The 6-Step Blueprint to Becoming a 15 PPG Scorer

Lets imagine a player that I'll call Jalen. Now, Jalen puts in a ton of work on his skills. He's a pretty good shooter, he's a pretty good ball handler, and he's a pretty good finisher as well. And a lot of times when he was in workouts, he would seem like someone who should be the go to guy. But in games he felt invisible. He had no confidence, he was inconsistent, he was frustrated, and he felt like he was never going to become the player that he was working so hard to be. Like I said, there are a lot of players who are in this same position. So if Jalen came to me and he said, coach, I want to become a 15 point per game scorer, that this is the exact process I would take him to to make it happen. When a player like Jalen comes to me, their biggest issue usually isn't a lack of skill, it's a lack of understanding. They are not yet mentally the player who is capable of scoring 15 points per game. He doesn't know how to apply his skills, he doesn't know how to put himself into scoring positions and he doesn't know how to be consistent under pressure. He hesitates when he catches the ball. He doesn't move with purpose on offense. He's solid on defense, but he isn't using it to fuel his offense. What he needs isn't more random drills. He needs a structured blueprint to connect his skills to actual game situations. So Jalen came to me with this goal of becoming a 15 PPG scorer. This is the exact process I would take him through. Phase one will be mastering the 0.5 decision rule. This means that whenever he catches the ball on offense, he has half a second to make a decision to attack, to shoot or to pass the ball. No holding, no overthinking, no staring at the defense. And we do this because the best time for him to score is going to be when he first catches the ball in the defense's run. Rotating, they're closing out. He's the most open to be able to shoot. We're going to do this by first developing a shoot first mindset. Jalen's already a pretty good shooter, so whenever he catches the ball, his thought is going to be shoot until he can't. So if the closeout comes and he can't shoot well, the next decision is to drive. If the drive also isn't there, then he knows he's got to pass the ball quickly and go screen away or cut. By developing that shoot first mindset, it's going to help him to overcome his overthinking and his hesitation. He he's also going to adopt the 8020 rule. This is the understanding that as good as he might be, at least 20% of the time, he's going to make the wrong decisions in these situations. The only thing that matters right now is that he makes the decision within half a second. When you hesitate and you second guess yourself, all the decisions are going to be wrong. But you might make a quick decision and it might not have been the perfect one, but because you made it confidently, decisively and quickly, it a lot of times will work out for you. His challenge during phase one is going to be when he's playing, playing in games, when he's playing in practice, in workouts and pickup games. His goal is to make these 0.5 decisions and get really good at reading what the defense is giving him by first understanding that shoe first mentality, but then understanding the 8020 rule and knowing that the most important thing is to make the quick decision. And as long as he does it decisively, it's going to work out for him a lot of the time. So in this first phase, Jalen's going to stop freezing on the catch. The game is going to feel faster, but his confidence is going to grow because he's no longer overthinking or hesitating. Now in phase two, this is where he's going to master spacing and off ball movement. The first thing he's going to do is understand that anytime he passes the ball, he can do anything but stand so he makes a pass. He can set an away screen, he can cut away, he can set a ball screen. The best thing for you is to move the basketball and then move yourself somewhere else because the defense is now not focused on you. The next time he touches the ball because he's moved, he's going to be way more open and then he's going to catch the ball. In that 0.5 decision situation with he's already started to master and that's going to lead to him scoring way more points. He's also going to learn basket cut triggers. So these are things that tell him that he needs to cut to the basket. The first one is a 45 cut and this trigger is going to happen anytime the ball gets to the opposite low post or his teammate drives from the opposite side of the floor. So when his teammate drives the right side of the floor and Jalen's on the left side, he knows that that's a great opportunity for a 45 cut because the defense is going to turn to focus on stopping the drive. And he knows that if his teammate gets the ball on the left low post and he's on the right side, he can cut to the basket because the whole defense is focused on that low post touch. So for all of phase two, Jalen is going to be focused on spacing and mastering those basket cut triggers. And this is where Jalen is going to start finding the ball without even calling for it. Instead of drifting out of plays and feeling invisible on the court, he's going to be in prime position to score two or three more times every single game. For phase three, he's going to master triggers and the domino effect. Jalen's going to learn the fact that basketball and offense is all based on triggers and dominoes. So triggers are things like ball screens, pin downs, other sorts of off ball screens, dribble, handoffs. And the goal with these triggers is to create an advantage. There are different types of advantages. We can create a numbers advantage, which would be a 2 on 1 or a 3 on 2 or a 4 on 3. We could create a mismatch advantage so you switch a slower defender or a smaller defender onto you, or, or we can create what's