Josh Stinson Coaching Better Basketball The Flex Offense

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Josh Stinson Coaching Better Basketball The Flex Offense

Coach’s Guide: Flex Offense

Table of Contents
Overview ....................................................................................................................................................... 4
Advantages................................................................................................................................................ 4
Continuity ............................................................................................................................................. 4
Flexibility .............................................................................................................................................. 4
Easy To Teach....................................................................................................................................... 5
Challenges ................................................................................................................................................. 5
Predictability ......................................................................................................................................... 5
Vulnerable to Switching Defenses ........................................................................................................ 5
Answers .................................................................................................................................................... 6
Basic Flex ....................................................................................................................................................... 6
Recap....................................................................................................................................................... 13
Breakdown Drills ......................................................................................................................................... 14
Curl Drill .................................................................................................................................................. 14
V Cut, L-Cut ............................................................................................................................................. 16
Elbow Jumpers ........................................................................................................................................ 18
Perimeter Screens ................................................................................................................................... 19
2 Ball Shooting Breakdowns ................................................................................................................... 22
Quickpass ................................................................................................................................................ 23
Quick Possessions ................................................................................................................................... 23
Passing Possessions................................................................................................................................. 24
Quickbreak .............................................................................................................................................. 25

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Josh Stinson Coaching Better Basketball The Flex Offense

Special Plays ................................................................................................................................................ 26

Deep ........................................................................................................................................................ 26
Stack ........................................................................................................................................................ 26
UCLA ........................................................................................................................................................ 28
Push......................................................................................................................................................... 29
Down ....................................................................................................................................................... 30
Bulldog .................................................................................................................................................... 31
Pin ........................................................................................................................................................... 32
Reverse.................................................................................................................................................... 32
Quaker..................................................................................................................................................... 33
Transition ................................................................................................................................................ 34
Princeton ................................................................................................................................................. 36
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 36

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Josh Stinson Coaching Better Basketball The Flex Offense

Overview
Every so often I will hear coach or fan mention the flex offense as if it is a thing of the past;
these folks subscribe to a misconception that seems to crop up from time to time; the flex is too
archaic for today‟s game. My response: nothing could be further from the truth! The flex is alive
and well. In fact, the flex offense is run at every level of the game in some form or another, from
grade school all the way up to the pros. A well-run flex can create great shot opportunities in
the basket area, from the free-throw line area, and several other spots on the floor. As long as
this holds true, the flex will be a part of the game. This guide attempts to present much more
than the basic flex. By focusing on often-missed points of emphasis, including a focused set of
drills, as well as several special plays, this guide will give coaches all of the necessary tools to
fully implement the flex at any level, whether it is used as a seldom-run play, or as the basis of
an entire offensive system. To begin, I‟ll briefly overview a few of the main advantages and
some of the challenges of running the flex

Advantages
Continuity
The first major advantage is that the flex is a continuity offense. I think it's very important,
particularly for younger players who are learning the game, to have some sort of continuity
offense as the basic offense. Continuities don't have an endpoint like set plays do. As a result,
continuities encourage ball movement and player movement in the form of cutting and screening.
The idea is to run the offense with purpose but also with patience, until a good shot opportunity
presents itself. Compare this to the team that only runs set plays. On teams that run set plays
exclusively, when the team hasn't scored at the “end” of the play, you see a lot of players (at
every level but especially at the younger levels) try to break the defense down with one on one
play. Sometimes I think this type of play happens for no other reason than the fact that there
wasn‟t anything else planned if the set play broke down. This is not to say that one-on-one play
is all bad; in fact, it‟s a necessary component of a successful team. The problem is that, far too
often, teams resort to one-one-one play far too early and often. Continuities like the flex
encourage ball movement, cutting, passing and patience. One-on-one play should occur out of
this framework, and at appropriate times, such as “time and score” situations, or as a counter to
great defensive pressure.

Flexibility
The second advantage of the flex is in its flexibility. The flex allows players to utilize their
strengths all over the floor. If a team has a post player with good perimeter skills, the flex allows
that player to utilize those skills without completely taking that player away from the basket area,
where his skills are probably needed. The opposite is also true; if you have a guard with good
skills around the basket and flex will give him or her opportunities to utilize those skills.

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Josh Stinson Coaching Better Basketball The Flex Offense

Another piece of the flexibility advantage is that the flex teaches players the game from every
position, rather than just a specific position. Often, a coach will find that this results in teams
with players who possess a better than average understanding of how to play the game rather
than just how to play a position. The flex encourages the development of basketball players,
regardless of position. This is a tremendous advantage for players looking to play at the next
level of the game (whether that be middle school, high school, or college) but who may have to
change their primary position in order to make the transition. This happens all of the time for
post players making the transition from middle school to high school. As their peers catch up to
them in height, these players are often forced to play guard in high school. The coach who has
prepared this player by developing his or her perimeter skills has done that player a tremendous
service. Sometimes it can mean the difference between making the team and getting cut.

Easy To Teach
One last big advantage is that the flex is relatively easy to teach. Like any effective offense, it is
not easy to execute; that takes time and focused, fundamental practice. Still, the basic
movements of the flex can be taught in 10 to 15 minutes, as there are only two primary
passing/cutting sequences (the guard to guard pass/flex cut and guard to wing pass/screen away
to the baseline). With just those two pieces in place, any team can run a basic flex. For some
teams this can be a real advantage because they have can move past basic understanding of
“where to go” on offense and shift the focus onto aggressive, competitive play.

Challenges
Predictability
Probably the biggest challenge and criticism that some coaches have of the flex is that it can be
very predictable. Players don't have freedom of choice like they do in a motion offense; players
run the same basic cuts on each type of pass. Compared to motion offenses, there aren‟t many
situations where players are expected to make reads; when a pass goes to one place we run a
specific cut or set of cuts each time. The trade-off, though, is that it's easier for player to make
those cuts aggressively and with purpose; rather than think at every screen, players can focus on
aggressively making the play. Still, the predictability of the flex can become a problem,
especially against teams that run different counters out of their basic man to man defenses.

Vulnerable to Switching Defenses

Probably the biggest defensive that gives the flex difficulty, especially for younger teams, is
switching defenses. If team depends exclusively on getting baskets off of the flex cut and/or the
downscreen, they will often find the offense grinds to a halt when a defensive team switches
those screens. This is one reason why it is important to have a balanced scoring attack from
within the offense rather than relying on one or two places to get all of your shots.

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Josh Stinson Coaching Better Basketball The Flex Offense

Answers
The common, and in my experience very effective, answer to the problems of predictability and
of dealing with switching is to include a package of set plays into any system that features the
flex. You want to have just a simple but effective package of plays as you can run as counters
when facing different defensive challenges. Adding specials also reduces monotonous for
players. Several counters are presented in this book. I do not think it is necessary to run all of
them in a season. Which, if any, you choose to run with your team should depend on your
team‟s strengths and weaknesses as well as defensive tendencies ion your league. If none of the
teams in your league‟s switch, don‟t put too much energy into running bunch of plays geared to
counter switching defenses. If switching is common in your league, you‟ll want to spend more
time preparing for it. Whatever you choose to run, consider what is most appropriate for your
specific situation.

Basic Flex

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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Josh Stinson Coaching Better Basketball The Flex Offense

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

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.

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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Josh Stinson Coaching Better Basketball The Flex Offense

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.

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.

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.

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