1-4 High Continuity Zone Offense

The 1-4 High Continuity is an effective zone offense to employ against odd-front zones such as the 1-2-2.

The point guard, O1, can initiate the offense to either the right or left side. In this diagram, O1 starts by dribbling to the right. As he goes right, O4 steps out to the the 3-point line to receive a pass from O1. O5 pins the guard on the elbow. As O1 passes to O4, O2 and O3 slide down to their respective corners.

After pinning the guard at the elbow, O5 looks to slide into the middle of the lane. O4 looks for the initial pass to O5 and, if not open, looks for O3 in the corner or for a skip pass to O2 in the opposite corner.

If O4 passes to O3, O5 continues to the low block. O3 looks to O5 in the post or to O1 with a skip pass. O1 may have a shot or can pass over to O2. O2 can shoot or hit O5, who is rolling back to the basketball.

The skip pass from O3 to O1 will be available most times, but sometimes the defense will cheat on that pass. When this occurs, O3 can pass back to O4 to start reversing the basketball.

The offense can continue in this manner; by utilizing skip passes and O5 controlling the lane area. It can also be reset by the point guard directing his teammates.

Wing Pass Option:

This option can be used to initiate the offense instead of always passing to the high post players at the start.

If O1 passes to O2 instead of O4, O5 dives down to the low block. O4 cuts to the elbow. O2 looks for the pass to O4 or O5.

If O5 and O4 are not open to receive a pass from O2, O2 reverses it back to O1. O1 dribbles over and passes to O3 on the wing. O4 cuts to the low post and O5 cuts to the high post. O3 looks to pass to O4 or O5.

If those passes aren’t available, O3 passes back to O1. O1 dribbles opposite and offense continues. O5 steps out for the pass from O1 or O1 uses the wing option and passes to O2.