Hoops Tonight - NBA Team Rankings: Why Victor Wembanyama can make the Spurs competitive in Year 1

lists the last couple of months. Now we're gonna start taking a look forward into this upcoming season with season previews of twenty different NBA teams power ranking style, starting with number twenty today, you guys know the drill. Before we get started, Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason Lts. You guys don't miss anyhow announcements.

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let's talk some basketball. So to give you a guys, that, a guys an idea of how we're gonna do this. I so the way I broke it down this morning, I have two tiers that I'm gonna break our power rankings into. I have our list of top tier contenders and I've got seven of them, and then I have really good teams that are not likely to win an NBA championship this year, and I have twelve of those, So that leaves us as nineteen. And then I think

there's a drop off after that point. And to be clear, if we were doing this is just a pure power rankings, there are a couple teams I'd consider here, either Chicago Toronto or Indiana. Chicago though all three of their main stars zach Lavine, Demarti Rosen, and Nicole Vucevic all played over seventy four games last year and they still were below five hundred and missed the playoffs. That's not good. The Toronto Rafters are gonna have one of the worst

back courts in the NBA going into the season. You guys know how much I love Dennis Schroder. Raptors fans, You're going to love Dennis Schroeder, but Dennis Schroeder and Gary Trent Junior is just not going to stack up compared to most of the back courts that you're gonna find elsewhere around the league. I think that's a big step back for them. I think guys like Scottie Barnes are not quite ready to take that leap. They need to get to the next level offensively, and so I

think Toronto is gonna take a step back. Indiana's gonna be really interesting. To be clear, if we were doing power ranking style, I would probably put Indiana at twenty. But we're gonna cover the San Antonio Spurs today, and the reason why is like I find them to be incredibly interesting. We're only going to do twenty of these videos. We're still going to cover Indiana, Chicago, and Toronto throughout

the season. I promise you guys we will. But for the purposes of this list and focusing on twenty teams, I want to bump our normal top twenty and go with San Antonio today, and then starting with number nineteen, we'll have more traditional power rankings based on how I think the team's rank at the top of the league. So for today, though, we're just gonna dive into what should be a very very interesting young team with the best draft prospects since Lebron James and Victor Wemanyama. Going

to dive into their offseason moves. We're gonna talk a little bit about their depth chart, what I expect their starting lineup to look like, some things I expect to see from them offensively this year, a little bit about the defensive end as well, and looking in at their ball handlers and how they've progressed in their development. All right, let's start with the recap of this last offseason. So they lost Key de Bates, Job, Gorgie Jang, and Romeo Langford.

They added Reggie Bullock, who's a good lock and trail defender, decent point of attack defender, a movement shooter. Now Dallas didn't really use him as a movement shooter, so he didn't get a lot of reps there, but he's a guy who can come off of screens and knock down shots and make plays. Also a very high volume efficient spot up player one point zero seven points per spot up possession last year, which is really good. Now compared to the other high volume guys, he's kind of average.

So among the thirty players in the league to log at least three hundred spot up reps, he came in at eighteenth. But again, everybody on that list is an excellent shooter, because those are the guys that are getting the most reps. But he's a good, high volume spot up player who can knock down shots off the bounce and is a good defensive player. Cheddy Osman is a decent bench wing that they brought in. Good spot at player as well, right around the same level of efficiency,

but on lower volume. Can make some plays off the bounds. A good smart player that knows how to read a defense and can attack close outs and make that next play to compromise the defense. But he's not a good athlete and can be targeted on the defensive end of the floor. We saw a lot of that in the Knicks series with Jalen Brunson targeting him in switches right. But last, not least, they drafted Victor wembin Yama, the

best NBA draft prospect since Lebron James. Now, in a big picture, there's a lot that Victor Wembenyam is capable of in the long run that we're not going to talk about today for the purpose of this particular video. In this list, I want to focus on this upcoming season. I did talk a lot about Victor Wembinyam in the long run and his overall career potential in an earlier video this summer that you guys can find back on our feeds. But I expect him to be immediately good

at some specific things. Now. On the defensive end, I expect him to immediately be a very good pick and roll defender, particularly in drop coverage. I think he'll struggle a little bit with rebounding because of the lack of strength and him just getting shoved off of spots and box out situations. And I also expect him to struggle a little bit with duckins. You know, like there's gonna be guys like Jonas Valanciunas that can duck in and bury him under the basket and go up and finish.

