Basketball Offense Types: Motion, Pick-and-Roll, Pace-and-Space and the Systems in Between

Basketball offences come in a handful of families. Motion offences run on passing, cutting and screening away from the ball. Pick-and-roll offences repeat one action between a ball-handler and a screener. Isolation offences clear space for a single scorer. Post-centred offences play inside-out through a big man near the basket. Set-play systems run a fixed pattern. "Pace and space" is not a separate system so much as a way of running any of them: play early, put shooters around the arc, and make the defence cover more ground.

Every one of them is an answer to the same problem. Five defenders are trying to protect the basket, and the offence has the 24 seconds of the shot clock to get one of them out of place. The systems differ in how they create that mistake and in which players they need to do it.

The shot-value arithmetic underneath

Before the systems, the arithmetic, because it explains why offences look the way they do now.

A shot's value is its points multiplied by its chance of going in:

• A three made 36% of the time is worth 3 × 0.36 = 1.08 points per attempt.
• A two made 54% of the time is worth 2 × 0.54 = 1.08 points per attempt.
• In general, a three matches a two that goes in 1.5 times as often. A 35% three equals a 52.5% two; a 40% three equals a 60% two.

That ratio is all "effective field-goal percentage" does. Basketball-Reference's glossary describes eFG% as adjusting for "the fact that a 3-point field goal is worth one more point than a 2-point field goal."

What the league numbers actually show

Basketball-Reference's league averages show how far the game has moved since the three-point shot was adopted in 1979-80, a change NBA.com's season review describes as borrowing "a popular facet of the ABA game".

The shares are our arithmetic, attempts from three divided by all field-goal attempts.

One honest wrinkle. In 2025-26 the league as a whole made about 55% of its two-point attempts, worth roughly 1.10 points each, slightly more than the 1.08 a league-average three was worth. That is not a contradiction. The average two blends shots at the rim with longer jumpers, and a league average hides the difference between them. The case for the three is strongest against the specific two it replaces: a jumper inside the arc has to go in at 1.5 times the shooter's three-point percentage to match it.

Where pace fits

Basketball-Reference defines pace as "an estimate of the number of possessions per 48 minutes by a team". Today's game is not the fastest the league has played. Pace was 103.1 in 1979-80 and 93.9 in 2014-15, and it stood at 99.4 in 2025-26. What changed most is not the number of possessions but what teams do with them.

The systems, one by one

Motion

What it solves: predictability, and dependence on one player. The offence runs on rules, such as pass and cut, screen away from the ball, and replace yourself, so the defence cannot sit on a play it has scouted.

Who it needs: several players who can pass, shoot and read the defence. Any one of them can become the scorer on a given trip.

How defences attack it: by denying the first pass and switching off-ball screens. Without a player who can create a shot late in the possession, motion can drift toward the end of the shot clock with nothing open.

Pick-and-roll

What it solves: creating an advantage with only two players. A good ball-handler and a screener can force two defenders into a decision on every trip, and the other three players space the floor to punish the help.

Who it needs: a ball-handler who can shoot off the dribble, a screener who can roll to the rim or pop out to shoot, and shooters spotted around the arc.

How defences attack it: with a choice of coverages, from dropping the big to switching to trapping the ball, each of which concedes something different.

Pace and space

What it solves: a crowded paint. With four or five shooters spread around the arc, help defenders are far from the basket, and every closeout is a long run that a driver can attack.

Who it needs: shooters at as many positions as possible, including a big who can either shoot or roll hard enough to occupy the rim protector. Early offence, attacking before the defence is set, is the "pace" half.

How defences attack it: by switching and running shooters off the line, and by punishing small lineups on the offensive glass.

Isolation

What it solves: the late shot clock and the matchup the offence wants. The team clears one side and lets its best scorer attack a chosen defender one-on-one.

Who it needs: a scorer who wins those matchups often enough to justify a possession with little ball movement.

How defences attack it: with early help and double-teams, which the NBA's 2025-26 rulebook permits in so many words: "the defenders may double-team any player."

Post-centred, or inside-out

What it solves: scoring near the basket and drawing fouls. The ball goes to a big man near the rim; if the defence sends help, he passes out to open shooters.

Who it needs: a post scorer and shooters around him. The rules shape it too. An attacking player cannot stay in the lane for more than three seconds, and under the NBA's 2025-26 rules a player below the free-throw line extended may not dribble with his back or side to the basket for more than five seconds.

How defences attack it: by fronting the post, doubling on the catch, and making the big pass out quickly.

Set plays and continuity systems

What they solve: organisation. A repeating pattern of screens and cuts gives every player a known job and makes timing reliable.

Who they need: discipline more than stars, and enough shooting that the pattern's open shots go in.

How defences attack them: by scouting the pattern and jumping its key pass.