Basketball Dictionary

This is a list of basketball plays, cuts, movements, and other basketball-specific terminology in the English language. A list like this is constantly updated, and I do encourage if you have alternative names to comment on them as we want to build a database that helps globalize basketball even more. The links to all the terms are down below with a diagram or explanation of what they are.

 

Basketball Terminology

Basketball Court:
Half Court Terminology

Basketball Cuts:

  1.  V-Cut
  2.  L-Cut
  3. Basket Cut
  4. Shallow/Curl Cut
  5. Backdoor Cut
  6. Slip Cut
  7. Straight Cut
  8. Zipper Cut
  9. Shuffle Cut/Princton/Chin Cut
  10. Speed Cut/Scissor Cut
  11. Scissor/ High Post Split
  12. X Cut
  13. Dribble Handoff (DHO)
  14. Handback
  15. Loop Cut
  16. Pitch
  17. Brush
  18. Shallow Cut
  19. Kick
  20. Duck In

Basketball Screens:

  1. Screen Away
  2. Down Screen
  3. Back Screen
  4. Pindown
  5. Rip or Cross Screen
  6. Flare Screen
  7. Butt Screen
  8. Double Screen
  9. Stagger Screen
  10. Elevator Screen
  11. Tripple Screen
  12. Turnout Screen
  13. UCLA Screen
  14. Elevator Screen
  15. Ghost Screen
  16. Brush Screen
  17. Slip Screen

Basketball Actions:

  1. Ballscreen
  2. Angle Ballscreen
  3. Flat Ballscreen
  4. Slot Ballscreen
  5. Spread Ballscreen
  6. Lifted Ballscreen
  7. Trade (Roll & Replace)
  8. Slip Ballscreen
  9. Drag
  10. Double Drag
  11. Ram
  12. Screens
  13. Rip Screen
  14. Wide Pindown
  15. Down Screen
  16. Upscreen
  17. Double Stagger
  18. Double Tight
  19. Flare Screen
  20. Power (Cross Screen)
  21. Spain
  22. Utah
  23. Cuts
  24. Stunt
  25. Iverson Cut
  26. Shallow Cut
  27. Zipper Cut
  28. Stunt
  29. Exit
  30. Flex Cut
  31. DHO (Dribble/Mix)
  32. UCLA Cut
  33. Hawk Cut
  34. Slice/Shuffle
  35. Chicago (Pindown DHO)
  36. Floppy
  37. Horns
  38. Jungle
  39. Princeton (23 High)
  40. 1-4 High
  41. Low
  42. Box
  43. Spanish Pick n Roll
  44. Dallas Action

Basketball Alignments:

  1. Princeton / Chin
    alignment
  2. Horns or “A” alignment
  3. 4 corners Alignment
  4. 2-1-2 delay game
  5. 4 across alignment
  6. 1-2-2 alignment
  7. 1-3 alignment
  8. Diamond Alignment
  9. 3 out, 2 in (32)
  10. 4 out 1 in (41)
  11. 5 out alignment
  12. Dribble drive alignment
  13. Dribble Drive
  14. Double stack low
  15. Double stack high
  16. 1-4 High
  17. 1-4 low / Baseline