for long time. Even if he feels like he’s open, he runs a huge risk of a turnover. Any active defender near the passing lane has a great shot at a steal against a standing offense; the difference in inertia between the two players gives the defender a huge advantage. If a player is standing on the perimeter, he should ’set the table’ by screening away for a teammate to fill the open spot. This simple motion principle is critical because it ‘keeps the wheels greased’ on offense. Teams that struggle with this find things grinding to a halt far too often in games.
	Good flex teams pass into the post early and often. Since players interchange floor positions in the flex, everybody on the team will spend some time in the post. We’ll look to feed any post player with a favorable matchup. The flex can be great at providing post-up opportunities to big guards with a defensive mismatch. Players should learn to recognize mismatches and capitalize on them from within the offense. Guards should yell ‘Mouse” if they establish post position on a smaller guard. On a pass to the post, the wing player reads his man’s reaction to the pass, and cuts out of his man’s field of vision. In this diagram, 3 cuts along the baseline and clear to the weak side if he doesn’t receive the pass. This clears the side for 2 to make a scoring move from the post.
	If 2 is not a ‘back to the basket’ type of player, he can jump to the ball on the pass from 3 and catch the ball off the block. When 3 clears, 2 will often find himself 7 feet from the basket with a 1 on 1 opportunity and half of the floor to work with.
	Here, 3 screens away for 5 after the post pass. 5 should look for the shot off of 3’s screen, and 3 can step back to the ball after the screen.
	The direction 3 cuts after feeding the post is based on reading and reacting to the defense.95% of perimeter defenders will turn and ‘dig’ towards the post after a post-feed; for most players this is a natural response, like responding “What?” when they hear their name spoken out lout. 3 watches his man react to the pass and cuts outside the defender’s field of vision.3 cuts to a spot directly in front of the defender on the pass to the post in the depiction on the right (The player’s are Zeros). The defender can easily recover and close out on a pass back out. In the depiction on the right (the players are Triangles) 3 cuts away from the defender’s field of vision. This time the defender’s job is much more difficult since he must locate his man before he can close out.
	3’s defender makes an inside turn to dig into the post so 3 responds with a baseline cut.
	Part 3 in this series is an animated/video narration** of the Flex offense. Watch the video for additional teaching points and for a clear reinforcement of the diagrams and explanations above. The video is free to view and download!
	ALSO AVAILABLE: Watch a Complete online animated video tutorial on the flex. The entire basic flex is broken down into parts and explained.
Flex Offense