There's gonna be like, probably ten to twelve guys in the league that are gonna give him a lot of problems on a nightly basis with post position. But in terms of pick and roll, because of his unique ability to contest pull up jump shooters without having to go out very far, because of his ridiculous length, he has the ability to kind of protect the paint and dissuade pull up jump shooters, And I think that's gonna immediately make him a very very good pick and roll defensive player.

That right there, because most NBA teams run pick and roll as their primary form of offense. That right there is going to be a significant foundational piece for the Spurs to improve defensively. Now on offense, and we're going to talk more details about this here in a little bit, but I expect him to use him in two different ways, primarily as a ball screener and then as a focal point out of the post in high posts, which we'll talk about later. In ball screen situations, I expect him

to succeed right away. I expect him to come in and be a very good pick and pop threat, potentially a good pick and roll threat. Will see how it goes with their spacing, especially with Jeremy Sochan on the floor. But in pick and pop situations, I expect him to succeed right away. In the static situations where they use him in the post and high posts, I expect him to struggle, why because most young players struggle when the basketball is in their hands against the set defense and

they're expected to make decisions. But right away, him being a good ball screener and a good pick and roll defender just overnight gives the Spurs a great fulcrum on both ends of the floor to build around, and I think that's gonna make them infinitely better right away. Football is back in full swing with another week of epic games, and who's got you covered on the action for every single one of them. DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting

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after issuance. Eligibility and deposit restrictions apply. So depth chart as of right now. At the guard position, Devonte Graham, Reggie Bullock, Trey Jones, Devin Vassell and Malachi Branham. The forwards Keldon Johnson, Doug McDermott, Chety Osman, Jeremy Sojian and Julian Champagne. Now those are not in any particular order. It's just I'm listing all the players at those positions and their big Victor Webbinyama, Zach Collins and Kem Birch.

My guess is their starting lineup will be Trey Jones at point, Devin Vassel at the two, Keldon Johnson at the three, Jeremy so Jan at the four in Victor Webbinyam at the five. Now, if Pop wanted to get creative and he wanted to find a way to fit a veteran presence in there, I think the obvious solution is you take Devin Vassell out and you put in

Reggie Bullock. That gives you a really good lock and trail defender next to a really good point of attack defender, which is like literally the ideal configuration for a backcourt defensively, especially when you have a really good rim protector. Also, Devin Vessel is kind of like a high volume pull up jump shooting guy, right, So getting a guy who's comfortable playing off the ball that you don't have to run things forward that can be effective in spot up situations,

I think there's a lot of value there. The downside is Devin Vessel is one of the most exciting young players and he needs to get reps with Victor and so I don't expect them to go that route. I think they'll stick with Trey Jones, Devin Vessel, Keldon Johnson, Jeremy Sochan and Victor wembin Yama. But don't be surprised if in big late game situations, if they sit one of Devin Vassell, TREYE. Jones and Kelden Johnson and put in Reggie Bulock is just more of a savvy veteran

player to help them win in late game situations. Now, on offense, the Spurs just like every other team, and this is to be clear, when we're talking about offensive sets in this series, it's always a lot more complicated than I can ever tell you guys in thirty minutes. If you guys thought that I could sit here and break down an entire team's offense in thirty minutes, then I don't know what the hell they'd be doing in

training camp for the next month. Right. Obviously, every team has dozens of looks that they'll come out in and dozens of actions that they'll run out of every single one of those looks, and we're not gonna go into all of that. It's impossible, and quite frankly, unless I literally had their playbook, I wouldn't be able to do so. But what we can do is talk about offensive principles.

And so there are two main offensive principles that I want to discuss with San Antonio today, and it's their ball screen attack, and when I expect them to add for Victor wembin Yama something they used to use with Tim Duncan in the past, which is an offense built around a really good post up high post up player that can make decisions turning and facing the defense. So we're gonna talk about both of those, but let's start with ball screens. So I expect Victor to roll to

the rim plenty. He shot over seventy percent at the rim last year. Really good hands, catches everything and finishes quickly. At the rim. He does this thing where like if you just throw it up in the general direction of the rim, even if he can't catch a lob, he'll kind of just catch it up, catch it up high, and then guide it into the rim. He never has to bring a ball down because of how tal he is. So I do think he'll be successful as a rollman.

