Big Flex: How Auburn operates the nation's No. 1 Offense

A deep dive on Auburn's offense, why the Flex offense continues to cook, and the early-season dominance of Johni Broome

Auburn basketball is off to an incredible start in the 2024-25 season. Loaded up with the No. 1 offense in the country and a Top 10 defense, the Tigers are 7-0 with four Quad 1 victories, including two of 10+ points, and the Maui Invitational title.

Currently, the Tigers have six lineups that have played 10+ minutes together, according to CBB Analytics, and all six have a positive point differential. Four of those lineups have a point differential of +12 or better, including the starting five of Denver Jones, Miles Kelly, Chad Baker-Mazar, Johni Broome — playing like a National Player of the Year frontrunner — and Dylan Cardwell. That unit has scored 1.52 points per possession on offense (68 2P%, 50 3P%) and is +37 in 41 minutes of action (+23 in 25 minutes vs. Quad 1 opponents).

This is an experienced, well-balanced team. Auburn can shoot the hell out of the ball from deep — nearly 45 percent of its field goals are from beyond the arc (36.3 3P%) — with three players launching at least 11 3-point attempts per 100 possessions and shooting 38.5 percent or better on those looks: Baker-Mazara, Kelly and Tahaad Pettiford.

After playing only 12 minutes together last season, the starting frontcourt of Broome (6-10, 240) and Cardwell (6-11, 255) is already +69 in 77 minutes on the floor together this year. Broome and Jaylin Williams dominated last season. Cardwell is now making the most of his chance to start.

It’s as intimidating and productive of a frontcourt as you’ll find in the country. The two pair well together; both guys are mobile enough to guard along the perimeter and defend ball screens in a myriad of ways, while also flowing together on offense, thanks to their passing abilities. Broome and Cardwell have 40 combined assists this season — to only 15 turnovers.

The leads into another important part of this veteran-laden Auburn team: these guys can really pass the ball. During the 2023-24 season, the Tigers finished Top 20 nationally in assist rate — assisting on 61.6 percent of their field goals. The current iteration isn’t far off: 58.1 percent assist rate. As a team, the Tigers are shooting 65.7 percent on their 2-point attempts, which is No. 1 in the country. According to CBB Analytics, 49 percent of Auburn’s 2-point field goals have been assisted, which lands in the 90th percentile nationally.

There are just a couple of data points, though. You have to watch the machine hum to get a sense of Auburn’s collective unselfishness — the willingness to cut, screen, move without the ball and make the right play. It’s all on full display, especially when the Tigers roll out their Flex offense.

Flexing Muscles

The Flex offense has been around for decades, and while few teams still run it as a pure continuity offense, it’s basic principles show up every night on basketball courts across the globe — specifically the screen-the-screen pindown action. For example, the Charlotte Hornets from the 2021-22 season start in a Horns set and flow into Flex action with LaMelo Ball setting the baseline screen for PJ Washington and then coming off of a down screen from Montrezl Harrell.

During the 1980s, Iowa coach Tom Davis was known for his modified Flex offense. Two former Davis assistant coaches ran with the torch and created their own modern adaptations of this legacy offense: Gary Williams and Bruce Pearl.

Auburn will start most of its Flex possessions in a 2-3 alignment: the point guard and one of the bigs up top and three players across the baseline — two wings and the other big. The 4 or 5 atop the formation will start the action with a shallow cut across to the opposite wing/slot. Once that happens, the player in the corner will perform a Flex cut, moving along the baseline and off of a screen near the block.

Going against UNC: Cardwell receives a pass on the right wing and passes it back to JP Pegues. That triggers the Flex cut from Chaney Johnson (86.4 FG% at the rim). Johnson runs over a screen from Baker-Mazar and scores in the paint over Cade Tyson.

A core competency of this offense — one of the things that makes it so powerful — is its spacing. Instead of a tight Flex concept, Auburn stretches the defense with four players around the arc. This makes the offense a supercharged cut-heavy 4-around-1 unit.

Look how much space Kelly has to cut into off the screen from Broome, who will then pop out to the right corner: there’s no UNC defender with even a foot inside the paint.

Now compare that Ed Cooley’s Flex offense at Providence from only a few years ago; all five players are packed inside the arc at the same time.

Aside from the start of the possession, the entirety of Providence’s Flex action occurs inside the 3-point line.

The Tigers can also trigger this Flex action by having the 4 or 5 atop the formation set a ball screen for the 1 and pop into space, which is then followed by the baseline Flex cut.

Needing a bucket down two with under a minute to play vs. Iowa State, Cardwell sets the ball screen for Jones and pops to the right slot. Jones passes the ball to Cardwell — initiating a Flex cut from Kelly out of the left corner, off of a screen from Broome.

When the initial cut is defended, Auburn will flow into the next read, like LaMelo above: the screen-the-screener pindown action.

