Can You Make Reads Like Chris Paul? (Take The Test)

Chris Paul is undoubtedly one of the best point guards to ever play in the NBA. He's had to develop his skill level and his basketball IQ to an extremely high level to be able to dominate in a game where he's barely six feet tall. In this video, I'm going to give you guys seven different clips and I'll pause in the middle of each one right before there's a decision to be made. I'll let you guys predict what Chris Paul is going to do in the situations. Let me know in the comments how many you get. Right, let's get into it here. We've got Chris Paul playing this high ball screen going towards the middle of the floor. What should he do? Should he continue to attack downhill to the left and try and score at the basket? Should he take this pull up near the free throw line or should he throw this lob to the cutter on the baseline? This is part of what makes Chris Paul so hard to stop. When he comes off the screen, he sees that he has the attention of three defenders, specifically Ben Simmons, who tension is completely on Paul and not on the guy in the corner. So Chris Paul takes another dribble towards the paint to make sure he draws in Embiid and Simmons and throws up the easy lob to his cutting teammate. In this clip, Chris Paul's coming up the floor getting ready for this drag screen to be set. Jamal Murray ices it and tries to force Chris Paul to stay sideline. What should he do in this situation? Should he use his ball screen to the middle like normal? Should he sell that middle drive and then use Nerlands Noel to twist his ball screen and attack towards the wing? Or should he draw Murray out and then attack him in an ISO situation? Chris Paul and Noel do a great job on this play of using that ice coverage against Jamal Murray. By Jamal Murray jumping up and trying to prevent Chris Paul from using that screen going towards the middle, Noel is able to twist that ball screen which is going to allow Chris Paul to come off towards the sideline. And because Jamal Murray has already jumped over the screen, it's going to put him in prime position to get caught by that screen, leaving Chris Paul with Jokic in drop coverage for an easy mid range jumpshot. In this clip, Chris Paul's coming up the floor again for this drag screen. The screeners defender jumps out to hard hedge. What's the read right here? Should he try and split the hedge? Should he try and bounce out and around the hedge? Or should he reject the screen and attack towards the sideline. This hedger jumps out way too early on this drag screen because the screen hasn't really even been set. So by the time the hedgeman is in position, the screener is still moving towards Chris Paul's man to set that screen up. Meaning there's gonna be a lot of room between the screener and that hedge guy for Chris Paul to be able to split and get downhill. And typically when you get to the middle of the defense like that, only good things are gon this time I'll let you decide. With no options, how should Chris Paul play this ball screen? When Chris Paul sees how both his defender and the screeners defender are playing this ball screen, it becomes very easy for him to make the decision to reject the screen. First of all, his defender is a little bit early trying to get over that screen and he's already lost momentum. So if Chris Paul continues to attack straight forward, his defender is going to have to start from a standstill. And on top of that, the screeners defender is playing drop coverage on the opposite side of the ball screen. So there's literally no defense on that right side. When he comes off that screen, he gets both his man and the hedger who come over to defend him. And a third defender comes as well, which leads to an easy pass to the rolling big. In this situation, Chris Paul comes off of the ball screen and goes into a dribble hold to hold his defender behind him and and allow the play in front of him to develop. What should he do here? Should he immediately pull up for the jump shot hoping to get fouled? Should he hit his teammate in the corner for three or should he use a little bump off to shoot this elbow jump shot? Now this is a bit more of a complex situation and I'm going to bring in some numbers to back up why Chris ball took the shot as well. Holding this defender coming off of a ball screen is at great thing to do when you're facing drop coverage. Typically that drop defender has to recover back to that big man. So if you can hold your guy behind you, a lot of times it's going to clear an open lane for you to either get to the basket or have a wide open shot, which is the case that happens here. Chris Paul manages to hold Joe Ingles for a while which allows Clint Capella to seal his man. That leaves the mid range open. Chris Paul does have a teammate open in the corner and that wouldn't be a bad pass to make. But out of a ball screen since 2013, Chris Paul has shot the most amount of shots from the elbow area and he also has the highest efficiency in that area in the entire NBA. So him getting a look from the elbow is the best shot the Rockets are going to get on this possession. Let's switch it up a little bit for this play. For this situation, I want you to think of both ways Donovan Mitchell could react after he gets past this screen here. Once you think of both of those options, I want you to think of what Chris Paul should do in each situation. Foreign so here are the two options that Donovan Mitchell has after he goes under this ball screen. The first would be to stay with PJ Tucker to make sure that he doesn't get an open three and let Rudy Gobert stay one on one with Chris Paul with help to his left side. Or the other option is to recover back to Chris Paul and essentially bring a double team with him and Gobert which would leave PJ Tucker open. So Chris Paul's two options to these would obviously number one, if Rudy Gobert is guarding you, then you beat him, get by him and either finish at the basket or you make a pass or like what happens in the clip if Donovan Mitchell rotates over for a double team, then you hit PJ Tucker on the pop and he has a wide open three for this last one. Let's look at some off ball movement, watch how the defender is playing it and predict the read that Chris Paul is going to make right here. Chris Paul initially sets up his defender very, very well with this first pin down screen which yes, it is a push off, it was a foul but guys got away with that all the time in the NBA. He then comes up to this dribble handoff which is going to turn into another pin down screen. And because this defender is scrambling to catch up after having to go under the first screen, he ends up having to go under this handoff screen as well. So Chris Paul basically takes a dribble and uses the screen as a flare while his defender goes under. Chris Paul takes advantage of that and shoots the open three. I hope you guys enjoyed this video and learned something from it as well. Make sure you guys click the top link in my description below to get my free Elite Perimeter Score workout. If you guys enjoyed the video, drop a like and subscribe if you're new. Talk to you guys soon. Peace Sam.