But I expect Greg Popovich to utilize the pick and pop quite a bit with Victor wembin Yama for two reasons. First of all, I do think this teams are going to be able to guard the Spurs pick and roll three on two. Why because Jeremy Soshan is a non shooter right now, and so they're likely going to tuck him in the weakside corner in the dunker spot in most of these static situations, and that defender is going to be able to tag Victor wembin Yama on the roll.

And then it's also an injury risk thing. You're asking Victor on these rolls to the rim to be looking back at the ball handler to see the ball come in, and he's rolling downhill into traffic, which is always dangerous, especially with big guys and some of the issues that they have with their feet. I like the idea of a pick and pop because, first of all, it's one

of the hardest things in basketball to guard. Teams want to run drop coverage, right, so they want their screen defender to back up and keep the rollman in front of him and the ball handler in front of him so that he can protect the rim. That's the whole purpose of drop coverage, just to keep your rim protector

at the rim as often as possible. But in that situation, if the screener is rolling to the basket, then both the roller and the ball handler are coming at the rim protector, and so he has the ability to kind of play the middle ground and guard both. That's why they call it no roller behind coverage. You're basically staying behind the ball and behind the roller at all times. But what if that roller doesn't roll and he pops

to the three point line instead. Now, if my guard chases over the top of the screen and the guard is coming downhill, me as the screen defender, I have to stay back to contain that ball handler, which is going to leave the pick and pop big wide open. And that's why pick and pop bigs are so valuable in the NBA. They pop to the top of the key and they can either knock down wide open shots

or they can attack a close out. Because now let's say I'm the screen defender and I'm guarding the guard coming downhill as he makes that kickout pass, I now have to recover out to the three point line or they've got to rotate from the wing, which is going to leave a wide open shooter. Right. So it's just really really difficult to guard with your traditional coverages. Now, one of the important things there is you have to be able to shoot, and Victor did not shoot particularly well.

Last year. We saw the G League Knight showcase when he played against Scoot Henderson and he shot the shit out of the basketball. And that's the capability in the long run. I expect Victor wemben Yama to become a very good NBA shooter in the long run. But last year he was just fifty five for two hundred and nine on threes, that's twenty six percent. He was just thirty two percent on all jump shots. So as of right now, it's more potential than reality when it comes

to Victor Wombenyama as a jump shooter. But he was solid when he was open. He was thirty seven percent on unguarded catch and shoot jump shots fifty one percent when we wait that for threes, and what I've seen on film is when he gets his feet set and he can get into his muscle memory, he's a good shooter. But if you can disrupt that energy transfer at all, if you can disrupt his rhythm at the shot, he's probably going to miss. That's something I think he can

rectify in the long run in a few years. But for this particular season, I don't expect him to shoot well unless he's wide open. What I do think he's gonna have some success is he can put the ball on the floor and make plays off the bounce already better than most bigs in the NBA, and so him popping to the top of the key is going to buy him close out situations. He's either gonna have a big man closing out on him from underneath the basket or a wing defender closing out on him from a

shooter on the weak side. From there, I trust Victor woman Yama to consistently make good decisions. If they don't close out, that's your standstill, static, unguarded catch and shoo jump shot that he should be able to make right around thirty seven thirty eight percent of the time, which is really good. Right If they do close out from the wing, he's gonna be able to make that quick

pass to the shooter. If they close out from underneath the basket, it's a slow footed big that he's gonna be able to rip through and make decisions driving to the basket. And so the pick and pop, I think is going to be a really really interesting way in for this Spurs team because of the fact that Victor Webbin Yama is so much more skilled than other bigs. It is baked in flaw and NBA pick and roll coverages. They basically concede pick and pops, and in that situation,

he'll not have to attack a set defense. He'll be able to attack when the defense is compromised, when someone's closing out at him, which I expect a young player to have success with right away. So lots of ball screens and lots of pick and pops in this particular situation. But as we know, every team in the NBA runs

a lot of ball screens. It's not exactly a super bold take, but when you have a very, very skilled big man, you open up the potential for different types of offensive approaches, like what we saw out at Denver this year. Right what happens when you build your offense around the big man is a focal point in the post, in the high post. We've already seen this with Greg Popovich and Tim Duncan, and so I want to kind of dive into that concept right now for a little bit.