During the Maui title game vs. Memphis, Baker-Mazara sets the Flex screen for Johnson. After that exchange, Baker-Mazara will shoot up and off a pindown from Broome — creating the screen-the-screener action. Baker-Mazara is a dangerous 3-point shooter (career 41.9 3P%), so as he comes off the down screen, two Memphis defenders jump out. The senior southpaw attacks the hard closeouts and gets downhill for a rim finish.

Here’s the same action to the same side of the floor. Going up against UNC’s drop coverage, though, Kelly is able to come off the down screen and into space — with Jalen Washington dropped in the paint and RJ Davis chasing over the top. Kelly makes a good read, curling the down screen and getting into the paint for another 2.

As a team, Auburn is shooting a blistering 50 percent from the floor in the half court. Through the first seven games, the Tigers have made a ridiculous 82.7 percent of their attempts at the rim and 51.8 percent of their shot attempts in the paint (but outside the restricted area), per CBB Analytics. On top of that, nearly 53 percent of their rim finishes have been assisted (86th percentile).

Auburn’s system is producing at a level greater than the sum of its parts, which is saying something given the fact that this team has some awesome players.

Broome is playing at an insanely high level at the moment: 17.4 BPM, 68 2P%, 34.6 3P%, 21.3 percent assist rate, 14.6 percent offensive rebound rate, 34.1 percent defensive rebound rate and 9.8 percent block rate. He’s also drawing 4.4 fouls per 40 minutes. He’s a real problem to defend and his skill set is unlocking so many things within Auburn’s Flex concepts.

He has the ability to stretch the floor, score in the midrange with excellent touch on his little push shot and back smaller defenders down. You need more than one guy to stop him. Send help and he’s an excellent passer, too. Good luck, now your defense is in rotation.

After the 4 or 5 sets the down screen in Flex, they have the option to pop out, which is what Broome does here vs. Memphis. Jones curls and Pettiford passes it out to Broome, with the left side of the floor emptied out. Broome goes to work 1-on-1, help never arrives and he puts Dain Dainja (6-9, 255) in the basket and draws a foul.

Tired of being cut to death, a defense may decide to switch the baseline Flex action. If that happens, Auburn is ready with an automatic counter: the screener will seal and flash to the middle of the floor, looking for a paint touch.

Here, Cardwell ghosts the screen with Pettiford and then receives the initiation pass. While that happens, Johnson sets the Flex screen for Jones, which Iowa State switches. After the switch, the 6-foot-7, 225-pound Johnson no longer has the 6-foot-9 Joshua Jefferson (a really nice frontcourt defender) on him. Instead, it’s the 6-foot-4, 195-pound Curtis Jones. Johnson wastes no time — he flashes to the middle of the lane and Cardwell hits him with an entry pass.

From these Flex concepts, Auburn has plenty of wrinkles it can get to out of the base offense.

On this possession vs. Iowa State, Broome sets the Flex screen for Kelly. Cardwell reverses the ball from the right slot back to Jones in the left slot. As that takes place, Kelly run the baseline; it looks like he’ll set another Flex screen for Chris Moore — stashed in the right corner. Before Kelly sets the screen, though, he slips up and off a down screen from Cardwell.

Kelly misses the shot, but it’s a good look in rhythm. Baker-Mazara and Kelly (194 career 3-pointers) are both big-time off-ball movers, each with crazy range. Their ability to run around screens and let it fly from deep is a huge factor in this offense tapping into its full potential. Defenses must be aware of their movements at all times.

From the 2021-22 season: Auburn had a variety of tricks to use with Jabari Smith — a dynamic 6-foot-10 movement shooter. Here’s another 2-3 setup, but instead of coming across the lane with the Flex screen, Auburn re-screens for Smith and runs him off of staggered screens for a catch-and-shoot 3.

Back in the 2020-21 season, with Sharife Cooper initiating at Kentucky, Auburn goes into Flex action; however, the cutter who runs off of the initial Flex screen — Jamal Johnson (1) — continues to run the baseline and come off of another staggered screen from Jaylin Williams, creating a catch-and-shoot opportunity in the right corner.

Masters of disguise

When the Tigers wants to run their spread pick-and-roll offense, they start in the same 2-3 alignment as their Flex offense. It may seem small, but this type of misdirection and play sequencing is rather clever.

The defense may see a certain look and think it knows what’s coming — before the offense quickly snaps into a different action. All it takes is one defender misreading the action.

Instead of flowing into Flex, Pettiford dribbles right off of Broome’s screen. Jefferson, the screen defender, is slow to react and Pettiford easily turns the corner. With Cardwell lifting up the floor in roll-replace action — as Broome slowly rolls into the paint — there’s no back-line help defender to meet the driving Pettiford.

Pettiford comes off the bench, but the freshman point guard looks like a star in the making. He’s super fast as a live-ball playmaker and he’s willing to launch deep pull-up or step-back 3-pointers. According to Bart Torvik’s shot data, Pettiford has five unassisted 3-pointers this season and four unassisted midrange 2s.

