Ethan Khoza gives practical coaching advice for undersized basketball players. He emphasizes three core areas: (1) elite shooting (catch-and-shoot and off-the-dribble), (2) ability to make difficult/contested shots (floaters, contested layups, step-backs, shots off ball-screens), and (3) strength training/core work (weight room to absorb contact and finish acrobatically). Handling the ball at a high level is noted as a baseline requirement.
Chapters
There's a few key things you have to have. You want to be great as an undersized player. Really the main thing with being undersized is that you just have way less room for error. If you're 6 foot 7, you can afford to not be great at creating space. You can probably go over somebody, right? You can afford to not necessarily be super athletic around the rim because you have length, okay? When you're 5 foot 7, you don't have those to your advantage now. So you have to be really, really good at a few key things. So the first thing, and this is the case with basically everybod, but you have to be able to shoot the basketball. You have to be a great shooter. That means off the catch, off the dribble especially, you have to be able to knock down shots. If you can't knock down shots and you're undersized, you better be the best athlete on planet earth. Because if you aren't, then you're going to struggle, right? Even, even when you look at guys in the NBA, if you are not, if you're undersized, like the problem is like defensively, right, when you have teams that have good offensive players and they are playing as dudes, undersized, they're going to target that guy defense. So your offense better be able to justify you being on the floor. First of all, okay? And that starts with shooting the basketball. You think about any of the guys in the NBA who are undersized. Think about a guy like Isaiah Thomas. Isaiah Thomas was a dude who would get targeted on defense and he's like the last ranked defensive player in the NBA because dudes just went at him. But he still was on the floor in his Boston days, especially because he's a great offensive player and he's a great shot makers. That's the first thing. And kind of going with that, the next step to that is you have to be able to make difficult shots. Again, if you're 6 foot 7, you might not need to be able to make super difficult shots and they might not be as difficult just because again, you have the length to go over people. But if you're that undersized guy, you have to be able to make those contested layups or your momentum might not necessarily be taking you straight to the basket. You got to be able to hit floaters off one foot, off two foot. You have to be able to hit those step backs and be able to create separation and hit shots coming off of that. You have to be able to shoot coming off of Ball screens. So if those, if that defender gets caught or they play under it and they give you space for three, that's a shot you have to be able to make. And really those are the two biggest things I would say for undersized players is that you have to be a great shooter and you have to be able to make difficult shots, whether that be in the paint as like a floater or just in the mid range or obviously with ball screens as well. You know, you just have to be able to do those things and you have to hold yourself to a different standard when it comes to that sort of stuff. Against somebody who's not undersized, they might not have to be a great, difficult shot maker to get on the floor because they can. They have other affordances that allow them to be great in other areas, right? If you're 6, 7, you might be able to be a great defender because you have length and you can switch on different positions and you can rebound. So they're going to have value on other ends of the floor. And if you're five, seven, you're not going to bring value to your team because of you rebounding or your ability to switch and guard one through five. It's just not going to be the case. Okay? So you got to make that up in other areas and shooting and shot making, those are the two biggest things right there. And then the third thing that I'll give you guys with that is that like, you have to, like the weight room has got to be your best friend. If you have, you know, if you don't have the height, you better have the strength to be able to deal with, be being bumped, be, be able to hit those difficult shots, especially around the basket where your momentum is going to be off. Do you have the core strength to be able to hang and finish different ways and make these different acrobatic plays? That's super important. Handling the ball is a given. Like you have to be able to be a great ball handler if you're undersized for sure. No question about it. I mean you look at, look at any, look at any like division one guard who's under six six, right? Even. Let's look at the guys under six, three. They're all, they're all ball handlers, right? Especially the high major ones who are great. If you're in the NBA and you're under 6 5, you have like, you're a great ball handler. You know, all, any of the guards of the NBA who are between, you know, six foot and six, two. They're great ball handlers. They have to be like. You have to be. To be able to exist at that level, at that size. Okay, so those are the things that I focus on. If you're an undersized player.
