How to draw basketball plays: pick and roll, spacing and sets

Standard notation

The SportStudioLab basketball board has a tool for each of these symbols (Pass, Cut, Dribble, Screen and Shot), so there's no need to improvise styles with colours.

• Offensive players numbered 1 to 5: point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward and center. In a diagram the number is the position, not the shirt number.
• Pass: a dashed line from passer to receiver.
• Cut or off-ball movement: a solid arrow.
• Dribble: a zigzag line — the player moves with the ball.
• Screen: the screener's movement ends in a short perpendicular line marking where and at what angle they set it.
• Shot: an arrow towards the rim.

Drawing a pick and roll

The pick and roll is the most common action in modern basketball — and one of the worst drawn when everything is crammed into one image. Split it into three moments:

1. The big comes up to screen the point guard's defender. Draw the movement with the screen symbol, angled towards the side the guard will use.
2. The guard uses the screen, dribbling to that side and brushing as close to the screener as possible.
3. The big rolls to the rim or pops out to shoot, and the guard reads: pass to the screener, drive, or kick to the weak-side shooter.

Spacing is part of the play

A frequent mistake is drawing only the two or three players directly involved. In basketball, where the other players stand decides whether the action works: if the weak-side shooter is in the corner, their defender can't help without conceding a three; if they're near the lane, help comes for free.

So it's worth always drawing all five attackers. The 5-Out Motion and Horns templates start from two very common structures: five players spread around the three-point line, or two bigs at the elbows with shooters in both corners.

Drawing defenses

To explain a defense, place all five defenders and use zones to show which space each one is responsible for. In a 2-3 the weakness at the high post and elbows is obvious straight away; in a 1-3-1, it's the corners. If you're explaining how to attack that zone, draw the offensive movement over the same image or in a later step.

• Man-to-man: short lines linking each defender to their attacker, plus the weak-side help position.
• 2-3, 3-2 and 1-3-1 zones: one zone per defender and arrows for the slides depending on where the ball is.
• Box-and-one and the 2-2-1 full-court press: included as templates so you start from a correct structure.

Baseline and sideline inbounds plays

Inbounds plays (BLOB and SLOB) are ideal for a board because they always start from the same alignment and run the same way every time. Draw the starting alignment carefully — it's what players need to recognise in a second when the referee hands over the ball — and number each action. A short name or signal for each play makes it easy to call from the bench.

From diagram to practice

A new play is learned best in three phases: first with no defense (5-on-0) to automate the timing, then against passive defense, and finally in small-sided situations where the defense chooses how to guard the screen. The drill designer includes a pick-and-roll drill, the Shell Drill for help-defense rotations, and 3v2 and 2v1 transition drills.