Hammer

The hammer is a trade the defense cannot win. Drive the baseline hard one way, and at the same moment screen the weak-side corner defender the other way. Somebody has to rotate over to stop the layup, and the man who does is the one responsible for the corner he just left.

Here it starts with a plain wing entry and 1 filling the slot behind the ball. Then 3 drives the baseline while 5 flares 2 out to the far corner.

The read

There is one question: does the help come.

If the low defender steps across to wall off the rim, he has given up the corner, and the skip across the baseline arrives before he can turn around. If he stays attached to the corner, nobody is at the rim and the drive finishes.

You are not choosing between the layup and the three. The defense is.

Where it breaks

Timing, every time. The screen has to be set while the ball is still moving toward the baseline. Set it a beat late and the rotation has already happened, and the shooter arrives in the corner after the help defender has recovered.

The pass is the second thing. It travels across the baseline under the rim, which is the shortest line, and it should be thrown off the dribble without gathering. A lobbed pass over the top gives the recovering defender the time the screen just took from him.

Practice the pass on its own with a coach on the baseline. It is an unusual angle and players have to throw twenty of them before it feels normal.