Free basketball play designer
A half court that knows where the three-point line is. Set your spacing, draw the cuts and the screens, add the passes, press play — then send the link to your team.
Free forever, no signup, nothing to install.
A half court measured, not sketched
Playmaker draws a 50 ft by 47 ft half basketball court to NBA geometry: the lane, the free-throw circle, the restricted area under the rim, the backboard and hoop, and the three-point line struck at 23 ft 9 in from the ring with the corner lines 22 ft off each sideline.
Spacing is the whole game, so the court has to be honest about it. The reason a corner three is a corner three is that the line is closer there — 22 ft against 23 ft 9 in — and on a hand-drawn court that difference disappears. When your five-out spacing looks wide here, it is wide on a real floor.
What you can draw
- Spacing. Tap to place your five, or start from a template — 5-out, 4-out 1-in, horns — and move the players you want moved.
- Cuts and drives. Drag from a player and the path becomes their movement, timed across the play, so a backdoor cut arrives when the pass arrives rather than three seconds early.
- Passes. Tap the receiver and the ball travels to where that player is standing at that moment in the action — the skip pass to the weak-side corner draws itself.
- The finish. Mark the shooter and the ball is animated to the rim at the end of the possession.
- The defence. A second team, drawn as squares, so a zone, a switch or the help-side rotation you expect is on the same picture as your offence.
Set plays that repeat, written down once
The plays worth drawing are the ones you run again: the horns entry out of a timeout, the BLOB you have three options off, the flare for your shooter when the defence jumps the first screen. All of them are sequences — screen, read, second cut — and a sequence is exactly what a still diagram cannot show.
Draw it once, press play, and you can see whether the screener is actually arriving before the cutter does. Then send the link to the group chat instead of describing it in the huddle at the next practice.
Three basketball zone defences ship with it as well — 2-3, 1-3-1 and 1-2-2 — because the fastest way to teach an offence against a zone is to draw the zone and then draw the ball moving around it. Load the zone as your opposition, put your five where you want them, and the gap you are attacking is visible rather than described.
Youth coaches, this is the point
Most youth basketball is taught in a gym, at speed, with fifteen minutes and a whiteboard. An animated play a player can watch on the bus home does more teaching than the same play explained twice on a sideline. Playmaker is free for that reason — no account needed to draw a play, and a link that opens on any phone with no app to install.
7 basketball templates, ready to draw on
Every one of these opens from the Formations button inside the designer. Load it, move the players your team does differently, and draw the runs from there.
4-out 1-in
Attack
Four players spaced around the arc with one post on the left block. Keeps a genuine inside threat while leaving three-quarters of the floor open for perimeter action.
5-out
Attack
All five outside the three-point line — both corners, both wings and the top of the key — so the lane is completely empty to drive or cut into. The spacing motion offence most youth programmes start with.
High pick and roll
Attack
Ball handler above the arc on the right with the screener stepping up to meet him, both corners filled and the weak-side wing lifted. The three spacers keep help defenders a pass away from the roll.
Horns
Attack
Two bigs at the elbows, two shooters in the corners, the ball at the top of the key. Every horns action — the double drag, the flare, the elbow entry — starts from exactly this picture.
1-2-2 zone
Defence
One up top, two on the wings and two low. Pressures the ball higher than a 2-3 and invites the pass into the middle, where the two low defenders are waiting.
1-3-1 zone
Defence
One at the point, three across the middle — two wings plus a defender in the heart of the lane — and one on the baseline. Traps hard in the corners and takes away the high post.
2-3 zone
Defence
Two guards at the free-throw line extended over three across the baseline. Protects the paint and the boards, and asks the offence to beat it from outside.
Basketball play designer: common questions
Is the basketball play designer free?
Yes. Drawing, animating and sharing basketball plays is free and unlimited, and there is no signup. A free account keeps three saved plays; the paid plan lifts that limit and takes the watermark off exports, but the designer itself is not behind it.
Is it a half court or a full court?
A half court, drawn to NBA dimensions. Half court is where set plays, zones and out-of-bounds plays are coached, and drawing a full court at the same scale would make every player a dot. Transition drills are the one thing better drawn elsewhere.
Which plays and defences come with it?
Seven basketball templates: 5-out, 4-out 1-in, high pick and roll and horns on the offensive side, and 2-3, 1-3-1 and 1-2-2 zones on the defensive side. Each is a starting picture to move players from, not a finished play.
Can I show screens and cuts, not just positions?
Yes — every movement you drag becomes a timed path, and playback shows the order things happen in. A ball screen reads correctly because the screener's arrival and the handler's drive are on the same timeline, which is the part a static diagram always loses.
Can I draw the defence too?
Yes. A second team of players is drawn as squares, so a zone or a matchup is never confused with your own five on a printed play sheet.
Can I print a play sheet for practice?
Yes. Any play exports as a PNG, and a printable play card lays the diagram out with your notes for a folder or a clipboard. Both work from the same play you drew, so the sheet and the animation cannot disagree.
Coach another sport?
The same designer draws every one of them — and plenty of PE departments need two or three.
Draw your first basketball play now
It opens on the basketball pitch, it costs nothing, and your team can watch the play animate from a link.
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