I’ve always taught a motion (5 out or 4 out). These next 4 years (HS), I’m going to have 2 REALLY good guards. The rest, just role players (not overall skilled). Yes, I’m working to help develop them but not sure what offense to run. I need the ball to be in one of their two hands. 5 out wouldn’t work well because it puts players in positions that they are not comfortable (catching on wing, make good passes, driving etc ...). Think two great guards and everyone else is a 4 out of 10. No real post players either.

I was thinking about having 5-6 simple sets (because the game is usually so up and down with fast breaks and secondary breaks). Thinking like high ball screen, maybe pin down screens, flares.

Would it be good to have all plays out of same format (box set, 1-4 high, 4 out, Princeton, etc ...)?

Any thoughts on an offense for what my team sounds like?

You could run what we call Kirkwood ball screen continuity offense. You would just need one more guard that you feel won't turn it over on the ball screen... he doesn't have to score. So you have two posts setting ball screens and cleaning up glass. And 3 guards using ball screens. I have seen patient teams do well with this offense with one true playing-making guard and a couple barely average posts. They really didn't score much until he got the ball after a couple swings and made a play.

Don Showalter uses this offense and there's some info about it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKIQPtpZMUs

You can also run motion with rules to fit your team. You could run 4 out 1 in and have the post always on the weakside for rebounding position and spacing. So now you just have to figure out rules for the 4 perimeter players and to use your top player strengths. You would have 1 of the perimeter players always cut or screen when they are one pass away... so they are basically there for cutting and screening.

Without going into detail, I'm sure you could mold your motion to work. It might require some trial and error though.

Another thought, are you better off losing games early and letting these players make decisions and catching on the perimeter? Focus on the end goal? I ask because in years past I've had post players that most high school coaches would not run 5 out with. I wanted these kids to develop so I ran 5 out anyway. They struggled the first 5 or so games. They were not used to making decision on the perimeter and their ball skills were shaky. They turned it over and looked like fish out of water.

After about 5 games, they got comfortable and their skills improved just enough where they could catch, pivot, and pass or take 1-2 dribbles. They even started getting to the rack a little bit. In any case, we ended up winning a lot of games, we had 2 mediocre post players that could post at any time from 5 out to take advantage of who ever had the mismatch... and most importantly some kids that made tremendous improvement over the season because I wasn't afraid to lose a few games early in the season.

Some food for thought.

That was my original plan and we worked on 4 out last year, so they are familiar with it. At times, we did well with it. We didn't have a lot of rules with it because some of them just don't have basketball IQ, so I made it fairly simple (pass, cut, fill spot). It worked some times and other times it didn't. If we could ever get 3-4 passes in and eventually hit one of the two guards on the wings (on ball reversals) - they could attack and get scores. Just have to hope they don't turn it over before it gets back to them though. lol

I would draw up some in-game plays (simple stuff, like high ball screen or screen the screener) and we got better looks with our 2 guards than hoping it gets back to their hands in the 4 out, so that had me thinking if I should just have several different sets. I don't want to completely abandon 4 out ... maybe I just need to have a few sets out of the 4 out (where we could do high ball screen or screen the screener or 2 high pick for PG where the wings come up to screen on both sides).

How many "plays" do you think is good to have included in the 4 out (or just specific actions from it)? Thanks for your help.

I'm probably the wrong person to about half court set plays because I just don't use very many. When I first started coaching 20 years ago I used 5 out cutters (cutting only). Then we had 3-5 half court called plays I believe to get the players we wanted getting shots where we wanted. It worked fine. This was the 9th grade level.

Over the years I shifted more focus on SLOB and BLOB plays to score, motion offense, and only have 1-2 half court plays that are stupid simple that you probably wouldn't even consider them plays.

I know some coaches have 20-30 half court plays... plus BLOBs and other situations. I have no idea how???

Personally, at the high school level, I have 4-5 BLOBs and 2-3 SLOBs that are intended for us to score off, 2 stupid simple half court plays, and a couple press break plays or end of game situation plays. That's what seems like a good balance for me allowing us to spend plenty of time on player development, defense, rebounding, and motion offense.