V-Cuts, L-Cuts, and Pin Downs

When playing against a man to man defense it is important that the offense you are running doesn't get bogged down.  There are some tendencies that keep occurring over and over again when facing a tough man to man which denies passes to the wings and ruins offensive flow.  The first one is that the wing player is forced to catch the ball too far up the floor.  This ruins angles for effective entry passes into the post, and it takes you out of triple threat position.  The next thing a good defense can do is ruin your timing.  A good offense is about rhythm and timing and a good denial of the first pass can destroy it.  To combat a good deny defense there are 3 ways your players can use to get the offense started.  The first is running your wings through screens, the second is have your point guard dribble to the spot he/she would ideally want to pass to, and the third one is having the wings run one of 3 perimeter cuts to get open.  The 3 cuts we are referring to are the V-Cut, the L-Cut, and the pin down.  Let's get started covering all 3.


V-Cut
The V-Cut is a very effective cut you can use to get open on the wing.  In essence what you are doing is cutting towards the basket with enough conviction to make your defender believe you are trying to backdoor them.  Once you get to a certain point you plant the foot which allows you to continue facing the ball (do not turn your back on the ball!) and then cut aggressively toward the wing.  This should get you open.

V-Cut

Please note in the diagram above how low the offensive player starts the move.  This will allow the player to cut aggressively to the basket and then when they cut back to the wing they can catch the ball at the proper spot on the wing.

Another thing to note is that when the player cuts to the basket, if the defender guarding him starts anticipating the move back out to the wing the player can continue his backdoor cut to the basket.

L-Cut
The L-Cut is another good cut to use to get open.  This cut can be used by a wing especially if the point guard decides to start the offense using the dribble to the wing as opposed to the pass.  The cut is similar to the V-cut but instead of cutting out to the wing the player will cut to the area that the point guard has vacated.

L-Cut to the top of the key.

Another way to use the L-cut to get open on the wing is for the offensive player to start around the low block and then move aggressively to the high post elbow before he/she aggressively cuts out to the wing.

L-Cut to the wing.

Pin Downs
The pin down is a great way to get open on the wing against a great man to man.  It requires that the offensive player eat up all of the space between him and the player that is guarding him.  The offensive player then needs to seal his defender by stepping over the foot of the defender that is closest to the ball handler.  Once the offensive player does this he has effectively sealed the defender and can then make a target with the hand away from the defender so the point guard can make the pass.  This move is essentially a post up on the wing so it is advised to follow similar methods with your arms as well.  Specifically, when making a target for the point guard make sure that the other arm is bent and up around chest high and is used to guard against the defender reaching over to steal the ball (try not to extend it).

Pin down

Destroying offensive rhythm is the goal of any effective defense.  In order to combat this the offensive players need to work hard to get open in the correct areas on the floor.  The V-cut, L-cut, and the pin down are 3 nice moves to use to get you open when facing a tough man to man.