With Pettiford on the floor this season (138 minutes), Auburn has played faster (68.6 possessions per 40 minutes and scored 130 points per 100 possessions, according to CBB Analytics.

Once again, Broome sets the ball screen for Pettiford and rolls down as Moore replaces back up the floor. The Iowa State defender goes under the screen and Pettiford lets it fly. He misses this shot, but Auburn’s second-chance offense cleans things up.

The Tigers have shot 82.1 percent on put-back field goal attempts this season, per CBB Analytics.

When the defense decides to put two defenders on the ball against Pettiford or Jones, this opens things up on the back side for Broome and Cardwell, two quality decision-makers and passers — surrounded by shooters like Kelly and Baker-Mazara.

Memphis has Dainja hard hedge against Pettiford on this roll-replace action off of the ball screen: Cardwell dives to the rim and Broome lifts back up as an outlet for Pettiford. Broome receives the pass back and, for a moment, Auburn has a 4-on-3 with the ball in the hands of its best player. That moment is all Broome needs as he goes hi-lo and lobs it to Cardwell — just ahead of Dainja’s recover back to the rim.

5-out Series

During the 2023-24 season, Auburn started to run more 5-out offense with Zoom action: letting a player receive the ball after coming off of a down screen and into a handoff. These 5-out looks aren’t the base offense; however, it’s a great way to open the floor up and play through Broome as the middle initiator.

Broome receives the entry pass here from Pettiford, who then spaces to the right wing. Baker-Mazara lifts up from the right corner, turns in front of Pettiford and Auburn Is ready to run 5-out Zoom action. Pettiford runs off of CBM’s down screen and into a handoff with Broome. Iowa State does well to keep the ball in front and rotate around.

Ultimately, the possession ends with another Broome post-up and Jones relocating for a kick-out 3PA.

The 5-out actions are another way for Auburn to flow into empty-corner pick-and-roll/pop, another important piece of the offense. Broome initiates, Johnson cuts through the lane and it turns into empty-side two-man game with Baker-Mazara and Broome.

UNC weaks the screen and forces Baker-Mazara to drive right, which also leaves Broome open on the pop. As Broome receives the pass, Elliot Cadeau comes over on a stunt, which creates an opening for Jones in the left slot.

Rolling 7s

Auburn has a few different ways to synchronize its guards together in Pistol action (also known as “21”): guard-guard screening/handoff exchanges on the wing in early offense.

One of the primary actions from this setup is what I like to refer to as “Pistol 77.” This is a guard-guard handoff on the wing that flows into staggered (“77”) ball screens from the 4 and 5 atop the key.

To start the second half vs. Memphis, Jones and Baker-Mazara take part in the Pistol handoff exchange. Baker-Mazara continues running with the ball and dribbles left off of the screens from Broome and Cardwell. Broome pops and Cardwell rolls. Memphis center Moussa Cisse is in drop coverage as CBM turns the corner, but the drive forces Cisse to take a step outside the lane. Worried about Broome on the pop, Nick Jourdain leaves Cardwell in the paint and recovers back to his man at the top of the key. This, however, leaves Cardwell open right at the front of the rim.

Here’s the same setup coming from the other side of the floor. Pegues and Jones engage in the pistol action, which Memphis switches. Jones resets and is still able to dribble around the staggered 77 screens: Johnson pops and Cardwell slips to the rim. Memphis does well to keep things in front, but as the ball rotates back to the top of the key, the double center lineup on defense is slow to get out. Johnson drains a 3-ball right in front of Cisse.

A few seasons ago, this Pistol 77 play was also a part of Wake Forest’s playbook with Steve Forbes, a former Peal assistant coach at Tennessee. It was a great way to get speedy point guard Tyree Appleby off the ball to start the possession and then run him into a series off screening action, helping contend with defenses that loaded up on the primary playmaker.

This play was also a favorite of Mike Krzyzewski during his final few seasons at Duke. In fact, when the Blue Devils defeated Miami in the 2022 ACC Tournament Semifinals, Duke ran some version of this play 24 times — by my count — including 23 second-half possession.

Road Test

As impressive as all of this is, none of this feels flukey. Surely, Auburn won’t shoot 66 percent on 2-point attempts all season long, but the Tigers haven’t feasted on just weak competition, nor is this subject to some unsustainable level of jump-shooting. They’ve been awesome against really good competition, targeting the money areas of the floor and scoring above 1.11 points per possession vs. Houston, Iowa State, UNC and Memphis. These are some of the best teams and defenses in the country.

I didn’t even get into Auburn’s defense, which is dialed in with its pressure, physicality and versatility in terms of ball screen coverages. They’re scary on that side of the floor, too, especially when they’re able to get set in the half court. (I have some minor concerns with their transition defense.) Auburn’s ability to get stops on that end helps fuel a transition offense that’s rather good and works well to supplement this devastating half-court offense.

Duke hosting Auburn has the chance to be a really fun matchup: high-end talent all over the floor and the defense of the Blue Devils against that Flex offense.