So to be clear up front, I don't expect Victor to be particularly good at this right away. Why because every young basketball player that gets into the NBA in static shot creation situations tends to struggle. Why there's a big uptick in athleticism, a big uptick in overall defensive IQ. The coaching staffs are smarter, the overall talent's just off the charts, right, So it's just harder. But also you're young,

You're adjusting to the speed of the game. It's just a learning curve in these situations, even for someone like Victor who's basically been playing professional basketball for the last several years. So why is building an offense around a post player valuable? It starts with permanently attaching the rim protector to your post player, which pulls him further away

from the basket. So what I want to do to demonstrate this concept is kind of just talk through a high post touch with you guys to kind of show

you what I'm talking about. So, if I have a non offensive folkrum center, let's just say Nick Claxton with the Brooklyn Nets, right, and I am guarding Nick Claxton as a rim protector, I don't necess necessarily have to account for him anywhere except for at the rim, right, I need to watch him on rollman possessions and be far back enough that I can contest the lob pass or bother it before it gets there. That's really the one thing I have to worry about with Nick Claxon.

What does that mean? That means me at the rim protect As the rim protector, I get to stay at the rim a lot, especially if I have a guard that can chase over the screen to dissuade pull up shooters. Right, that's the advantage. Now, let's say I'm guarding Nikole Jokic or any other offensive Fulkrim at the center position. He's probably going to have the ball a lot, and he's probably going to have it in that fifteen feet to eighteen feet away from the rim area a lot, and

I have to guard him there. So now, for the vast majority of these offensive possessions, I'm not at the rim. I am pressed up on Nikola Jokic trying to stop him from scoring. So let's kind of envision the spurs for a second. Let's envision a four out one in set. Right, Victor Webbin Yama is trying to post up, let's say, on the right elbow extended, so about seventeen eighteen feet from the basket, a little bit outside of the elbow on the right side of the floor. I've got Jeremy Soshannon,

the weak corner, weekside corner. I've got a shooter on the left wing, I've got a shooter at the top of the key, and I've got a guy on the right wing who makes the entry pass to the post. When Victor catches there. What's going on with the rim protector he's up on Victor? Why does that matter? Now? All of those cuts, the back door cuts and anything involving those perimeter players, if they get beat, there is no help. Now. This is literally what the Spurs cut was.

This is what the Spurs did to everybody. They dump it to Tim Duncan at the elbow or at the post on the block right, and then Tony Parker, after he'd make that pass, would just cut off of Tim Duncan and he'd kind of pivot and turn his body as the defender was coming by, so he'd run into him, and then he'd throw that little pass over the top. We talked about this when we talked about Tim Duncan.

If the ball is at the high post and the entry passes on the wing and the on ball defenders between them, all he has to do is run off of Duncan and this defender is going to run into Duncan, and that is where Duncan pivots and drops it off over the top. And we see this with the Nuggets in a bunch of different ways. Right, we see Jamal Murray and those fake dribble handoffs and Yokic's thrown over the top basically the spurs cut. But we'll also see

like a slot cut. Right, Like we'll see Kentavious Cablo Pope on the weak side wing as his defender is kind of down at the nail and help caseyp will cut back door and Yokics will hit him on the cut or that weak side corner cut or the dunker spot cut. Right, So like we're talking Aaron Gordon, Aaron Gordon either in the weak side corner or out of the dunker spot. If Jokic turns and faces in Aaron Gordon's man as the low man comes over to help on the spurs cut or some other cut, Aaron Gordon

is open and Nicole Jokicic can hit that there. Why does that work? Because the rimp detector is guarding Nikola Jokic and not at the rim to help in these backcut situations. And so as the ball makes its way to Victor Wenbinyama at the high post or the low post because the rim protector is occupied. It opens up everything for cutters on the backside. But it only works

if you have a guy that's a threat there. He has to be a threat to shoot, so that the defensive player has to be there on the catch, and he has to be a player that you can trust to make the right play to make to read the defense, identify where the opening is and make that pass to

the cutter or the shooter as they are open. And you know, I actually think that this is something that Victor Wenbinyama can be really good at in the long run because he's so damn tall that when he pivots and looks over the top of the defense, he can see everything and make those passes. But I do think there's going to be a learning curve as he kind of figures out how to read the defense. Also look for a lot of NBA forwards and centers to ball pressure the hell out of him and to make him

feel uncomfortable in that spot. Also, Jeremy so as a non shooter right now, kind of leaves you an opening there for somebody that you don't have to guard, So it'll be important for Jimmy Soshan to kind of develop that Aaron Gordon esque cutting and finishing ability, or the ability to consistently knock down a corner three, which he's

not capable of right now. But I really like the idea of the Spurs running a lot of more offense out of Victor wembin Yama in the long run, out of the high post and low post because of their ability to open up things on the backside. As a result, most teams have an excellent set defense. If you allow them to run their traditional drop coverage, if you allow them to load up the paint and shell drill, you're going to struggle to score in a lot of situations.

