Master These 3 Things & Scoring Becomes EASY

If you get really good at the three things that we're going to talk about in this video, you're going to become a way better, more confident scorer. I think one of the main reasons why players lack confidence on offense, why they struggle to perform or to score consistently on offense, is because they don't really know what their focus should be. So they get on the court and just hope that they score, hope that things go well for them. But if you go out there without a purpose, without an understanding of if I do this, then I'm going to be able to consistently create offense for myself. If you don't have that, then you're going to lack confidence and you're not going to perform very well, very consistently. So the first thing you have to do if you want to become a way better scorer is throw away the idea that basketball is all about flashy handles and hitting tough shots and all the stuff you see from the guys out there who are the very best scorers. In fact, the majority of scoring out there doesn't happen through these flashy methods. When you really boil down what basketball is, it's a game of actions and concepts and, and if you understand the most important actions and how to use them and the most important concepts and how to play out of them, then you're going to be really good no matter what level you're at, if you have a really good understanding of these three things that we're going to talk about. So if you want to start playing with more confidence and you want scoring to be way easier and you want to be way more consistent on the offensive end, let's get into it. The first action is pin down. So now this is where a lot of players hear it. They hear pin down or down screen, away screen, and they kind of tune it out. So many players are numb to it because chances are you play on a team that uses pin downs, or maybe you call them away screens or down screens, pretty much every single team out there has some sort of pass and screen away part of their offense. So since you were first starting out playing basketball, you probably went and set screens and it becomes one of those things that players are numb to and they don't really understand the power of these actions if you use them correctly. Even as I'm sitting here watching different NCAA conference tournaments, I'm seeing a lot of players who are missing opportunities using these pin downs. And if you really have a great understanding of this, there's going to be a lot of points that you've been leaving on the table, easy points. You believe on a table that you're going to be able to take advantage of and start to score consistently now. And like I said, every team does this. A large majority of offense is, is away screens and pin downs. So this is an area that you need to become great at. And it doesn't take any sort of skill or athleticism. You just have to have a focus and then go out and execute that. It's all about being intentional. So the first thing to understand is that you have to know how your defender is playing you on that pin down and that's going to determine how you actually use it. So if they're chasing you over on a pin down, you want to tight curl the basket because they're trailing you. And a lot of times you're going to be open to be able to get to the rim for a layup, or sometimes you're going to draw that screeners defender because you're open. And now they're going to be open for a catch and shoot three or close up two attacks. That's the first read. The second read is if they go under that screen, you're going to flare out to the perimeter. Now this will sometimes lead to you having an open shot, but a lot of times also going to lead to you having a closeout to attack, which is an advantage that we want to hunt and look to exploit because it's going to lead to much easier drives and an ability to get downhill and score or create for your teammates. And then the third way is an overplay. And this is an area that I think a lot of players miss out on because like I said, for most teams, for the team that you play on, chances are you probably use away screens, pin downs all the time, multiple times in a possession. So eventually defenders start to just get used to it and they start to anticipate what you're going to do. So when you find opportunities where they're kind of anticipating you're going to use the screen a certain way, or they overplay and try and beat you over top the screen or under the screen, using a backdoor cut to get to the basket is going to lead to you getting some wide open opportunities to score, layups to get fouled, all that sort of stuff, but you have to hunt those things. When you notice, hey, my defender is overplaying or my defender is really anticipating that I'm going to use the screen a certain way, that's when in your mind you've got to flip a switch and immediately hit A backdoor cut. And I would say for most players out there, you can probably score at least one bucket every game just by looking to do this, because defenders get lazy, especially as time goes on and the game goes on. So when you go out and you're purposeful about every single screen that you use, you're going to find ways to at least get yourself opportunities where, okay, you're open on a trail and now you're able to get downhill and finish or kick or whatever, or you have the ball on the wing and it's an open three or something to attack, or you're able to get yourself wide open because you utilize that backdoor cut. Like I said, this is such a big part of basketball. So commit yourself to getting really, really good at it and being really purposeful and being really focused. Creating consistent offense for yourself becomes much simpler as well. Now, the next thing we're going to get to is a concept and this is just off ball cutting. And again, this is another area where chances are you've, you've heard your coaches tell you to move out the basketball since you were, you know, playing in your first ever basketball game. Like, that's probably something you've heard you've become kind of numb to. What I'm not going to do is sit here and just give you basketball cliches or give you generalized advice. I'm going to tell you, I'm going to give you specifics to look for if you want to maximize your movement off the ball. I refer to this as a 95 because just like we were talking about the pin downs, that's a large majority of a team's offense. When you're on offense individually, 95% of the time, you're probably not going to have the ball in your hands. So you have to get really good at moving without the ball if you want to maximize the 90% of the time. The problem is that a lot of players out there are so focused on the 5%. Because you go on TikTok or you go on YouTube and you see that if you, you look up basketball workout, almost every single workout has to do with you having the ball in your hands and dribbling or shooting or finishing. And that stuff matters. But we also can't let that be all of a focus because then what are you going to do when you don't have the ball in your hands? That's why a lot of players get on the court and they don't know what to do on offense because they haven't trained they haven't trained their mind to know what to do without the ball. Really. There's two essential cuts that you need to master that are going to be there for you all the time. And if you get good at doing it, you can score a bucket, two buckets every game. We can create a really nice scoring baseline of easy points just by looking to utilize these. The first one is a 45 cut. All that this is is that when you're on the wing, you're just cutting