Pass to the wing and cut. The passer goes to the block off a back screen from the high post, while on the other side of the floor the far guard is flared out to the wing on the same count. Reverse the ball and the two actions happen again the other way. That is Chin, and it keeps going until one of them is open.
Why coaches use it
Two screens on opposite sides of the floor on the same count is a genuine problem for a help defense. Sink down on the cut to the block and you cannot recover to the skip pass. Stay attached to the shooter and the cutter is alone at the rim. The defense has to choose every single time the ball is reversed, and a team that runs it well gets four or five chances a possession.
It also needs no special personnel. Everybody screens, everybody cuts, and the reads are the same for all five, which makes it one of the few continuities you can teach in a week.
Be careful with the names. Chin is one specific continuity. Princeton is the wider offense it belongs to — a family that includes the point series, the low series and a constant backdoor threat. A team that runs Chin does not necessarily run Princeton, and a team that runs Princeton runs much more than Chin.
What comes out of it
- The layup on the back-screen cut, if the help sinks late.
- The skip pass to the flare, if the help sinks early.
- A backdoor, the moment a defender starts jumping the reversal pass.
- A post-up, when the cutter’s man trails him to the block and gives up the seal.
- A quick hitter, because the first two counts of Chin make a fine after-timeout set on their own.