But if you invert things by pulling their rim protector away and actually forcing their ability to contain on the perimeter to matter, because if they get beat, they'll actually give up a lay up. Right Like if KCP backcuts you and Anthony Davis is just waiting under the rim because he doesn't have to worry about Nick Claxton esque type of non skilled big on the perimeter, He's going

to be able to that stuff up. But the if Anthony Davis is glued up to Victor Wenbinyama, and you know your two guard cuts back door in this case Devin Vessel, that's where you have those openings at the rim. So before we go any further, I want to talk before we go to the defensive n I want to talk a little bit about their ball handlers. So obviously the three we're talking about Victor Wembinyama as a fulcrum in pick and pop and also out of the high post.

But I want to talk about I want to talk about their ball handling because they've got three guys that are gonna get a lot of pick and roll reps this year, Trey Jones, Devin Vessel and Keldon Johnson. Again, like I expect them to mix in a lot of high post stuff. With Victor, I expect him to turn and face and look to score when the cutters aren't open. But that's not gonna be a thing. They're gonna be

able to do all the time. They're gonna run a ton of pick and roll and they're gonna identify which one of these guards, which one of these perimeter players is capable of being a co star. So to speak, with Victor Wenbinyama, in the long run, So we're gonna talk about all three of them for just a few minutes. So Trey Jones, I love his overall fit with Victor women Yama because he's an excellent passer and he's a very very good point of attack defender, which always compliments

drop coverage bigs Well. We talked about this all the time, but drop coverage has a gaping flaw, and that's if you are a good pull up shooter and you can get to those shots. It pull the big dropping to the basket doesn't do you any good because they're just gonna knock down fifteen footers and floaters all game long. But drop coverage actually is impervious to everything when executed properly.

If the guard does his job and chases over the top of the screen and takes away the pull up jump shot and takes away the floater, he will funnel the guard into your rim protection. So that's where Trey Jones being a very good point of attack defender compliments Victor wemben Yama very well. He's very good at navigating screens. If he can get over the top of the screen and dissuade that pull up jump shot and forced guys to drive downhill. They're going to struggle to finish over

Victor wenbin Yama throughout the season. The biggest question for Trey Jones will be will he be able to be enough of a threat to score in pick and roll. It's pretty good getting downhill. He's a good athlete for forty five percent on runners, which is solid. Two point three makes per game in the restricted area on sixty two percent, which is solid. So when he gets closer to the rim, he's good, But only thirty eight percent in effective field goal percentage on pull up jump shots.

Not a very good pull up jump shooter. And that's important for two reasons. Like we talked about, that's what forces the guard to chase over the top right defensively, otherwise they can duck underpicks, which can cause all sorts of problems. But the second part of it is pulling the rim protector out. So against teams that don't have great point of attack defense, he's gonna get separation as he comes off of screens. If he can't reliably knock down that mid range jump shot, the big man won't

have to come out. If the big man doesn't have to come out and show on those pull up jump shots. Then you're not gonna have the openings on the backside as the passer for Victor wembin Yama to roll to the rim. So it's very very important for Trey Jones to improve as a pull up jump shooter this season. Devin Vessell, it's a totally different type of vibe. Very

very good pull up jump shooter. Only played in thirty eight games last year, but he did take a big leap nineteen points per game on fifty five percent for shooting. Very good pick and roll ball handler. I'll be it in low volume, three hundred and forty six pick and rolls leading to three hundred and seventy seven points. That's one point zero nine points per possession, which is in the eighty sixth percentile, driven by two things. Very very

good at knocking down shots and pick and roll. He shot fifty five percent in effective field goal percentage overall on shots and pick and roll, and he also made one hundred and six pull up jumpers last season at a forty five percent effective field goal percentage, which is really good, especially for a young player. Obviously, when he's in his prime, you hope he's closer to forty eight fifty percent, but for a young guard, forty five percent

