5-Out or Open Post Motion Offense

5-Out Motion Offense

You have a small team with no big post players. What is your game plan? You decide to run the 5-Out Motion Offense (also known as Open Post Offense).

The 5-Out Motion Offense works well against any defense because if executed correctly its positionless for your team, creates movement, and has continuity for the entire offensive possession.

In this article, you will learn the strengths and weaknesses of implementing the 5-Out Motion Offense along with the basics of the offense to discover if it’s the right offense for your team.



Strengths of the 5-Out Motion Offense

  1. Teaches Players How to Play Basketball – This offense allows players to develop their game because it forces them to learn how to read the defense and their teammates and make decisions based off what they’re seeing unfold.

  2. Positionless Basketball - All five players are interchangeable in the 5-Out Offense. This allows the offense to easily be adapted to fit a team’s roster while allowing players to become comfortable playing anywhere on the court.

  3. Strong fundamentals - Cutting, screening, passing, and shooting are the foundational fundamentals that allows a team running this offense to excel. If your team can execute these four concepts accurately with the right timing and spacing then you will easily have scoring opportunities each offensive possession.

  4. Spaces the Court – With all 5 players around the perimeter, your team should have great spacing at all times. If players are in the right spots then driving lanes are open and it makes it difficult for any help defense.

  5. Difficult to Scout – The 5-Out Offense can be difficult to figure out for defenses because it’s a true read-and-react offense which makes it hard to scout and defend.

  6. Team Effort - This offense is a team offense - you can’t rely on one player to carry the team. Everyone has to be involved in the passing, cutting, and screening to make this offense run efficiently. If the entire team works together, the offense will be hard to stop.

Weaknesses of the 5-Out Motion Offense

  1. Can Be Difficult to Learn – The 5-Out Offense doesn’t involve any sets or plays because it revolves around a motion offense. This can be hard to understand at first because it takes time for players to understand constant movement without Coach telling them exactly what to do.

  2. Lack of Movement - The critical part of this offense being successful is motion and if your team fails at attacking, cutting, and screening then your team may get stagnant and start watching the ball more than moving to get open. Without movement, it’s easy for the defense to guard and make stops.

  3. One Main Player - If your team has one (or two) players who score most of your teams points then you may choose to run a different offense that focuses on their dominance.

  4. Teams will play zone - One of the easiest ways to defend the 5-Out Motion Offense is to switch to a zone defense. You can still run 5-Out against a zone, but you’re team must know how to counter and attack the different defensive strategy.

Who should use the 5-Out Motion Offense?

The 5-Out Motion Offense is best suited for a team where every player on the floor excels at the basics: dribbling, passing, cutting, screening, and scoring. This is extremely important to the success of the offense because it’s what allows the offense to be positionless and players to develop their skills.

If your team lacks height and wants to run a fast-paced offense then this offense is a solid option. There is a ton of movement that goes into running the 5-Out and that would play to your advantage with a shorter, quick team.

The 5-Out Offense creates constant movement from all players on the court until they have found an open teammate for a scoring opportunity - and if it’s a team full of players who excel at scoring then you’ll easily put points on the scoreboard.

5-Out Motion Offense Rules

These 5 rules are what players must follow in order for the offense to run smoothly. Keep these in mind and be sure to emphasize them as you’re teaching and learning the 5-Out Motion Offense.

  1. If you’re one pass away, being denied by your defender, and make eye contact with the passer, back cut immediately. Don’t hesitate - just back cut and be watching for a possible pass coming your way.

  2. If you feel you can attack the rim and score, attack as soon as you catch the ball. Players will know if beating their defender is a possibility and if they feel confident they can do it then encourage them to be aggressive.

  3. Players must square up to the goal in a triple threat stance when they have the ball in their hands. You don’t want your players to signal to the defense what they’re going to do when they have the basketball. By squaring up in triple threat, players can shoot, pass, or dribble - and the defense will not be able to tell what they’re going to do.

  4. Every action must be executed with purpose. Any action you’re doing in the 5-Out Motion Offense, do it to the best of your ability and with full effort. Cut hard, screen strong, pass crisp, dribble confidently.

