There is a ton of great basketball to study this off-season, and one team we really enjoyed watching the past year is Tennessee, who, under Coach Rick Barnes, runs their own version of the Motion Offense made famous by former Davidson Head Coach, Bob McKillop. Watching Coach Barnes tailor the motion to the strengths of his players got us thinking about Coach Landry Kosmalski’s take on the same offense during his successful tenure at Swarthmore. We were fortunate to have Coach Kosmalski, now the newly hired Associate Head Coach at Campbell, on the podcast a few summers ago where he dove into the history, reads, and evolution of his motion offense. So today, we’re revisiting our original piece on Coach Kosmalski’s system, and updating with insights from Coach Barnes and Tennessee, to take a broader look at the reach and versatility of Coach McKillop’s Motion Offense.
A question we often get, and one we think about ourselves, is: how do you create space and advantages with two potentially non-shooting bigs on the floor at the same time? Coach Kosmalski’s Swarthmore teams regularly featured two dominant bigs, and to maximize their effectiveness, he needed a system that allowed both to play together, even if they weren’t threats to space the floor from beyond the arc. With Coach McKillop’s Motion (an offense Kosmalski played in during his career at Davidson), the combination of “blocker-mover” elements and pinch post actions allowed Coach Kosmalski to create a devastating offense centered around his bigs receiving elbow touches, with great spacing and ample opportunities to isolate.
Coach Barnes has put his own spin on Bob McKillop’s Motion Offense at Tennessee, blending ball movement and player reads to create a dynamic system. The motion’s mix of screening, cutting, and spacing frees up Tennessee’s shooters, while also allowing for the incorporation of some modern game actions like 5-Out delay or zoom actions, and spread ballscreens.
Below, we’ll take a look at some of the fundamental building blocks of the offense, as well as how Tennessee and Swarthmore have diversified their approaches.
The Middle Push
The defining characteristic of the Motion Offense is the guard and trailing big transitioning up the floor in an “I” formation, with the corners filled and the other big positioned directly under the rim. The point guard is tasked with pushing the ball up the middle third and attacking either elbow, putting pressure on the transitioning defense.
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Zooming In: This unique alignment, with the point guard and trailer stacked on top of each other, prevents the defense from establishing a strong or weak side, making it difficult for them to set their defense. It’s not until the last moment that the point guard establishes a ball side by attacking an elbow.
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Zooming In: It’s important that the rim-running big stays directly under the rim in transition, not establishing position until the point guard chooses an elbow. Once defined, a great first look is for a quick seal at the rim.
Cleverly, Tennessee also incorporates flat ballscreens or brush screens whenever the trailer is out in front of the ball, providing another quick strike option for the offense.
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A Quick Aside: Rather than the traditional outer third drag screen, an early middle third ballscreen with the corners filled and a big at the rim presents a significant challenge for the defense, making it difficult to control and take away space. The point guard has ample room to attack either elbow, while the rim help must contend with the seal by their matchup. This spacing strategy is a weapon we have looked at in the past with Coach Ibon Navarro’s Arrive Offense at Unicaja Malaga {🔒}.
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Entering the Offense
Once the point guard has pushed the ball up the middle and exhausted the options for a quick attack or post seal, they begin flowing into the number of concepts and progressions from a pin-away entry to a ball reversal, as explored in today’s video breakdown.
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Zooming In: A small but important detail is how the big at the rim empties out to the opposite side of the floor after the initial push, always opposite the trailing big. This clears the rim, opening up space for cuts (right GIF), and positions the big to set flares (left GIF) and flash to the elbow.
Playing Through the Elbow
Regardless of how the offense is entered, a core component of the Motion is playing through elbow touches, in order to continue facilitating their cutting, screening and ballscreen actions. To create these “play-after-the-play” elbow touches for the bigs, typically the weakside big will flare screen their way towards the ball after the initial entry action is exhausted.
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While helping to facilitate an easier catch for the big, these flares can also serve to facilitate rim cuts and/or catch and shoot opportunities…
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…while simultaneously setting the stage for the offense to flow seamlessly into Get actions, or a variety of other cutting options once the elbow catch is made.
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Zooming In: The detail to note in both of the above GIFs, is the value of the Flare before the action. In both examples the Defender guarding the player using the Flare immediately becomes the “Low Tag” help defender on a drive or backdoor. In somewhat simpler terms… after the defender gets through the Flare screen they have to quickly get to helpside to protect the rim. This is a tough task in real-time and the offense only needs a split-second to take advantage of a slow or confused rotation.
As we continue to study Coach McKillop’s Motion, what stands out most is how adaptable it can be when built on clear principles. Whether it’s Tennessee in the SEC or Swarthmore at the D3 level, the same framework can empower very different rosters to play with flow, purpose, and spacing. For a deeper look into Coach McKillop’s Motion Offense, SG Plus Members can now view the full video on SGTV, featuring:
- Early Seals & Trail 3’s
- Early Ballscreens
- Pin Away Entry
- Reversal Entry
- Deny • Zoom DHO
- Spain PNR
- Off Ball Sets
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