Floppy puts your shooter under the rim with a screen on one side of the lane and two screens on the other. He reads his own defender and runs off whichever side is open. The other four players hold their spots and wait for him to choose.
Why coaches use it
One player makes one decision and everybody else stands still. That is rare, and it is why floppy works for teams that cannot execute five moving parts. A young team with one shooter can run this all season.
The read itself is simple enough to teach in a practice. If his defender trails him, he goes to the double side, because two bodies in a row are harder to fight through. If his defender top-locks him and sits on the single side, he goes the other way, or he cuts backdoor to the rim. The shooter is the only person who has to be right.
It also gets a shooter a catch moving away from the basket rather than toward it, which for most shooters is the more comfortable one. Coaches disagree about which side should be the double. Put it on the side your best screeners are on and stop arguing about it.
How it is guarded
- Chase over the top. The default. Takes away the catch-and-shoot and concedes the curl to the middle.
- Top-lock the single side. Push him to the double, where a switch or a big hedge is waiting.
- Switch everything. Cheapest answer, and the reason floppy is usually paired with a set that punishes a switch.
- Under. Only against a shooter who will not shoot off movement.
Put the possession on the floor, flip the off-ball screen coverage from Chase to Top-lock, and replay it: the side your shooter should choose changes with it.