A backdoor cut is an offensive move in which a player who appears to be coming toward the ball instead cuts behind their defender toward the basket for a pass.
The backdoor cut punishes a defender for guarding the pass too honestly. The offensive player starts toward the ball as if to receive a pass on the wing, waits for the defender to lean into the passing lane and turn their head, then cuts hard behind the defender, backdoor, toward the rim, where a bounce pass finds them alone for a layup.
It is the signature move of patient, passing offences. The Princeton offense, the college system built on backdoor cuts and layups, made the term famous beyond its own league, and NBA teams with strong passing big men run versions of it whenever a defence overplays. The cut needs no athletic advantage, only the defender's aggression converted into a wrong step.
Because it is a read rather than a called play, the backdoor cut shows up in quiz questions about offensive systems and famous team basketball: the offences praised for making the extra pass usually score their easiest baskets exactly this way. Its relatives are the give and go and the baseline cut, and its natural predator is the lazy defender, the one who watches the ball and loses the cutter entirely.
In use"The defender overplayed the passing lane, so the wing made a backdoor cut and scored untouched."