called momentum advantage, which just means that a defender is now closing out to you. And if you make that 0.5 decision to drive and attack their momentum, you're going to get by them and be able to get to the rim and finish. So now Jaylen is not just going to be aimlessly wandering around the court. He's going to be consistently looking to set triggers and get back to another trigger to try and create an advantage, which is going to lead to him being able to score more points. And the next part of that is the domino effect. So he knows that once a triggers happen and they've created one of those advantages, now the defense is going to be in scramble mode and he's got to be into attack mode. Now he's going to master this by really focusing on getting to triggers as much as possible in games and hunting those different advantages, whether it be numbers, momentum, or a mismatch advantage. By the end of phase three, Jalen has already transformed himself as an offensive player, but there's still more that he can do to get to his goal. Phase four is going to be all about playing off of two feet in traffic. A lot of times Jalen would struggle to finish around the rim because he was out of control or, or he wasn't powerful enough around the rim. But now he's going to use two foot finishes in order to finish strong through contact, get and ones, get to the free throw line and get free points there. He's going to do it to be more in control. So if he doesn't have the layup, he's able to pivot and pass to an open teammate. And he's going to give himself way more options to avoid shot blockers and different players trying to deter his layup attempts. Now at the end of phase four, Jalen feels way more under control when he plays. He feels like he's never rushed, he feels like he knows exactly what to do whenever he drives, he's drawing fouls, he's hitting controlled finishes, and he's creating kick out opportunities for his teammates to hit shots too. Phase five is going to be all about his shot selection and efficiency. Jalen's going to start to realize that in order to score 15 points per game, it's not just about being able to shoot 20 or 25 shots per game, it's about making sure that the shots you are taking are the most efficient ones possible. So for him, he's already developed that shoot first mindset and he knows that a three point shot that he shoots at a pretty good percentage is worth a lot. So. So he's hunting those consistently. And now that he's developed his ability to play off of two feet around the rim, he's way more confident driving downhill, embracing contact and getting to the free throw line, which is the most efficient shot that he's going to get. And he's way better at finishing, which is the next most efficient. So Jalen knows starting back with triggers and the domino effect that when he creates advantages or sees advantages and attacks them, he knows that he's not settling for anything but those shots, free throws, layups or three pointers. Because of this, he's cut down a ton on inefficient shots like contested pull ups. And he's now going into every game hunting those high value shots. Because of this, he's becoming way more efficient, so he's able to score more points even with less attempts. At the end of phase five, this is where Jalen's points per game really start to climb. The best part is he doesn't need to take more shots. He doesn't need to even play any more minutes. But his percentages have jumped and his coaches trust him way more. Now for the final phase, Phase six. This is where Jalen starts to turn defense into offense. The first thing he does is give himself a strategy in every matchup that he has. He quickly identifies what the strength is of the player that he's guarding and he makes it his only goal to make them beat him doing their second best thing. He's also done the most controllable thing of this whole entire process and it's play with way more effort on defense. But this is controlled effort. He's making sure that he always has active hands and and because of that he's getting more deflection, he's getting more steals, he's getting more tips and he's capitalizing immediately by sprinting out every time his team pulls a defensive rebound. He makes it his mission to win the first three steps to half court and because of that he's able to score a lot in early offense in transition and he can add a bucket or two to his scoring average every night. By the end of Phase 6, Jalen is recognized this as the hidden scoring boost. He's getting three or four points per game just by turning defense in offense, by being willing to play hard and by being active. Now, after going through all six of these phases, here's where Jalen's at now. His confidence has grown because he's making quick, decisive plays. Every time he gets the ball, he's finding himself in better spots to score without forcing it. His efficiency in his overall shot making is so much higher and because of that, his teammates and his coach him trust him way more. So he gets more minutes, he gets more opportunities to score. And because he's also been putting in the work on his skills, he he's now averaging over 15 points per game. Like I said, Jalen's not a real person, but the process is. I've seen players at every level go through this and the results speak for themselves. Now if you want an exact blueprint to apply this to your own game. That's exactly why I created Basketball IQ Academy. We break down each of these phases and way more with film drills and clear in game breakdowns. And we give you the exact decision making frameworks to add to your own game so that you can implement it and start seeing results right away. If you're interested in that, check the top link in the description down below to join. If you have any questions for me, make sure you drop a comment down below. Appreciate you for watching. Talk soon. Peace.