is outstanding. Very good passer and pick and roll as well. I was really impressed this morning watching Devin Vessel. He's got good size, and he's got this bad habit of leaving his feet in pick and roll to pass, but he's got a really good overhand two hand overhead two hand pass that he can get across the court to the weak side corner, and that he can turn in kind of like Pierre wet In mid air and get back to the pick and pop big, which will be

important obviously with Victor Weibin. Yeah, we did a lot of that with like Zach Collins last year. So his ability to make those strong two handed overhead passes, that is what reverses the defense and generates close out situations. So the Spurs scored really well when Devin Fassel passed had a pick and roll last year. And again that the height is the big thing there. Just being a good athlete and being tall helps a lot. Keldon Johnson career high twenty two points per game last year, his

efficiency did dip a little bit. He at a career low fifty five percent for shooting. But again, you gotta remember bad team. This was the highest usage guy on a bad team, so he's the guy who has to take the bad shots at the end of the shot clock every time. So I want to cut him a little bit of slack there. Big thing that hurt him overall in efficiency last year was his jump shot. He was just thirty three percent overall on jump shots, just

twenty nine percent on pull up jump shots. Shot pretty well over fifty percent effective figal percentage in unguarded catch and shoot situations, but not very good in any sort of you know, rushed situation or off the dribble situation. He does get to the rim a ton and finishes well there, zero point nine to two points per possession on four hundred and seventy nine pick and rolls, which is below average. Big thing I saw on tape a little bit of tunnel vision tends to force things a

little bit. And then not a very good jump shooter. But again I want to clarify, he was the high volume guy on a bad team, and that's always going

to lead to efficiency issues. But Victor wenbin Yama, for all three of those guys, should make things easier because he just has to be a tent, like the defense has to devote so much more attention to him than they would to a Zat Collins or even Yaka Perle in a pop situation, right, and so having like a legitimate perimeter threat that can put the ball on the floor and is capable of getting red hot, that's just gonna change the way teams are gonna have to guard

and pick and roll, which'll make things easier on all three of those guys on defense. I expect the Spurs to be pretty good right away. We talked about Victor and drop coverage. Jeremy Sosham. We haven't talked a ton about him today, but he's one of the most exciting young defensive forwards in the league. So I love the

idea of having him next to Victor. Next to Victor Wenbinyama, Trey jonesbviously outstanding point of attack defender, like we talked Reggie Bullock in spot situations when they use him because of his abilities as a lock and trail defender, I think he makes a lot of sense after next to Victor. The big question is going to be can they get Devin Vessel and Kelden Johnson to really commit on that end to a way that they haven't in the past, and if they do, I think they can be really

good right away. Now what does that mean. I expect the Spurs to finish around fifteenth fifteenth and defensive rating, and if Victor Wembinyama stay's healthy, I think it could be potentially closer to ten. But I expect him, probably like most big guys, to miss twenty twenty five games, So I'm sitting around Spurs finishing fifteenth in defensive rating. Overall predictions for the season, I put him about twenty fifth Offensively in that range, I think they'll be a

team that when they look good, looks great. But just like any other young team, they're going to be inconsistent with their decision making and shot making and struggle a little bit compared to other NBA offenses. But if you're about the fifteenth best offense or defense and about the twenty fifth best offense, you can be close to five hundred. I expect the Spurs to win about thirty five games this year if Victor can play over seventy games, and

around thirty games. If he plays around sixty games, that's where I expect the Spurs to finish. That gives him an outside chance to make the play in tournament if things go really well. So again, not the twentieth best team in the league, probably closer to the twenty fourth twenty fifth, but really really interesting in a team that I'm really looking forward to covering this year, and a team that's going to be really fun to watch on NBA League Pass. All right, two mail back questions before

we get out of here. First from Tamas, what was the hardest skill as a basketball player for you to learn? So this was a really good question. He provided a couple examples. He said, shooting off the dribble, with certain ball handles, defensive IQ, et cetera. So I think, by far the hardest thing for me to learn in my skill development was pull up shooting. And so essentially, like ball handling is an incremental process, you work really, really

really hard to make small improvements. You know, overall, jump shooting is really hard to develop because again you have to make thousands and thousands and thousands of shots to see small bits of improvement. But the reason why pull up shooting I think is the hardest is it's literally both combined. So there is an energy transfer that takes place from the dribble combination into the footwork, into your gather up into the shot, and there's just so many

places for it to go wrong. If your feet get messed up, energy transfer gets messed up. If you mishandle the basketball a little bit, everything gets messed up. If you put the ball in your shooting pocket and instead of your hands being like this, they're like a tiny bit off center, Like your left hand is a little too wrapped around the back of the ball or a little too wrapped around the front of the ball, or your fingers don't get quite perfect. Out of the dribble combination,

all of a sudden, the jump shot gets messed up. Right, So there's a bunch of stuff that has to fall in line for a pull up jump shot to look and feel good and to have a chance to go in.

