Four players space around the three-point line — two corners and two wings or slots — and one plays inside, either on the block or in the dunker spot just outside the lane on the baseline. It is the most common half-court shape in the game because it gives something up on both sides and enough of everything.
Why coaches use it
You keep four real driving gaps, which is most of what 5-out gives you. You also keep a screener who can set a ball screen and roll, a target for a drop-off pass, and somebody on the offensive glass. Against a team that wants to help off your inside player, the answer is to put him in the dunker spot, where his defender is the low man and cannot help on a drive without conceding a layup.
The compromise is exactly that. Your inside player’s defender is one more body near the rim than 5-out gives up, so drives are a step more crowded.
What comes out of it
- Drive and kick. One player drives a gap and the other four move on the drive rather than watching it. The strong-side wing drifts to the corner, the weak side lifts, and the pass goes to whoever the helper left.
- Ball screen with the inside player, with the weak-side corner holding the low man in place.
- Post-up on the block with three shooters spaced away and one relocating.
- Pin-downs for the perimeter players, because the inside man is already low enough to screen.
- Duck-ins whenever the inside defender turns his head to the ball.
Whatever you run out of it, teach the four perimeter players what to do while the ball is being driven. That, not the drive, is what makes the shape work.