No, I'm not talking about your best five players or situational players (e.g. press group, delay team). Every coach needs some 'reliable' actions for "must score" times. That doesn't devalue the need to "compete every possession." Those actions depend on your players' abilities, the presence or absence of a closer, and the strength of the opposition.
Best Five:
Half-court set play
Half-court zone play
Baseline out of bounds (BOB)
Sideline out of bounds (SLOB)
After timeout (ATO)
These include "bread-and-butter" actions, getting the ball to your playmakers, and challenging the defense with spacing, screening, player and ball movement. Simple is better. They demand regular practice to minimize "brain lock," the moments when players lose focus. Under the the best case, we have multiple. We also need to know how good teams are going to respond (switch everything late in quarter or in the shot clock).
Half court set play
Horns double downscreens. We want action to the basket, whether with our best scorer (3) or hard to defend actions (off ball screens). Sometimes it helps to set the posts low and break them high, either directly or crossing. Remind players to finish cuts through.
Box set zipper into pinch post action...with off ball screen if nothing materializes.
Half court zone
Easiest. Simple corner pass with two cuts through to pressure the middle.
Harder. Wing entry into screen both tops into overload weak.
Ball screen into reversal with x5 Thunder screen. I believe that screening zones creates openings and annoys defenders. It would help to have more physical players.
BOB
We see almost exclusively zones on BOBs.
A lot of coaches like to screen the middle of the zone...for good reason. x3 has to choose whom to leave open.
Against man-to-man, this confuses defenses who have seen backscreens during the game.
SLOB
Warriors. 3 sets sequential screens (cross into diagonal) to set up the 5 for a layup. 4 should work to get open and consider the 1 on a dribble handoff if the 2 isn't open. The 2 has initial iso option.
Winner. Worst case scenario you get a switch (big on small) against your best one-on-one player. 5 doesn't have to pass over the inbounds defender.
ATO
UCONN triple action. Blind pig, staggered screen, into pick-and-roll.
Horns 'away' into cross-screen.