And like, I have worked relentlessly over the last like ten years to build out a pull up jump shot, and I feel good about where I'm pull up jumpsout is now, But it definitely was the slowest progress out of any specific skill thing I worked on strictly because of all the moving parts involved and specific drills i'd

use for pull up jump shooting. So I actually I had another mail back question a few days ago that I didn't actually go over on the show, but it was asking just basic drills to work on to improve in some of your baseline basketball skill set. And I actually have a set of drills that I do every single day. I literally do it as a warm up before I play pickup, and then I play pickup probably four days a week, and then I'll have the other three days I'll go to the gym and do my

shooting workout. I try to play seven days a week if I can, and then have one or two days which are lighter. But every once in a while I have a social event or something that comes up that forces me to take a day off. But I tend to think that a day off should just be a very light day. That's kind of the way that I look at it. But the shooting drill that I do almost every single day, drills that I do almost every

single day. I start with the ball handling warm up drill, which essentially as I start on the right side at half court and I dribble down and I do a hard game speed in and out crossover to my left hand, then in and out crossover back to my right hand, then back and forth again, so there's four total in and out crossovers. I finish in my right hand and

I explode to the basket and I finish. Then on the right left side of the floor, I go to the left side at half court, do the exact same thing, hard in and out dribble, starting with my left hand four times. Ball finishes in my left hand, hard drive, and finish with my left hand. Then I go back to the right side. Same thing. Four in and out crossovers, except for on the fourth one, when the ball finishes in my right hand, I'm taking a pull up jump shot off of that crossover out of my right hand,

shooting pocket right. Then I go to the left side, pull up jump shot on the left side, so in and out crossovers, lay up, lay up, pull up, pull up right. Then I go to in and out between the legs, same thing, lay up, lay up, pull up, pull up. Then I go to in and out behind the back, same thing, lay up, lay up, pull up, pull up, every time doing the move four times before I go into that shot. So that's my ball handling warm up then I go into a pull up shooting drill.

And so what I do is I roll the ball out to myself about thirty five feet from the basket, and I catch in a hop step facing away from the basket. Then I reverse pivot and I rip through to the right with my left foot is my pivot foot. When I get there, I make a counter move off the bounce, usually like an in and out behind the back in and out crossover spin move something along those lines. Counter move back towards the top of the key, and I'm taking a left handed gather pull up jump shot

out of that move. Then I flip the ball back out to myself, reverse pivot to the left, rip to the left, counter move back to the right, right handed shooting pocket pull up jump shot. I'm gonna do that until i make five going both ways, So right and counter, and I'm gonna keep going until I make it. Then I'm gonna go left to keep going to I make it. Hopefully, if I'm in good rhythm, I'm making more than i'm missing. But I'm going to get through that until I've made

five going both ways. Then I'm going to do a deeper pull up three. So same thing reverse pivot rip through, except for instead of a counter move, I'm just gonna do a hard one two into a pull up from twenty five feet or so. So that's gonna be. If I rip through to the right, i want to plant my left foot first, then my right foot and elevate. If I'm ripping through to the left, I'm planning my right foot first, then my left foot and I elevate. Same thing. Do it until I make five going both ways.

Then the final shooting drill I'll do before I uh, before I start playing usually is just movement shooting. So I'll start on like let's say, thirty feet away from the basket on the left side, and I'll roll the ball out or like like throw it with spin towards the top of the key, and I'm going to run at full speed to the ball, catch left, right, rise up and shoot. Then I'm gonna go to the right side, roll it out right left, shoot just on the catch.