  5. Spacing is always the key to the offense. The only way to be successful is to keep the right amount of space at all times during your offensive possession.

5-Out Motion Offense

Setting Up

The set-up to this motion offense is very straightforward. ‘5-Out’ means all five of your players are starting out on the perimeter.

In this offense, there are five spots that must always be filled. The only exception to a spot not being filled is if a player is performing an action such as screening or cutting. In that situation, they will fill the spot after the action is complete.

The five spots are (as seen in image):

  • Left corner - Player 4

  • Left wing - Player 3

  • Top - Player 1

  • Right wing - Player 2

  • Right corner - Player 5

If you’re in beginning stages of teaching the 5-Out Offense then you might use a marker to mark these spots on the court to show your players where they need to be. This will remind them to keep the floor spaced and make sure all the spots are filled.

Getting Started

The easiest way to get started teaching the 5-Out motion offense is to break it down into progressions. By using progressions, you make the offense easier to understand for your team. Once they have a solid understanding of the progression and are able to complete it with little to no mistakes then you can advance to the next progression.

The 4 progressions are:

  • Progression 1: Basic Cutting

  • Progression 2: Screening Away

  • Progression 3: On-Ball Screen

  • Progression 4: Dribble At

Read on to learn more about the 4 progressions of the 5-Out Motion Offense!

5-Out Motion Offense Progressions

To give you the best examples of the progressions we're going to use Lason Perkins' Open Post Offense DVD.

Progression 1: Basic Cutting

The easiest way to introduce the 5-Out Offense is starting with the basic actions of passing and cutting. Start by setting markers at each of the 5 spots on the court. Let your team know that when they're not cutting, they must be in one of these 5 spots.

There are four passes and cuts that can be made:

  • Top to Wing Pass
  • Wing to Corner Pass
  • Corner to Wing Pass
  • Wing to Top Pass

Practice these pass and cuts without defense at first and once you see the 5 spots are filled at all times add in defense to go against.

Top to Wing Pass

 

  • 1 passes to 3 on the wing then makes a hard basket cut.
  • 3 catches the passes and faces the basket.
  • 2 and 5 move to fill the spots closest to the ball.
  • 4 stays in the corner.
  • After cutting, 1 fills the opposite corner.

Wing to Corner Pass

 

  • 3 passes to 4 in the corner then makes a hard basket cut.
  • 4 catches the passes and faces the basket.
  • 2 fill the spot on the wing.
  • 5 and 1 move to fill the spots closest to the ball.
  • After cutting, 3 fills the opposite corner.

Corner to Wing Pass

 

  • 4 passes to 2 on the wing then makes a hard basket cut.
  • To fill the open spot, 4 replaces themselves back in the corner.
  • Rest of the players wait in their spot for the next action.

Wing to Top Pass

  • 2 passes to 5 at the top then makes a hard basket cut.
  • 5 catches the passes and faces the basket.
  • 4 moves to fill the spots closest to the ball.
  • After cutting, 3 fills the corner spot replacing 4.
  • Other players wait in their spot for the next action.

Progression 2: Screen Away

Once your team is confident with passing and cutting, it's time to add in screening away after a pass as another option.

This action can be executed on any top to wing, wing to corner, or wing to top pass. The only pass it can’t be performed on is the corner to wing pass.

Before teaching the screen away, you need to decide whether your players will always come off the screen curling, or if you're going to give them the option of cutting to the top or curling depending on what they see the defense doing.

Lets take a look at both options...

Screened Player Curls

 

Here's what curling on a screen away looks like from a top to the wing pass:

  • 1 passes to 3 on the wing. Instead of cutting, 1 goes to set an away screen.
  • Teaching Point – It’s essential for 3 to wait while the screen is being set.
  • 1 screens for 2 making sure they set the screen at the right angle for 2 to curl and cut to the rim.
  • 2 comes off the screen curling and looking for the ball.
  • After 2 has used the screen, 1 pops back out to the same spot that they set a screen from and may have an open shot at the top of the key if their defender tries to help on the curl.
  • After the cut, 2 fills the opposite corner spot since 4 has filled 2’s previous spot on the wing.

