NBA 5-Out Offense: Delay Specials

A look at common specials and sets out of Delay.

Time to return to the 5-Out offense study before the season starts to dive into more specific actions that teams run! Previously I looked at some of the spacing, common actions, and sets out of “Wide” series and touched on “Delay” - all of those links and more can be found in the “5-Out” section. In this breakdown, we are going to look at some of the common specials that NBA teams use out of the initial Delay action.

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Previous Breakdowns in the 5-Out Offense study:

Part 1 - NBA 5 Out Offense: Spacing

Part 2 - NBA 5-Out Offense: Wide

Part 3 - NBA 5-Out Offense: Wide Dribble

Part 4 - NBA 5-Out Offense: Wide Elbow

Part 5 - NBA 5-Out Offense: Wide Specials

Part 6 - NBA 5-Out Offense: Delay

Part 7 - NBA 5-Out Offense: Delay Flare

Part 8 - NBA 5-Out Offense: Delay Chicago

Part 9 - NBA 5-Out Offense: Delay Turn

Note: if you are reading this in the e-mail only, some of the gifs and videos are not showing up correctly.

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Delay 41 Chicago

Technically this is not a direct Delay set, this is a designed Chicago action getting a player going to their strong hand downhill. Starting off with a pass ahead to the wing, essentially 21 Keep action, then hit the big in the middle of the floor setting up the Delay action.

Then the player on the wing screens down for Chicago action with the big rolling to the rim after the handoff.

Delay 41 Rip

Another example of a counter when teams start scouting this action is to have the player who brought the ball up set a backscreen instead of coming off the pindown into the handoff.

Delay Clear

The Warriors love to go to this action to setup second side movement after the initial pass & clear. Here Steph hits the middle and creates initial action and cuts toward the other side of the floor.

Flowing into a stagger screen after his gravity and impact opens up a roll to the rim.

Other actions can be a backscreen, hand off or the Chicago action on the other side getting the defense to defend both sides of the floor and multiple actions.

More Delay Clear

Utah Jazz Into Blender

Delay Clear Rip

The Wizards actually run a lot of their After Time Out Plays using this initial action and flowing into multiple option - the first here as a backscreen.

Delay Clear Up

A way to get a big into the post is to set an upscreen for the big in the middle of the floor and either have a quick hitter or a post up.

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Delay Elevator

Initially starting off as a set out of the elbow, as teams have gone to 5-Out this set starts off with an entry to the middle of the floor.

Then after the pindown for the guard in the corner he intentionally curls or cuts into the lane and then goes through Elevator doors from the middle and the opposite wing.

More Elevator Plays:

Jungle Hoya Fence | Zipper Elevator | Spurs Elevators | Elevator Decoy

Delay STS

There are a couple of variations to teams running screen the screener action out of Delay, with the first one being a hand off to the wing and then a pass to the middle of the floor.

Then the player who handed it to the wing sets a backscreen and then comes off a downscreen, for screen the screener action.

The Mavericks then flow into the same screen the screener on the second side of the floor with the player coming off the backscreen screening on the other side (think of flex action).

The Nuggets set this action up with a ball reversal to the middle of the floor and swing to the opposite wing.

Once the ball gets reversed the point guard sets a cross screen and comes off a downscreen.

Delay Over

Hitting the big in the middle of the floor and then following the pass over the top to screen away for the opposite wing is what I call Over action.

This flows into a handoff for the wing to either drive or looks for a scoring opportunity.

Delay Over Back

Running the Over action and clearing out the corner, the player who set the screen away comes off a screen from the big looking for Back action.

Delay Over Twirl Spain

Setting up Spain action here after the Over concept, the player on the opposite wing curls into the lane instead of coming off the handoff.

This player now sets the backscreen for the big as the point guard comes off the handoff setting up the Spain action.

Delay Runner

Just like above, the Warriors love to get Steph Curry going from one side of the floor to the other, but in this special he starts in the corner waiting for a downscreen.

He intentionally curls into the lane and sprints across as the ball is being reversed. When he starts to cross the lane the opposite wing sets a pin in screen and is designed to slip for a layup.

Delay Under

With bigs who can bring the ball up the “Under” ballscreen is becoming more and more common as part of teams early offense and flow offense with drag screens and random screens for bigs.

This action is usually set inside the 3 point line since the bigs defender tends to sag in these scenarios.

This opens up secondary actions like a flip to the player who set the ballscreen, flowing into a 2-man game.

Teams like the Nets use this to go into a secondary action for the player in the corner (typically KD). Setting the ballscreen for the player in the middle forces his defender to go under most of the time and when flowing into the hand off usually means he will be lower in coverage.

Teams don’t exclusively use this for bigs, but also wings with a ghost screen.

Delay Under Ghost Hammer

In the Delay Series breakdown, we looked at the basic Delay Under action above where a guard passes to a wing in the middle of the floor and set a quick ghost ballscreen to try and get a drive downhill.

They then add on to this action with a Hammer screen for the guard on the Wing as the drive in the middle occurs.

We can see here that Jalen Smith is staring at the slot drive so even though the Suns recognize and switch the initial action the Hammer screen is wide open because Shamet and Smith are both ready to help on the drive instead of the Hammer screen.

Delay Weave

Using the same Over action the Rockets empty out one side of the floor to have Harden start in the corner on the weakside.

This flows into the normal dribble handoff into a ballscreen weave action, but when Harden is denied it also opens up backdoor opportunities.

Normally this would be a hand back to the point guard and then a hand off to Harden to come off a ballscreen.

The Rockets also used this action for the player in the opposite slot not emptying out one side of the floor.

Delay Weave Turn

The Rockets tweak the Weave action we looked at above with a quick swing and then flip right into a ballscreen with a baseline exit screen.

You can see here the baseline screen is the Turn action we looked at in the previous breakdown, combining creative actions again.

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If you liked this breakdown feel free to share it & if you have any other scenarios, plays, or thoughts on any future breakdowns let me know in the comments below!

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🏀Resources:

Basketball Playbooks | Coaching Clinics | Coaching Membership | Newsletter

👉🏻Follow:

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🔎Explore:

5-Out Breakdowns | Space & Pace Clinic | NCAA “Delay” Series Playbook

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Outwork Yesterday.

Coach Pyper