SCORE: A Framework You Can Use To Build Your Team’s Offensive Identity

Helping your players and staff understand what good offense looks like for your team

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With the season quickly approaching, I want to hit on something that every coach on your staff and player on your team should have nailed down before game one:

how you’re going to score (or at least how you WANT to score)

This week’s focus is figuring out your offensive identity — what you run, how you try to score, what a good shot looks like, and what your players actually understand about it.

If you can’t clearly explain your offensive identity to your players, how can you expect them to execute it?

Being clear AND intentional about what you want on the offensive end - and your players fully understanding it - is non-negotiable if you want your offense to perform at its peak level.

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Lately, I’ve been watching a lot of youth basketball and I’ve noticed that fewer and fewer teams have a clear offensive identity. Very rarely do I walk away from a game with a clear idea of what they were trying to accomplish on the offensive end.

I don’t mean this in the sense of “they’re running dribble drive” or “they have a conceptual offense” or “they have lots of sets”.

I mean it more in the sense of it’s not very clear what they are actually trying to accomplish each possession. It seems random…and not in a good way.

Players don’t always know what they’re trying to get, how they’re trying to get it, or why it matters.

If you stopped practice and asked your players to explain what kind of shots you want and where they come from…could they answer you?

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For the rest of this post, we’re going to focus on how to get your team the best shots possible.

I’m not going to tell you HOW to do that - I’m not going to tell you to run motion, 5-out, Princeton, go full conceptual offense, or anything of that sort. That’s up to you as a coach. There are a lot of ways to do things well on the offensive end.

But I do want to try and help you, at least in come capacity, develop an offensive identity that is a little more clear to you and that you can easily articulate to your players.

And, since this is the point of the game…hopefully score more points.

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I was brainstorming ideas on this and came up with this SCORE acronym:

S = structure

C = creation

OR = ownership and roles

E = evaluation

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S.C.OR.E. Framework

S – Structure

STRUCTURE is the starting point for your offense. Based on your players, your coaching familiarity, level of play, experience, base knowledge, and other factors…what are you going to run when you are in:

• Transition

• Half-court offense

• Zone offense

• Inbounds

Here’s an example:

• TRANSITION = rim runner to opposite of rim, guards to corners, trail man that flows into our drive and kick (if nothing early, we initiate with high drag ball screen)

• HALF COURT OFFENSE = Princeton Point + 5 Out Motion

• ZONE OFFENSE = Texas and 4 Out

• INBOUNDS = Box Series

As you can see, very simple. It doesn’t have to include EVERYTHING you’ll run this season…but what are you mostly running this year?

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C – Creation
HOW are you going about intentionally creating shots within those structures?

Basically, how are you getting shots out of your offensive actions and concepts?

Examples…

TRANSITION = throw aheads, crossing the ball in transition, downhill drives before the defense is fully set, early ball screen action, drive and kicks, dump offs to post players, running 3s/finding our spots

HALF COURT OFFENSE = Point Series (backdoor cuts, quick post ups, ball screen), 5 Out Motion (flares and zoom action)

ZONE OFFENSE = high-low action, pin screens, ball screening the zone

INBOUNDS = screen the screener, flowing right into our drive and kick

It should go without saying that you should be DRILLING these common actions within your offense in both live action and your skill work.

Small-sided games (3v3, 3v2, 4v3, etc.) within these actions would also be useful as well.

If you are running a ton of ghost action for a stretch 4, they should be drilled within that action. A lot.

If you run Princeton Point every time down the floor, you should be drilling Princeton Point actions and decisions in your drill work. Daily.

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OR – Ownership + Roles
This is where role identification (and buy in) comes into play.

Who should be taking which shots—and from where?

This can be a tricky spot for coaches - and may require a few unpleasant conversations.

But if you want your offense to run on all cylinders and reach its highest levels, you must have the right people taking the right shots at the right time.

And you must avoid the wrong people taking the wrong shots at the wrong time.

You need to remove as much doubt, hesitation, or gray areas from your players in this area. It might sound constricting, but it will actually allow them to better fulfill their role and improve your offense.

You can define roles in a couple of ways - here are some ideas:

• Have players anonymously (or not if you’re brave) fill out a ranking sheet for each player. You could also have coaches do this.

• Use shot charts that indicate shot quality. Instead of just filling out makes and misses…score each shot attempt using whatever system you come up with.

• Pausing film and not judging the value of a shot on whether it goes in or not - go over time and score, player shooting, situation, and more - and ask your team if it was GREAT, GOOD, or POOR shot

• Individual conversations with your players about what you want from them. Remove gray areas.

Basketball isn’t an equal-opportunity sport if you care about efficiency and winning.

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E - Evaluation
Every possession and shot should be graded - here’s a sample one:

• 3 (Great): layups, open 3s from best shooters, free throws

• 2 (Good): shots you feel fine about

• 1 (Poor): contested jumpers, off-balance drives, wrong shooter

There are a lot of scoring systems out there - choose something that makes sense for you. Or make one up on your own.

What’s more important than what system you use is making sure your players understand your scoring system…and they have no doubt what type of shots you want from them or consider great shots.

When you can make this a part of your daily discussion and conversation during practice…and they can answer correctly about shot quality within their role…you’ll know they understand it.

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Some Questions/Ideas to Guide You

1. Begin with the end in mind.
   What are the 3–5 main ways you want to score?

2. Define priorities.
   What (or who) is your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd look each possession? These could be actions (ghost screen), players getting the ball in certain areas (get Mike a post touch each time down), or a combination of both.

3. Clarify what’s not a good shot.
   If you paused film mid-shot (before the result), would you be happy with it?

   WHO is taking the shot and WHEN they are taking the shot = just as important

4. Apply this to every phase of offense:

   • Transition

   • Half-court

   • Zone

   • Inbounds

Start here, and you’ll instantly give your team something most don’t have — clarity.

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Green, Yellow, Red: A Simple Shot Map

Every player should know where they stand in the following areas:

• Green Light: Let it fly.

• Yellow Light: Situational. Depends on game flow or matchup.

• Red Light: Don’t take it. Move it or drive it.

These roles can evolve over the season — but they should never be a mystery to your players, staff, or their teammates.

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At the end of the day, efficient offense isn’t just about running the right plays.

It’s more about building clarity and habits so players can make the right decisions in actual game play.

Clarity in these areas will help lead to better offensive decisions, more scoring, and a better chance of winning.

The clearer your offensive identity, the easier it is for everyone to play free, connected, and efficient basketball.

Reminder: if you’re an HC Extra or HC3 Member, keep scrolling for a downloadable form that you can apply to your team and program to help them better understand what we’ve just covered today in this post:

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