5 Things Every High IQ Player Does (That You Probably Don’t)

Whatever your goal might be as a player, the number one way to achieve it, whether it be scoring more points, creating more, earning a starting spot, making a certain team, or whatever, the best way for you to accomplish that is by improving your basketball iq. Everything is about basketball iq. Your ability to actually execute in real game situations isn't all about your physical skills like shooting or ball handling or finishing. It actually is more about you having the understanding of when to do what, when to shoot, when to drive, when to pass, when to cut. And if you understand those things at a high level, you're going to be really, really successful. The problem is that a lot of players don't really even know where to start when it comes to improving their basketball IQ in a way that's actually going to translate into in game success. So in this video, I'm going to give you five things that if you adopt them, are going to make you the highest IQ player on the court. Even just adding in one or two of these things is going to make you so much more consistent when it comes to your scoring, when it comes to your creating for others, and your ability to make the right decision more often than not. And on top of all that, if you're a player who does these things, it's really going to set you apart and you're going to stand to your coaches. If you're going to take a recruiter to make it to the next level, it's also going to put you in a way better position to make that happen as well. The first thing is 0.5 decisions. This just means that when you catch the ball, you make the decision to shoot, drive or pass within half a second of catching the ball. Here's Steph Curry talking a little bit about this.

The last thing we can do out here, the last thing we can do is try to get open. And then. I don't get it. Begging, begging, begging for the ball, all right? I don't care where you are on the court, that's the last thing we can do. Every other decision is the right one. You got plenty to choose from. Every decision. Screen away, front, cut, back, cut, space, away from the ball. The last thing we can do is just do this. It's the most, it's the weakest move in basketball, all right?