Screened Player Pops Out

The main difference when using this option is: the screener must go the opposite direction of the cutter.

If the cutter decides to pop out to the perimeter, the screener will cut to the rim and then fill the corner.

Here's what curling on a screen away looks like from a top to the wing pass:

  • 1 passes to 3 on the wing. Instead of cutting, 1 goes to set an away screen.
  • Teaching Point – It’s essential for 3 to wait while the screen is being set.
  • 1 screens for 2 making sure they set the screen at the right angle for 2 to curl and cut to the rim.
  • 2 sees their defender cheating under the screen so 2 comes off the screen and pops out to the top of the key to catch and possibly have an open shot.
  • Reading the action by 2, 1 cuts to the rim because they must go the opposite direction of the cutter.
  • 1 then fills the corner position as 4 has filled 2’s previous spot on the wing.

Progression 3: On-Ball Screen

Once your players understand cutting and screening away, the next action to teach is setting on-ball screens (also known as pick and rolls).

The on-ball screen can be used after any pass in 5-Out Motion Offense and can be very effective to use because of the spacing with this offense.

Here are two examples of setting an on-ball screen:

Wing to Corner Pass On-Ball Screen

  • 1 passes to 5 on the wing and basket cuts.
  • 4 and 2 fill the spot closets to the basketball. After cutting, 1 fills the opposite corner.
  • 5 passes to 3 in the corner and then goes to set an on-ball screen.
  • 3 uses the on-ball screen and drives hard to the rim.

Top to Wing Pass On-Ball Screen

  • 1 passes to 2 and then goes to set an on-ball screen.
  • 2 uses the on-ball screen and drives hard to the rim.

Progression 4: Dribble At

The final action to add to the 5-Out motion offense is the ‘dribble at’ action.

This action can be used when a player is being heavily guarded and has no options to pass the basketball. In this situation, the player with the basketball may decide to dribble towards another player at a different spot.

When this happens, these two offensive players have two options:

Back Cut

  • The player with the basketball dribble towards another player.
  • If the player without the basketball is being denied, they can back cut and look to receive the basketball for a chance to score.
  • If they don’t receive the pass, they fill the weak side corner, the other players rotate towards the basketball, and the next action begins.

Hand Off

  • The player with the basketball dribble towards another player.
  • The player without the basketball reads their defender and receives a handoff.
  • The player that receives the hand-off should attack the rim and kick out to shooters if the defense slides over to help.

Learn More

The above progressions are all the pieces you need to make the 5-Out Motion Offense your go-to game plan. As your team spends more time with the offense they will develop a basketball IQ and continue to solidify the base offense you have implemented and allow you to add advanced progressions in the future

If you want to dive deeper with Perkins about the Open Post Offense, check out the DVD we used in this article to find out more. You can find Lason Perkins' Open Post Offense DVD at this link.

In this DVD, Perkins takes you through an incredible collection of plays step-by-step on the whiteboard then follows it up with excellent demonstrations to help you instruct your players on the court correctly. You can't go wrong with this DVD!

If you want to learn even more about the 5-Out Motion Offense check out HoopsKing.com for DVDs you can download or rent.

What is Open Post Offense?

Open Post Offense is when all 5 players are out on the perimeter leaving the lane open. The spots are:

  • Top
  • 2 Players on the Wings (R/L)
  • 2 Players in the Corners (R/L)

Learn more about the positions in the 5 Out Offense here.

What Are the Cons to 5 Out Offense?

The cons to 5 out Offense:

  • Designed for one (or two) main players to score
  • Teams will play zone against the offense
  • Lack of Movement

Learn more cons to the 5 Out or Open Post Offense here.

What Are the Pros to 5 Out Offense?

The pros of the 5 Out Offense:

  • Difficult to Scout
  • Spaces the Court
  • Teaches Players to PLAY Basketball

Learn other benefits and How to run the offense here.