The success of the Indiana Pacers offensively has brought attention to the “Flow Offense.” It appears the concept of the “Flow Offense” originated with Rick Carlisle when he was with the Dallas Mavericks. The motivation for its creation was that Carlisle wanted to play fast and he wanted to allow the players to have freedom to read and react.
At the same time, Jenny Boucek was an assistant for Carlisle with the Mavs. Coach Boucek then moved to the Seattle Storm and eventually became their head coach. Boucek installed the offense with a team of Sue Bird, Natasha Howard, Breanna Stewart, and Jewell Loyd. These WNBA stars loved the offense.
Listening to Bird discuss the offense in a podcast, she said they loved the ability to dominate other teams by how fast they played on offense, both in running up the floor and running in the half-court. Bird identified the three most important characteristics of the “Flow Offense.” 1) Running fast up the floor every possession whether off steals, misses, or makes, 2) Flowing into the half-court offense by moving faster than the other teams were used to handling, 3) Making fast reads off teammates actions.
The combination of the speed of play and the freedom to read and react made the “Flow Offense” something the WNBA stars quickly bought into. And the tremendous success of the Storm maybe it an imitated offense in the WNBA.
So this year’s success of the Pacers offensively has just added fuel to the fire of the “Flow Offense.” Players love it and it is becoming THE offense of this decade.
Whether the Fever would say they are a “flow offense” team or not, I am not sure. But the Fever as most teams in the WNBA have incorporated aspects of the flow offense.
The “flow teams” always wants to run. That means running on everything. They are going to run out of the net on makes as well as misses. The first players up the floor want to either be running to the corner or they can be rim running. So if a guard thinks they can get to the rim, they become a rim runner. For the Pacers, Pascal Siakam made a living in the play-offs by seeing he could just run to the rim. For the Fever, this has been Lexie Hull’s thing- identifying when she can become a rim runner.
If a players realizes they are not going to get the ball as a rim runner, the first two players should be running to the corners to flatten out the defense. Whoever has the ball wants to be pushing the ball to either slot. So if they push the ball, they should have the whole lane to attack with a player in each corner.
The fourth player will run to the opposite wing from the ball. And the #5 is the trailer and will run to the point guard position. So in theory, 1-4 are interchangeable, and 5 is the trailer.
The alignment at the end of the break will look like this.
A pass back to the trailer signifies an end to the transition. The offense then “flows” into things with a pin down on each side. The point guard (trailing 5) can initiate the offense by passing to either player coming up off the pin down, or by making a dribble hand off on either side.
So the two basic actions to start things are either a pass with a stagger away, or…
Dribble into a hand-off.
The players have the freedom to play off the stagger in different ways. For the Fever, Mitchell (#2) will usually make a straight cut for a shot off the double stagger.
Hull (#3) often will choose to refuse the stagger and cut backdoor. When that happens, the first screener turns and becomes the cutter. So this maybe Clark (#1) coming up off the screen.
A favorite action of the Fever is to have Clark (#1) as screener since most teams don’t switch, and have Mitchell (#2) come off the DHO going to her left hand. At that point, Mitchell is deadly with a mid-range jumper.
When you watch Clark (#1) come off the DHO from Boston (#5), Boston gets a lot of feeds off the roll.
From what I have drawn out, it would be easy for you to say that it doesn’t look like freedom, it looks structured. You need to realize that there are many, many options that coaches teach off the stagger. One account claimed a coach has 25 possible actions off the stagger and dribble hand offs.
1) The players often learn possible stagger actions off simple 3 man shooting drills with the coach adding possibilities as players can handle.
2) The players have the freedom to react on the floor, as a result often players create and learn movements that are effective for them.
3) Some players are more into the flow and just move. Other players are more robotic and need to be given just 2-3 actions.
4) If you watch the Fever, when they are clicking offensively, they flow into a stagger action. And often they flow again and again into a stagger action. Seldom do you ever see them “setting it up.” The ball gets to the top and the player either passes one side or goes into a dribble handoff- and everyone then just reads and reacts from there.
Most of the “Flow Offense” coaches then teach the players other actions to initiate offense- especially after time out or after made free throw or just off deadballs. You will see the teams start their offense with things like-
** Drag for the point guard
** Double drag for point guard
** Horns sets into side ball screens
In most cases, the point guard at a deadballs or free throw will set up the action they are going to run. Then they will “flow” into their offense.
There are countless examples of a team reading and reacting out of the “flow offense.” They are not running set plays, they are just flowing into actions. They have pushed the ball up the court and then move in the half court.
This is a simple example of a variations the Fever run. This first example is an example of Boston (#5) choosing not to screen away after passing. Instead she follows her pass and becomes a ball screener for Mitchell (#2) to attack the middle. It does not need to be called, the two players just read and react.
A second example of reading and reacting in flow offense. In this case, Boston (#5) has reversed the ball to Mitchell (#2). Either by having talked thru in before, or Boston choosing to stand, Mitchell and Boston go into a dribble handoff.
Boston takes the ball toward the wing just as if Mitchell had passed it to her. Mitchell now enters a double screen for Clark (#1) to come to the top.
Hull (#3) reads that Mitchell (#2) is the last screener so she sets a fade screen for Mitchell to shoot a three. Clark reads and passes. This could be a pre-called action- “DHO into Stagger followed by Flare.” Or it can just be a read and react. The better the players, the more they read the possibilities and just “flow” into movements.
The idea of the Flow Offense is play fast and then create more 2 and 3 man actions in the half-court.
Sue Bird shared that to implement the offense successfully, everything that the team does in practice must be really, really fast. You build the habit of fast. Common practice drills of “Flow Offense” teams are…
** Five On Zero- players run a circle at their defensive end. The coach calls out a player and passes to them. The team sprints down on offense. The offense has 12 seconds to (A) have all 5 players touch the ball and (B) score off a prescribed action.
** Five on Five- both teams circle, the coach passes to a player. That player’s team becomes offense and breaks to the other end. Each team has an action that has been prescribed- drag, backdoor off stagger, DHO, etc. There are 12-14 seconds on the clock. The offensive team runs the break, everyone has to touch the ball, runs the action, then keeps flowing- trying to score in 14 seconds. The purpose is to teach speed.
Below are good descriptions of the Flow Offense.
Coach Lynch Basketball- Flow Offense
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