Del Harris has shared a lot of great information over time, information that deserves dissemination. Coach Harris believes that good defenses will quickly adjust to a few set patterns. He advocates principled learning to develop intelligent freelance in his Coaching Basketball's Zone Offense (1976). I borrow heavily from his chapter on general approach.
1. Fundamental excellence matters. Regardless of strategy, competent passing and shooting impact the results. Zone defenses have intrinsic weaknesses (e.g. rebounding assignments). We emphasize the "two second rule"; don't hold the ball more than two seconds. I am the first to acknowledge that our players (8th grade girls) don't 'see' these evolutions yet. "What is not learned hasn't been taught."
2. Transition creates opportunity (numbers) and takes advantage of defensive mistakes including poor defensive transition.
3. Passing with patience. Ball movement creates defensive mistakes (effort, distortion of the zone). Cutting demands player rotation.
4. Spacing to open the lane for both passing and driving.
5. Penetration (multiple means - passing, dribbling, dribble/relocation).
If the defense allows direct passes into the high or low post, take advantage, but it has to be done safely.
Driving into the gaps may bring multiple defenders to the ball and can create fouls.
Dribble 'relocation' facilitates passing.
6. High and low post combinations when available.
7. Inside game when personnel permits. We are quite limited by size, so creating posting opportunities is less of a priority other than moving the ball through the post.
8. Man principles, including screening, give and go.
For experienced coaches, this is elementary. But our players mostly don't have the VDE (vision-decision-execution) inputs down. "The more we give, the more we get."
