The quality of a scouting answer is limited by the quality of the question. "Tell me about this opponent" produces a summary. "What does their point guard do when ICE takes away the middle, and which weak-side shooter can we leave to tag the roller?" produces a decision. The 25 prompts below are built to create decisions.
FIBA's opponent-scouting checklist focuses on observable behaviors: preferred hand, shooter or driver, passing instinct, screen role, rebounding behavior, substitutions, and reactions to game situations. Use the same discipline with any research tool. Name the behavior, the trigger, and the choice your staff has to make.
Five Prompts for Offensive Identity
1. What action starts most of [team]'s half-court offense, and who makes the first decision? 2. Which side of the floor does [lead guard] prefer in early offense, and what changes when forced the other way? 3. Where do [team]'s first paint touches come from: transition, pick-and-roll, post entry, or closeout attack? 4. Which player changes role most between the starting group and the bench unit? 5. What is [team]'s most common response after two empty possessions?
These questions establish identity without drowning in play names. The answer should tell you where the possession begins, who bends the defense, and what the opponent uses to settle itself.
Five Prompts for Pick-and-Roll Coverage
6. What does [ball handler] do against drop, and which shot are they trying to reach? 7. What is [screener]'s first counter when the defense switches? 8. Against ICE, does [ball handler] reject, snake back middle, hit the short roll, or retreat? 9. Who becomes the decision-maker when we blitz [ball handler]? 10. Which weak-side alignment makes the low-man rotation hardest against [team]'s pick-and-roll?
Ask coverage questions as chains. The first answer is rarely the plan. If you blitz, who catches four-on-three? If you switch, who seals? If you drop, where is the pull-up? A useful scout follows the ball into the counter.
Five Prompts for Personnel and Matchups
11. Who should guard [best scorer] if our goal is to remove their preferred hand without creating a size mismatch? 12. Which opposing defender can we involve repeatedly without changing our own spacing? 13. Which shooter can we help off, and what relocation habit makes that risky? 14. Who is [team]'s most important non-scorer, and what breaks when that player sits? 15. Which matchup changes after the first substitution, and does that create a two-minute window to attack?
The best matchup question includes your personnel. "Who guards their scorer?" ignores the cost elsewhere. "Who guards their scorer while keeping our best rebounder out of early foul trouble?" exposes the real decision.
Five Prompts for Defense and Offensive Counters
16. Where does [team]'s defense send the ball, and which pass does that positioning concede? 17. How does [team] guard side pick-and-roll compared with middle pick-and-roll? 18. Which defender helps earliest from the weak side, and what cut or relocation punishes it? 19. What happens to [team]'s transition defense after a corner shot or baseline drive? 20. Which action forces [team]'s least comfortable communicator to make two decisions in one possession?
These prompts turn opponent defense into your offense. Do not stop at "they switch." Ask which defender is involved, what the back line does, and whether your team can reach the counter from its normal spacing.
Five Prompts for Game State and Contingencies
21. What does [team] run after a timeout when it needs a paint touch? 22. Who takes the late-clock shot if the first option is denied? 23. How does [team] change when trailing by two possessions in the final four minutes? 24. What is the first adjustment [coach or team] has used when opponents take away the primary action? 25. What one metric at the end of the first quarter will tell us whether our plan is working?
Game-state prompts make the report usable from the bench. You are not predicting an exact play. You are preparing the staff to recognize the trigger before the opponent's adjustment becomes a run.
The Four-Part Prompt Formula
Build a sharper question with four parts:
Subject + situation + action + decision.
Weak: "How do we stop their point guard?"
Strong: "When their point guard rejects a middle ball screen late in the clock, should our starting center stay in drop or show at the level, given that we cannot help off the right corner?"
The subject is the point guard. The situation is late clock. The action is the reject. The decision is the center's coverage with a spacing constraint.
A Three-Prompt Starter Set
If you only have ten minutes, ask these:
1. What does the opponent most want to create? 2. What is the first counter when we remove it? 3. Which normal part of our identity can attack their weakest response?
That set protects you from two bad habits: scouting the opponent without planning the counter, and inventing a tactic your own team does not know.
How to Use the Answers
Label every answer one of three ways:
- Player rule: short, observable, and ready to teach.
- Coach contingency: useful if the game changes, but not part of the opening message.
- Research note: interesting context that does not alter a decision.
Only player rules go on the one-page scout. Coach contingencies stay on the bench sheet. Research notes stay in the full file.
Try one of the questions in the free Scout, then use the AI-report validation checklist before you install it. A narrow question, a verified answer, and three executable rules beat a long generic report every time.