The best time to do something is as soon as you catch the ball. The most open you're going to be for a shot is going to be immediately on the catch. The best time to drive is going to be on the catch because you're going to have a defender closing out to you. And then the best time to move the basketball is also immediately you catch it because the defense is generally rotating and closing out. And so it's going to put them in an even tougher position. If you move the ball quickly, the worst thing that you can do is be a ball stopper, meaning you catch the ball and you hold it for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 seconds, waiting to make something happen. The general framework to be able to do this is that, number one, you want to have a shoot first mindset is for a couple of reasons. First of all, when you have that shoot first mindset, it's going to force the defense to fly fully close out to you to try and contest a shot, which is going to open up opportunities to drive and make driving easier for you. Just by the defense knowing that you're willing to take the shot, it's going to completely change the way that they guard you. And then the other reason for this is that when you have that shoot first mindset, what that is going to lead to is you actually making more of those shots because you're shooting them with confidence, you're shooting them with decisiveness. And those two things are incredibly powerful when it comes to making more shots. So you want to have that shoot first mindset. But then if you know that you don't have an open shot when you, well, then it probably means that there's a close out coming and that's the most vulnerable that a defender is going to be. So you want to attack them if you don't have that shot. And then if you don't have the shot and you don't have a good lane to drive and to attack, you want to just move the ball as quick as you can, get to somebody else, and then get to another action. Go set an away screen, go cut through, whatever. That's how you actually play efficient high IQ offense. And that actually leads us right into point number two, which is the concept of getting to the next action. So, so this means that if you have the ball and you don't have a shot or a drive that you like, you have to find a way to move the ball as quick as you can and then get to another action. So this could be a pin down, it could be a ball screen, it could be just a cut away from the ball. And when you string actions together, meaning, you know, you come off of a screen and you catch the ball, you don't have anything right away. We want to get to the next action. So maybe that means you pass and go set another screen. Any defense can be good when they have to guard one action, but when they have to guard two, three, four actions in a row, eventually they're going to mess up and eventually your team is going to get a good look. So having that ability in those 0.5 decisions to just pass the ball when you don't have anything and get to another action is actually going to make it so that not only does your team score more, but you, you're going to score more because it's going to open up and make the defense rotate more, which means that they're going to mess up eventually. The third thing that is going to make you the highest IQ player on the court is understanding the concept of basket cut trigger. These are things that if you notice them, it means that you need to cut to the basket and chances are you're going to be wide open, you're going to be able to steal easy points around the rim if you recognize these things. The first trigger is if you see your defenders back so you don't have the ball, your defender is playing help defense and they turn and show their back to you. That means that they can't see you and you need to immediately cut to the basket because you're probably going to be open. It's amazing how often this happens in games and players don't even recognize it. But if you do, you, you're probably going to be able to score a bucket or two every game just by looking for this opportunity. And then the other basket cut trigger is when the ball gets to the opposite low post. So if you're on the left wing and the ball is in the right low post or mid post, usually your defender who's in help is going to turn and either watch what's happening or they're going to go and completely help right there. So we want to cut from that opposite side. We call that a 45 cut. Now this can happen when there's a low post touch on like a post up, but it can also happen when your teammate drives from the opposite side. Your defender turns and help to look or to go and fully commit to help defense right there. And just by making that opposite basket cut, it's going to allow you to again steal easy points when you hunt those opportunities. The fourth thing that's going to make you the highest IQ player on the court is understanding off ball screen reads. There's really four different reads that you need to know. So off ball screens, in this case, I'm referring to what we would call a pin down. So some people call them down screens or away screens. This is the most common action in basketball. And chances are whatever team that you play on, you probably do this all the time. But most players are just kind of out there going through the motions and not really utilizing these the way that they can be used. And because of that, you're leaving free points on the table. There's really four different reads you need to be able to make depending on how your defender guards the screen. So if you come over the screen and they chase you over the screen that you want to tight curl to the basket because they're going to be trailing you. And a lot of times you'll be able to steal easy points doing that. And if they play under the screen, then you want to flare out to the perimeter to either have an open shot or to force them to close out to you. And then you have a close out to attack. The third read would be if they top lock you or if they overplay and try and beat you over the screen. We want to use that against them and go back door. And it is another read that players don't use very often, but a lot of times can be open. You can steal free points doing that. And then the fourth read is when they switch. And this matters more if you are the one who's setting the screen. If you hear them switch or you know that they're going to switch, you want to slip to the basket as quick as you can because there's usually a little pocket of space where you're not going to be guarded because there's the mesh point where they're going to switch. If you can slip before that, you're going to be open and you're going to be able to get paint touches and layups. And the fifth thing you need to do if you want to become the highest IQ player in the court is understand the concept of one, two basket and one to perimeter. So this applies to you. Whenever you're the one who's setting a pin down, setting an off ball screen, you always want to do the opposite of the player who use the screen does. So if you set the screen and they tight curl the basket, you want to pop out to the perimeter. Because now we force the defense to have to guard two different areas. They have to take away the curl and they have to guard you in the perimeter. And it's really hard for defenses to do that consistently going along with that. If you set the screen and they flare out to the perimeter that you want to dive to the basket because again, we're going to force them to guard two different levels. This is something that I see very, very, very few players do. So it's going to make you immediately stand out and you're going to catch the defense off guard all the time just by. If you start to do these five things, it's going to completely transform the way that you play, your success that you see, and the way that your teammates and your coaches view you. You're going to score more points, you're going to create more for others, and you're just going to have way more success on the court. Now, if you want to take all this stuff to another level here, then I have two things for you. If you click the top link in the description down below, it'll take you to my free Basketball IQ masterclass. It's an hour long where we dive into a lot of this stuff. Even more in depth, even more details. We talk about understanding when to shoot, when to drive, when to pass, different moves you need to be able to make. There's stuff in there you can take and apply the next time that you play. And then on top of that, I also created a free training that breaks down the blueprint behind scoring 15 points per game or more. That's a goal that I hear from players all the time that they want, they want to score 15 points per game or more. So I created a free training that talks about the blueprint, the seven steps you need to follow if you want to give yourself the best chance of making that happen. So I'll also include that as well. All that is at the top link down below. Make sure you check that out. Hopefully this video helps you to be more successful the next time that you play. Appreciate you for watching. Talk soon. Peace.