Chuck Daly once said, "Spacing is offense, and offense is basketball." In today's NBA, that principle has never mattered more.

The three-point revolution transformed the 5-out offense into the league's default alignment, essentially wiped out post-up bigs who clog the paint, and - driven by advanced analytics - made corner threes and layups the two most coveted shots in the game. That philosophical shift has reshaped everything, including one of basketball's oldest actions: the cut to the basket. And it's reshaped how the game is taught at the youth level, too.

For decades, youth coaches built their offense around off-ball movement - specifically, cutting. The first play every kid learned was pass-and-cut, the classic "give-and-go." Today, the best youth coaches start with spacing principles first. Rules like "floor is lava" - meaning any player who drifts inside the three-point arc needs to get back out immediately - come before anything else. Offense gets triggered by specific actions: handoffs, off-ball screens, and ball screens. Cutting to the basket is a read off those triggers, something executed at the right moment, but not at the expense of spacing.

The same logic applies in the NBA. A typical half-court possession begins with a trigger - a pick-and-roll, a handoff - and from there, all five players are reading the defense. Cutting is one of those reads. In a handful of systems - Golden State most notably, who rank first in the league at 14.5 points per game off cuts - cutting is a dominant offensive tool. But for most teams, cuts are reactive, not scripted. A read, not a set play.

Take the Clippers, who rank 14th in the league in cut scoring at 10.2 points per game. Their offense is built around creating advantages for Kawhi Leonard and, to a lesser extent, Darius Garland and Bennedict Mathurin (and, before them, James Harden). For that reason, watching the Clippers actually gives you the clearest picture of what cutting looks like in the modern NBA and, more importantly, when it happens.

(All clips below are from the Clippers' 128-105 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on March 12th.)

No cut, just a trigger and spacing - the baseline

First, let's establish what a typical Clippers possession without a cut looks like. They run an action called "77 Skip" - or "77 throw-and-go." Mathurin and Isaiah Jackson line up as if they're running a staggered ball screen, but it's a decoy. Kawhi passes to Jackson, gets it right back on a handoff, drives, and finishes with two. Notice the spacing: the two screeners hold the three-point line at the top of the key, Derrick Jones Jr. and Jordan Miller wait in the corners as kick-out threats, and the entire paint is clear. Nobody inside the arc except the ball-handler.

Cut when the window is open

Even in the cutting game, the Clippers start with spacing. They run a spread ball screen -out, Isaiah Jackson sets the pick for Kawhi. After the screen, Jackson slips to the weak-side low gap, the spot where a non-shooter creates the least spacing disruption.

Watch Jordan Miller. Kawhi recognizes that Rudy Gobert has switched onto him, sees there's no easy lane to the rim, and dribbles back out to the strong-side corner - pulling the Wolves' center with him. Miller, following the "fill up one spot on drives" rule, slides from the corner to the wing to maintain spacing for Kawhi. Then he notices something: Bones Hyland, who's guarding him, doesn't follow him all the way up. Hyland's focus drifts to Kawhi's potential drive, and he turns his back to Miller.

That's the cut trigger in the NBA - the moment your defender loses you. Miller reads Hyland's back, makes a hard backdoor cut from the wing to the middle, catches Kawhi's pass, and draws the foul.

The hierarchy is clear: space the floor first, read the defense second, cut when the window opens.

The 45 cut / Wade cut: off-ball cutting on drives

This next action is a weave-and-backdoors set, with the punchline a Garland pick-and-pop with Brook Lopez. Again, five guys finish outside the arc after the ball screen. Garland reads the defense - no lane - kicks it to Lopez, who swings it to Chris Dunn in the corner.

Now watch Derrick Jones Jr. As Dunn drives hard through the middle at Rudy Gobert, Jones notices Julius Randle, his man, has turned his back - Randle's focused on the drive, not on Jones, not really helping. Jones cuts hard to the basket through the middle, and Dunn hits him in stride for the dunk.

This is the 45 cut (also called the Wade cut, after Dwyane Wade, who made it a signature move): a basket cut opposite to the baseline-drive side when the defense collapses. It's one of the most common reads in the league - when your defender over-helps on a drive, you punish them.

Kawhi going backdoor - knowing when to cut

Dwyane Wade wasn't the only player who made a career out of moving without the ball. Kawhi Leonard spent years in San Antonio as a 3-and-D role player under Gregg Popovich - learning to read defenses from the weak side before he ever became the focal point.

Here, Dunn initiates and passes to Mathurin, who drives. Anthony Edwards is locked on Kawhi, staying close. But for one split second, Edwards glances toward the ball. That's all Kawhi needs. Backdoor cut, catch, dunk. Same 45-cut geometry, slightly different angle - but the principle is identical: maintain your spacing, wait for the defender's eyes to wander, and punish the moment.

Transition cuts: spacing in the open floor

Cuts aren't just a half-court weapon. The Clippers have been running more transition offense since acquiring Garland and Mathurin, and even in the open floor, the instruction for off-ball players is the same: run wide, hit the corners, keep the spacing.

Here, Garland pushes in transition and gets stopped by the defense. The rest of the Clippers are slow to fill. Dunn drifts toward the corner, then realizes the defense has completely forgotten about him. He cuts baseline to the rim and lays it in.

The principle doesn't change whether it's half-court or transition: spacing is the foundation, and cutting is the read that comes out of it.