@Jre2000 good luck this season! I'm back with my 7th/8th grade boys and we should have a pretty decent team this year!
As
@husky429 mentioned, keep the offense simple. I coach at my school where kids have to play a sport, so most of the kids I coach don't play basketball outside of school, but most of the kids know soccer pretty well.
I play a man D with a lot of focus on what to do in denial and help situations to help clog up the middle, generate turnovers and encourage teams to shoot from deep. Here's a drill I use for that:
A defense that generates turnovers is
huge as half-court offense can get pretty ugly. I also will try to promote trapping in the corners and near the baseline.
On offense, try your best not to assign positions, as it makes the kids feel like they have to play like the position you assign them at.
Instead of positions, I assign them numbers and praise over and over again that the only options when you don't have the ball is either set a screen or find open space.
Here are a few simple plays I drew up:
"Thirty-x" and "Twenty-x"
Basically, it's a simple set that promotes movement from three of the offensive players. Any number I call that starts with thirty is this play. Any number I call that starts with twenty is the same play just with the 2 running and the 4 running the baseline an opposite way.
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"COLOR" play
Another set just to get players moving. Any color I call is this play.
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