Scissors
Is it a set? Is it an entire offense? Is it something you could use?
“Scissors” is a simple set that can get some player and ball movement, maybe steal a few easy looks, and flow into a lot of effective and popular actions/concepts.
(Here’s the YouTube video explaining “Scissors”)
A few things to keep in mind:
this is just a beginning list - you could morph just about any action to flow after the initial cutting sequence
keep the defense honest - once your players get the pattern of the initial cuts down, let them slip/pop/make reads
don’t sleep on the initial actions - if your players cut to score on the initial action, you’ll be surprised at how many points you can steal
if you really wanted to, this has enough options to be your entire offense…once your players understand the flow, timing, spacing, and reads…they could just trigger different movements based on what certain players do
Let’s dive in.
INITIAL POSITIONING AND CUTS
the set starts like this every time you run it
as mentioned before, don’t sleep on the option to hit 1 over the top or 4 on that blast cut to the rim - every cut should be a cut to score!
one of my favorite actions out of this that doesn’t get looked at much is a post up opportunity for 4 after that initial hard cut - there’s not a lot of help down there.
BALL SCREEN/STAGGER OPTIONS
Ball Screen: this is a simple action out of the scissor cuts - just flow right into a ballscreen with 5 and have 4 “shake”
Simple Stagger: after the cuts, 5 and 3 stagger away from 1
REVERSAL BALL SCREEN
This is similar to Euro Continuity action with the ball reversal and immediate backdoor from 3
Once 3 goes backdoor, have them clear out and then it’s an empty ball screen with 5 and 1
5 can roll, slip, pop, ghost, etc…or even go into a handoff here
ZOOM
On 5’s pop and catch, 3 screens down to 1 to trigger “zoom”
PRINCETON SPLIT
you can even run some Princeton actions from this
5 takes a step to the ball after cutters clear, 2 passes to 5, and now you’re in split
if nothing develops, 2 and 5 have the entire floor to run empty ball screen
FLARE
when the ball reverses to 5, it triggers a flare screen between 1 and 3
3 flares and then 1 makes a read
1 could slip to the rim, receive a pass and follow ball screen from 5, or go into a handoff with 5
As you can see, this Scissors set has a lot of variations you could use to adapt to your team…or even run as an entire offense.
Pick, choose, and fit it according to your team.
See you next time!
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