Using Ball Screens Against a 2–3 Zone

I post a lot of content, plays, and diagrams with Hoops Companion.

Most of those are for use against man-to-man defense.

Quite often, coaches will reach out to me for some help with scoring against zone defenses.

One of my favorite ways I’ve seen teams go against zone offense is through the use of ball screens. Before we dive into a few ballscreen sets against a zone, let’s review some basic zone offense concepts:

• put your shooters in the best spots (these are your corners, kick out situations, etc.)
• make the bottom forwards play 2v1 as much as possible
• equiangular triangles — don’t let one player guard you; try to get your players to position themselves smack dab in the middle of two defenders (forming a triangle)
• engage the top guards — don’t let them just go from side to side with no thinking (thus, the ball screens)
• BE CREATIVE — when you see some of the sets below, don’t just take them for their diagrams. Move players around, have some off ball movement to get TO the spots diagrammed, experiment with players in different spots, etc.

Here are a few examples that might help your team:

1. Zone Loop

1. Zone Power

1. Zone Inside

1. NOVA Zone

1. Zone Elbow

1. Zone Screen Set

1. Zone Spread

1. Zone Roll

There you go, coaches — 8 ways to implement some ball screen action into your zone offense!

What else ya got that’s worked for you?