Ethan Khoza tells undersized guards to stop forcing shots in the paint. Recognize they'll be heavily contested, avoid tunnel vision, and prioritize the right play: kick it out to open teammates or dump it to a big instead of taking difficult shots.
Chapters
You're already at a disadvantage playing against players who are much taller and longer than you are, so you need to change your mindset when you get to the paint. If you're a 7 footer or a 6A with a 40 inch vertical, your first thought in the paint should be to score. But if you're 6 foot or shorter, everything becomes significantly harder. And almost any shot you shoot the paint is going to be heavily contested. So you need to attack the basket with the understanding that you're going to have to kick the ball out a lot of the time. You can't get tunnel vision when you drive to the basket and only think about the scoring aspect. You have to understand that it's all about making the right play. And one of the best ways to be inefficient and ineffective as an undersized guard is to get up into the paint and force up tough shots. Getting into the pain is a great skill to have, and it's really important that you can do that. But it becomes even more important that once you get to the paint, you understand that a lot of times the right decision is to kick the ball out to an open teammate or dump it down to a big. Just because you're in the paint doesn't mean that you're open and doesn't mean that you have the best shot currently. This is a big mindset shift that you have to make if you want to be a successful undersized guard.
