Three Ways To Turn Transition Offense in Basketball Into Points

• By Grant Young

Transition offense in basketball is crucial for winning games for these four reasons:

1. It allows teams to capitalize on fast break opportunities and catch the defense off guard. 

2. Teams that excel in transition offense are able to score easy baskets before the defense has a chance to set up, giving them a significant advantage. 

3. By pushing the pace and capitalizing on fast break opportunities, teams can demoralize their opponents and build momentum. 

4. Effective transition offense puts pressure on the opposing team to get back quickly on defense, which can lead to defensive breakdowns and open scoring opportunities. 

While every basketball coach knows the benefits of a lethal transition offense, many underestimate how much coaching needs to go into an offense that plays fast and executes at an efficient rate. Because playing in transition requires players to make quick and strategic decisions while moving at a fast pace, players may struggle to understand their roles and responsibilities without proper coaching, which leads to disorganized and ineffective fast break opportunities. Coaches will play a critical role in teaching players how to recognize when to push the pace, when to pull back and set up a half-court offense, and how to make the right passes and reads in transition. 

By not just coaching transition offense but coaching it well, teams can maximize their scoring potential and capitalize on one of the most exciting and dynamic aspects of basketball. This is why we’ve pulled three vital lessons from three coaches who have made careers out of scoring in transition. With these tips under your belt, transition will become a core, consistent pillar in your offense strategy that you can always rely on. 

Aaron Fearne - Step Up Screen

Aaron Fearne is the head men’s basketball coach of the UNC Charlotte men’s basketball program. In his first season at the helm of the 49ers in 2024, Fearne led Charlotte to a 19-12 overall record, a 13-5 mark in conference play, and the first top-three league finish since 2006. 19 wins in the regular season were the most since 2012-13.

Charlotte also recorded its first-ever eight-game conference winning streak in program history the first win over a ranked opponent at home since 2010 and the first overall since 2013.

In Coach Fearne’s ‘Early Offense in Transition into Flow Offensive Actions and Counters’ course, he discusses why he’s a huge proponent of having post players setting what he calls step-up screens in transition. 

This is incredibly effective if you have a post player who’s ahead in transition because the guard who’s trying to stop the dribbler in transition never expects a screen to arrive in that scenario. And freeing up the dribbler to continue their attack without being hounded by a defender will free up the entire transition attack. It will create an even bigger advantage and likely enable the dribbler to attack the paint and go for a layup. 

If that isn’t available, the post player who set the screen will be trailing and will likely have the defending guard they just screened having to man up on them, which will create a mismatch in the post that can be exploited for an easy layup. 

Another aspect of this is that, once this screen is set, it will allow any offense players crashing along the wings to remain there because attacking lanes into the paint will be used by the guard and/or the post player who set the screen. This will likely make for open three-pointers.

John Leonzo - 5v0 Flow Drill

John Leonzo currently serves as the associate head coach for the women's basketball team at Wright State University. 

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Leonzo joined the Raiders in June 2021 after five seasons as an assistant coach at Cedarville University. While at Cedarville, Leonzo helped the Yellow Jackets win 3 conference championships and had players named to the all-conference team 14 times. 

In his ‘The Ultimate Guide To Transition Offense’ course, Coach Leonzo discusses a drill he finds crucial in developing a consistent transition attack. 

His ‘5v0 Flow’ drill starts with five players jogging in a tight circle around the paint. The coach then tosses the ball off the backboard and calls out a player’s name, who then grabs the rebound and initiates the fast break. From there, the players must organize and space themselves by communicating as the ball moves in transition. Once a basket is made, the group will do the same thing in the opposite direction.

After a few repetitions of this, four defenders can be placed on the opposite end of the court to make the drill more realistic. In addition to being great for instilling spacing and communication, this drill is excellent for getting players into condition for executing the fast break during games. 

King Rice - Strong Side

King Rice has been the head coach of Monmouth University’s men’s basketball team for 13 seasons. In February 2022, Rice became the winningest Division I Head Coach in Monmouth Basketball history. He has 189 victories to his credit, as well as a trio of MAAC Coach of the Year honors and three MAAC regular season titles. 

Coach Rice’s ‘King Rice - Fast Break Basketball’ course details some key concepts for executing on the fast break. He wants his dribbling guard to attack the strong side (where a wing player is already streaking) while the next trailer behind him setting up at the top of the key rather than the opposite wing. 

That trailer can also set a screen for a wing player who’s streaking on the weak side, who will almost certainly pop up for an open midrange shot or three-pointer at the top of the key once this transition down screen is set.