Here are three 3v3 breakdown drills to pair with our 5-Out Early Offense package.
In 5-Out you often have three-player actions with two “spacers” spreading the floor out of the action. This points to 3-on-3 as an obvious way to work on your openings and combos.
3v3 Push
This is not an exhaustive list of the openings we can use; just three of them. The first is PUSH — a dribble push toward the wing.
1 dribble pushes 2 to far corner. 5 follows and sets side ball screen for 1. 1 must keep their dribble.
In all of these games, the offense executes the script, in this case PUSH, then the play is live at the ball screen. We play 3v3 with a 0:15 shot clock.
3v3 Toss
The next opening is the TOSS. The offensive script opens with a TOSS back to the 5 overlapping the centering dribble by Player 1.
5 then hits ahead to Player 2 blasting out of the corner. 5 follows pass to side ball screen for 2. Once again, play is live at the ball screen.
3v3 Thru
The third opening is THRU. Pass down and cut THRU to far corner as depicted below.
Like the previous scripts, play is live at the side ball screen. It is also important to show different ball screen coverages in these scenarios to develop recognition.
There a few more opening scripts in our 5-Out package, but this should give coaches an idea of how to rehearse the openings and combinations used to start the possession.
Bonus Assets: 3v3 for 5-Out Playbook
Below you’ll find a corresponding mini-playbook with diagrams of these three-player games and more of the openings.