The wrinkle that every coach wants in his playbook

I think it’s safe to say every coach has a “Horns” 🤘 set in his playbook. 

The biggest pitfall for running any Horns play is the lack of dynamics. 

But this opens the door to what is probably one of the simplest but most effictive wrinkles any coach should have in his playbook!  Adaptable to all levels.

During the screening actions by the bigs on top, the wings in the corner risk not to be involved.  And that’s exactly where many defenders lose their attention for a split second. 

The moment the wing defender is high on his legs watching the ball, the corner wing cuts explosively in front of the defender towards the basket.  Not to give any time to help defense, the cutter finishes his action on the run.

It’s Important to have a point-guard that can give a perfectly timed pass on the way to the basket.  Because of the spacing in a Horns set, it’s very hard to have any help defense to stop this cut. 

While a backdoor is more common, such a “face cut” punishes any off-ball defender that relaxes his stance and attention.  On all levels, the corner defender in a Horns set makes this mistake commonly.

In the video below 📽️ I breakdown the wrinkle into all the details with footage from the biggest European basketball scene: Valencia Basket, Fenerbahce, SIG Strassbourg, …

This quick corner cut should be a wrinkle in any team’s playbook running Horns 🤘 sets.  It’s a quickplay that gives you an easy basket against any opponent that anticipates your classic Horns action.

This face cut is named after the legendary Predrag Danilovic.  “Sasha” Danilovic was one of the best scoring guards in the 90’s for KK Partizan, Virtus Bologna, Miami Heat and the Dallas Mavs. 

I’d love to hear from you on how this wrinkle worked out for your team, let me know!

This video breakdown was published in AdB Hoops, a world leading FREE magazine for basketball coaches.

For the video editing I use my all-time favorite tool Coach Paint.