"My wife always tells me if you are talking about what you did yesterday, you have not done much today." - Dr. James Andrews
Player and ball movement inform basketball beauty. "Movement kills defense." Simplicity makes beauty.
Coach Gordon Kaplan generously posts an example.
Learn to use and reject ball screens (below).
The "suddenness" of the back door cut marries urgency and beauty.
There's something magical about the backscreen lob.
Players get lost on the weak side/help side. You say, "that's bad defense." That's often basketball. Urgent cutting creates opportunity and makes defenders look bad.
"Corner rip" got us opportunity but not always hoops.
Well-designed actions are helpful but not sufficient. What works?
- Urgent cutting...be 'sudden'. Reminder, away from the ball, "the screener is the second cutter."
- Finish on the move with a variety of finishes...either hand from either side off either or both feet. For example, if you practice 'box drills' learn a portfolio of finishes including wrong foot, extended arm.
- Score in isolation or two-on-two settings (e.g. PnR)
- Work one-dribble moves off the catch including "stampede" (on the move).
Lagniappe. "Every day is player development day."
Rip through without lifting the pivot foot. Jab, jab and rip, and rip moves are core moves off the catch.
Lagniappe 2. H.A. Dorfman (Coaching the Mental Game) shares a demonstration he taught a psychology class. He took an empty linseed oil can and inserted a rubber stopper. As he pumped air from the can, it buckled and made noise. The analogy was between pressure and resilience. When psychological reserves fail (loss of resilience), people buckle.
