Can You Make Reads Like Sharife Cooper? (Take The Test + Breakdown)

Shareef Cooper is one of the most dominant players in the SEC. As a freshman, despite only being eligible for 12 games, he averaged 20.2 points per game and 8.1 assists per game. Shareef has all the tools of a great point guard. He's extremely smart and makes great decisions using ball screens. He has great court vision, is able to set up his teammates, and ultimately he just has an elite feel for the game that's going to allow him to be successful as a point guard at the NBA level. In this video we'll go through some clips of Shareef and I'll pause the clip right before a reader decision is made. Then I'll allow you to decide what that read should be. As always, there's never usually just one answer, but every decision made can be justified and there's always something to learn from watching these plays. Let's get into it. What's Sharee's reed coming off of this ball screen facing this drop coverage? Foreign. Throughout this video you'll see teams guard Shareef different ways coming off of ball screens. In this situation they play with a drop coverage. They drop that hedge defender a little bit lower than the level of the screen. And because that drop defender is really big and a lot slower than Shareef, a simple in and out coming downhill attacking that guy with momentum is enough to shift him towards the middle and and create a wide open lane for Shareef to get to the basket. What's Shareef's read in this drop cover situation? So this is a situation where you see the importance of having an in between a mid range game or a floater game. As a perimeter player, it essentially makes you unguardable if the defense decides to play a drop coverage with your defender going over. Because if that drop a defender steps up to try and take away that mid range shot, he's fast enough to go by him. But if he stays back to not get beat, then he's essentially giving up either a mid range shot or a floater. What's the read in this hard head situation? So Shareef balances this to the outside and gets around that hedge defender which gives him an open lane to the basket. But there's one little detail that sets him up to be able to do this. When he first meets that hedge defender, notice how he gets his arm around him to set himself up to be able to essentially pull himself around that hedge defender and get to the basket. Because of the size difference, this is likely not something a ref would ever call and it's an extremely high IQ play made by Sharif and it's this sort of physicality and intelligence that allows him to be so dominant. Using ball screen what should Reese read in this soft hedge situation? So this reads pretty simple. They're playing a soft hedge coverage with the defender trying to recover instead of switching. And because that defender gets caught up and Shareef's able to drag him out far away from that pop guy, Sharif can hit his teammate on the pop and his teammate's Got a wide open 3. What's Sharee's read in this ball screen situation? So this is a bit of a weird defensive setup where that screeners defender is dropped really far in the paint but that gap defender who's guarding the guy on the wing is playing over almost as if he was the head of defender. Seeing this, that means that the defense is loading up on the strong side, essentially playing four on three, meaning that on the weak side wing there's going to be at least one of Sharif's teammates open. So he kicks in immediately to the wing which creates a long closeout and a three point shot. What's Shareef's read in this ball screen switch situation? Switches a lot of times, especially on ball screens can create some major mismatches size wise. And you can see in this clip that Shareef and J.T. thor both know immediately that upon this switch, Thor is going to seal that smaller guard and immediately receive that post entry pass for an easy post up scoring opportunity. What's Shareef read in this drop situation? Shareef creates this easy driving kick three for his teammate because he attacks that drop defender with his change of speed. Sharif starts this up by setting up his initial defender slowly and then attacking 100% off of that screen which puts pressure on that drop defender. Alabama has another help defender playing below that which creates a two on one for Auburn and a wide open kick to the corner. Point being when you put pressure on that drop defender by attacking them, typically that's going to create scoring opportunities for either you or for your teammates almost every time. What's the read in this ball screen hard hedge situation? Because of how far over Shareef drags this ball screen and brings the defense, he really forces that help defender in the paint into a long closeout to his guy on the wing and that's what makes ball screen so so effective. In today's game of basketball there's almost always going to be something that the defense can't cover even if they take away the primary and secondary options. Shareef sees that right here, hits the cross court pass and his teammate gets an open three. If you guys enjoyed this video, make sure you click the top link in my description below to get my free Elite Perimeter Score workout. We work on a bunch of skills you're gonna need if you want to be an elite player on the perimeter. Make sure you guys drop a like and subscribe and drop a comment. Let me know what you think. Talk to you guys soon. Peace.