So all I'm doing is catching and turning and pivoting and rising up and shooting. That's the kind of footwork you need to shoot when you come lying off of a screen or in any sort of movement situation. And the key with any of that is you get out what you put into it. If you go to the gym and you're messing around and you're doing your in

and out crossovers, it's never gonna accomplish anything. I have to tell this to my young players all the time, because, like they'll shoot in these drills and they'll be messing around, and then we'll start playing five on five and all of them can't make a shot or can't finish at the rim, And I tell them it's like it's because you're practicing at some slow speed, and then you get into a game and the intensity raises and the physicality raises,

and suddenly you start missing shots. You've got to practice as close to game speed as possible. That makes it so there's less of a transition as you go into a live situation, which gives you a better chance of succeeding. Now, there's a lot more that I do in terms of drills, especially on specific days when I'm not playing and I'm a rounding out skill set. I have a lot of specific stuff I do out of the post or out

of pick and roll. But as a warm up, if you do those three drills, which is that ball handling shooting, the pull up shooting, and the movement shooting. If you or the ball handling warm up, then your pull up shooting, and then your movement shooting. If you do those three every single day, you will work on your standstill shot a shooting situation. You will look at work on your ball handling, your ability to gather from your ball handle into a shot, and your footwork going into every single

move because they're mirror images. Right. Notice with the way I broke that drill down, the left footwork is the mirror image of the right footwork. Why is that important? Because you need to polish up all of the footwork so that you never find yourself in a situation where the shot calls for a specific footwork but you're uncomfortable

with it. Whenever you're navigating a live basketball situation, you don't know where your openings are going to come and when they come, you need to have a footwork for that specific situation that you have practiced. So, for instance, if you're a pull up shooter that's only comfortable shooting off of right left out of your left hand hesitation, then you run into the problem where guys know if I send him right, he's gonna drive to the basket. If I send him left, he's gonna take a jumper.

So I'm gonna send him left and I'm gonna get a late contest right. Or if I have a really good rim protector, I'm gonna sit on his left hand and try to funnel him towards the rim right. But if you have it so that you know how to shoot right left left hand gather or left right right hand gather, if you have those both equally, Now, if I drive right, I'm just as much of a threat to shoot going right as I am to shoot to go shooting left. That mirror image approach is absolutely imperative.

We talked about this a lot with Kobe Bryant out of the Post. Like if you're on a fade away, if you're trying to look for a fade away out of the post, and the defender doesn't have to worry about a left shoulder fade because you can't make it or you don't have the footwork for it, then he could sit on your right shoulder fade. And now your right shoulder fade, which you probably are good at, is something you're not going to make a lot because he

can overly pressure that size. The mirror image is everything. Last mail back question from Wesley. I think you're a Star Wars fan. I see a Star Destroyer in the background. What are your thoughts on the new Ahsoka show if you've watched it? So I am a diehard Star Wars fan. I very very much have enjoyed Ahsoka so far. Rebels

was incredible. Everything surrounding Grand Admiral Thron and the Ezra storyline and like that, the whole four seasons and the Soca and the Darth Vader with Thehsoka stuff at the end of season two, all of it was amazing, and this just kind of feels like a continuation of that. I think Grand Admiral Thron is one of the most

interesting Star Wars characters ever. He's kind of like Sherlock Holmes, but for Star Wars right, Like he's that epic genius that can always stays one level ahead of his opponents. But he's a good guy in the books, and so I'm really really interested to see what they do with him in this particular show because he kind of was a malevolent yet respectful antagonist and Rebels and I'm really curious to see if they kind of build on that concept or if they continue what happened in the books,

which is where he's more of a benevolent character. Right. Also, if you've read the Thron books, you know that Thron's only goal is to protect the Chess ascendency, and so it doesn't make a ton of sense to me that he would come back to try to revive the empire unless he has some sort of means by which to use that to protect the Chess ascendency. So I trust a Filoni. I know he's going to figure it out. I'm just really curious to see what they end up

doing with Grand Admiral Thron. I do have a Star Wars podcast. You've seen this little advertisement back here. It's called Two Sons Podcasts. I tweet it out every once in a while. You can find it on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast feeds. There. Me and my best friend Luke sit down every single week and break down every single new episode of Ahsoka, as well as the Star Wars books, and kind of looking back at old Star Wars movies and content that came out long

before I was doing this for a living. So you guys, can find that wherever you get your podcasts, or on YouTube under two Sons Podcasts. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. I will be back tomorrow with number nineteen. As always, I appreciate you guys, and I will see you then. The volume