A line of players will start in the corner. There will be a cone in front of the players about 25 ft away.
There will also be a cone along the baseline that the defensive player will run around.
The player at the front of the line will have a basketball. The coach will nominate 1 person to start on defence.
When the coach yells GO both players will take off to get around their cones.
Once they are around the cones they are playing 1 v 1.
The attacker must READ THE DEFENDER!
If there is a defender running out hard to stop the shot, then we have to attack the basket.
If the defender is stopping short to protect the drive then we have to go straight into the shot.
Notes:
Once the offence has scored or the defence has got the ball the drill ends. The ball will be passed to the 1st person in the line in the corner and the offence will become the next defence.
Good spacing is only the start. The best modern offences teach players to attack the defence's rotations and play in a permanent 4-on-3 - here is how to coach that read.
The ball screen produces almost half of all professional offensive possessions, yet most teams still teach it as a memorised play. The modern approach trains the read - giving players a framework to decide based on what the defence does, not what the coach called.
The closeout is the most repeated defensive action in modern basketball. With fouls per game climbing in the 2025-26 season, coaches must teach defenders to contest the three without surrendering the drive or putting shooters on the line.