There is one exception to the Circle Movement rule in the Read & React (and it couldn’t be helped). When a player drives baseline, four passing windows must be filled: the Safety Valve, the Natural Pitch, the 45 degree window, and the 90 degree window. Filling these windows puts all the offensive players into the best positions to catch and shoot or catch and do something else (hopefully smart). Because of this, the driver always knows where each her teammates is on the drive, which is a huge benefit of the Read & React Offense.
The clips below show a variety of Baseline Drives from a couple of formations. You can see that sometimes those four passing windows are filled with guards and other times, they’re filled with post players. For more basketball video of the offense at all levels, check out the Read & React video page.
Clip 1: Baseline Drive 45-degree window. However, note that all of the windows of the Baseline Drive Layer were filled and it’s a combination of 3 Layers: the post slid up to the 90-degree window (Basic Post Slides); the Safety Valve behind her was filled and the wing circled into the 45-degree window (Circle Movement); and the opposite corner flattened for the Natural Pitch (Baseline Drive Layer).
Clip 2: An example the Safety Valve being used. Only one player missed her window; the top guard should have filled the 45-degree window because the ball-side post had the 90-degree window covered. Natural Pitch window was filled, although not as flat as I would like.
Clip 3: A little Pass & Cut leads to a baseline drive. She pitches to the 90-degree window, but the post decides to drive instead of shooting. She passed again and the action continued. Regardless, it shows what happens when the post defender decides to stop the drive.
Clip 4: 5out action – Pass & Cut: she drives off the tail of a cutter – an intelligent drive. She makes the Natural Pitch to the cutter, but the post steps down instead of up to the free throw line elbow. The post should have filled the 45-degree window and the guard should have Circle Moved to the 90-degree window. Even though it sounds like a mistake, she didn’t turn the ball over and her extra pass is to the wide open 45-degree window.
Clip 5: The slides and windows work just as well against a zone as they do against a player-to-player defense. Again, there’s a mistake made by one player, but this team has learned to work themselves out of it. Instead of shooting the Natural Pitch, she re-drives above the post player and the pass to the short corner post looks like the drill straight from the Read & React Offense DVD!
