How to Coach and Teach the Wheel Man-to-Man Basketball Offense

When it comes to coaching basketball fundamentals, you must consider continuity offenses. For example, most basketball zone offenses involve continuity, floor balance by rotating the ball rapidly from one side of the court to the other while filling the perimeter passing lanes as cutters penetrate into or through the zone defense.  It's all about winning hoops, folks!

To the best of my knowledge, the Wheel Offense is the Daddy of all continuous pattern offenses. It was followed by the "Auburn Shuffle" and then, the "Flex Offense" used much, today.

I've have had experience teaching all three basketball offenses in my days of coaching youth basketball. Sometimes they were successful and sometimes not. The biggest fault that I can see with their use is that players get so engrossed in going from point "A" to point "B" they often pass up good scoring opportunities. Many times I've expressed the opinion, "This is for coaches who don't know how to coach." However, this was always in jest. You can take any 2 or 3 of the fundamental eight plays and build your own continuous pattern basketball offense.

By this I mean, they either don't have enough knowledge, nor the time it takes to teach all the fundamentals. Also, some coaches seem possessed in controlling every player's movement each moment of every game. As a result, his players may win a few games, but never rise to their fullest potential.

The wheel man-to-man offense features constant movement. Cuts are made toward and away from the ball by every player with double screens away from the ball.

If you need a good ball control offense, the "Wheel" may be for you. Especially for small teams with balanced scoring and rebounding. It might work, too, with players who do not fare too well at free-lance play.

It certainly is not an offense for teams with poor ball-handling skills, or teams who rely on the scoring or rebounding skills of a single player.

The wheel can be run from many different alignments and is easily started from either the left or right side without altering positions of players. For illustration purposes, a two-guard-front alignment is used; but once set in motion, it becomes a one-guard-front.