There are a number of drills that are applicable to almost every offence. Apart from individual fundamental skills, one-on-one moves and rebounding, the give and go is the most basic of all two-on-two situations and is inevitably a part of every offensive structure. One player passes to a team-mate and checks to see how the defence reacts. If the defender turns his head and loses vision on the passer momentarily, or maintains poor stance, then he can be beaten with a change of direction and pace with a cut to the basket. A complete offence can be built on the give and go principle with good spacing of the players around the court, good passing and cutting. It will of course need to include individual one-on-one options that allow the player with the ball to drive to the basket when the defenders give too much attention to the cutters.
Perhaps the oldest method of team offence is what is now known as a motion offence, but was once known as a give and go offence. In simple terms this means that after each pass the passer should normally make a jab step away from his defender followed by a quick change of direction and hard cut to the basket. If the cutter is open for a return pass it will usually lead to a shot close to the basket. If the first cutter is not open for a return pass the receiver will pass to another team-mate and make a similar fake and cut to the basket. With this style of play it is important that if the cutter does not receive the return pass, he should continue his cut and clear away from the keyway, leaving the area vacant for the next cutter.
When a team is using a give and go offence it is common for the defenders of players without the ball to sag toward the keyway with the intention of blocking the cutting lanes. When the offence recognises this tactic, the players should be able to create opportunities for perimeter or short-range jump shots. The success of the offence will depend on the players recognising what the defence is doing and making good decisions on passing to open cutters, to players free for perimeter shots, or making strong one-on-one drives.