right to the basket and you want to look for this cut anytime the ball is in the opposite, low or mid post, that's a great time because usually the whole defense turns and focuses over there. So if it's on the right block and you're on the left wing, a lot of times you 45 cut right to the basket and there's just going to be an opening there for you to be able to get to the basket for a layup. So that's the first thing you also can look for. If your teammates on the right wing and they drive you, you can cut from the left wing on a 45 cut. And a lot of times, again, the defense is so focused on that that you're going to be open. We want to think about a weak side cut, essentially, is how I can make it. An even more simple term is that when the ball is on the right side, you want to look for opportunities, whether the ball gets into the post, whether your teammate drives for you to cut from that weak side. And you're going to find that you're going to be open a lot more than you probably would think. It doesn't matter what level you use is at. Like, I'll go play in, know when, when, where the college guys are back in the offseason and I'll go play. And even though they're better than me, they're more athletic than me, I find that this 45 cut option is open all the time. And that's against guys who play at a really high level. So if you're in high school or younger, this is an opportunity that, like I said, you can get a bucket or two every game just by hunting opportunities to 45 cut. And the next one is a backdoor cut. You want to get to a backdoor cut whenever you see your defender look at the ball and look away from you. So if you're on the left wing or the left corner and, and the ball is up top and your defender is in help and they turn to look at the ball and see what's happening and they turn their back to you, they're turned their head away from you. If you look to backdoor cutting those opportunities, they're going to lose you. And you're going to find that you're going to have a lot of open opportunities around the rim to score points. And again, you utilize this well. A bucket, two buckets, every game you start to come way more consistent. Notice the stuff that we've talked about so far, utilizing pin Downs, utilizing 45 cuts, back door cuts. This is all super simple stuff that anybody can do. And if you get one bucket with each every game, that right there, it's already six points. We haven't talked about anything else. We haven't talked about transition points, offensive rebounds, catches, you threes, anything using a ball screen, anything like, you know, getting downhill, putting the ball on the floor. So think about how much more consistent of a score you can be. If you can find a way to score six points that are essentially free every single game. You can do that just by understanding the actions and concepts that are the most common and taking advantage of them. And then the last concept that you have to understand and master at a high level is attacking closeouts. This is another thing that's going to happen to you all the time. Every single possession. Anytime you catch the ball, a defender is closing out to you. So what you have to understand is that basketball and offense and scoring points is all about finding and attacking advantages. So when we utilize reading pin downs that we talked about earlier, that's how we create an advantage. Because how the defender plays, they're giving something up which is going to create an advantage for us to exploit if we're purposeful reading the screen. Same thing when it comes to looking, looking for those off ball cuts, the defense is going to give something up by maybe your defender is going to pay more attention to the ball. When they're in help, that is an advantage that they are giving you because they're trying to stop something else. So we've got to find a way to exploit that. Whenever your defender has to close out to you, the ball gets swung to you. That is the most difficult thing that a defender has to do in a single possession because they have to get to you, take away the shot, slow themselves down and stop themselves from getting beat on the drive. That's a really, really hard thing to do, especially if you can shoot the ball. So what you have to do if you want to be a really good, really consistent offensive player when it comes to getting paint touches is you have to be willing and ready to notice, hey, defenders closing out, to me that means it's an advantage that I can attack and if I, if I do that, it's going to be the easiest time for me to get by them. When you can get paint touches, when you become a player who, who can consistently do that, you become a really valuable asset to your team. You're a player that your coach has to play more, your coaches to get more opportunities to your teammates like and respect more because of what you can create for them. And so we can get paint touches the most simple way by recognizing and attacking closeouts whenever they come towards you. Like I said, I want to be specific when I talk about these things. So really there's three different reads you can make when you have a closeout coming towards you. Number one is if they're slow or they're late or they don't close out the full way. Well, that's where you just got to be able to take that catch and shoot three. And that's why I've said that for most players, 80% of their off season work of their skill work should be on shooting because it opens up everything else. If you can prove that you can make that catch and shoot three, then they have to close out hard you which opens up the opportunity to attack that closeout, get downhill, get to a paint touch, get to a finish, get to kick out whatever the next part of it is. If they close out really hard, take away that three. A lot of times it can be as simple as just a rip through. It's going to get by, get you by them, get you to the paint for whatever the next read is. Depending on the help defense and, and then if they do a pretty good job closing out, they're not overrunning you or anything like that. Just a simple shot fake or a simple jab on the closeout can really open up a driving lane or can make your defender even more off balance. You'd be able to attack them right there. So when you recognize, okay, how is my defender closing out? It gives you that whatever that solution is right there. And you become really hard to guard in those cold situations right there. Like I said, basketball is a game of actions and concepts. As complicated as it sometimes seems and as high level as it sometimes is, really it all stems down to those simple things. And if you, you can master them, you can be really, really good and really consistent on the offensive end. So like I said, focusing on reading pin downs, being purposeful, utilizing them is going to lead to advantages for you. Focusing on off ball cuts. So 45 cut back door cuts and then being able to read and attack closeouts effectively is going to allow you to to create a really good scoring baseline of 6 or 8 points. You can pretty much rely on scoring every single game. Now, obviously the better you are at basketball, the easier this stuff is to do and the more scoring potential you're going to have. Most players could be getting better twice as fast as they currently are, but there's stuff that they do wrong or that they're ignoring that is prevented from happening. So I have a free guide linked down below that's going to tell you exactly how you can be getting better two times as fast as you currently are. Completely free, top link down description down below. Make sure you check that out. Talk soon. Peace.