Ethan Khoza breaks down how Steph Curry beats defenders one-on-one. Beyond his shooting, Curry uses gravity to create space, changes pace to throw off defenders, drives at angles that force recovery, and finishes with a huge repertoire of moves. His strength and off-arm control let him stay balanced through extra dribbles, making him a blueprint for players without elite athleticism.
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At this point, there's just about nobody who argues against the fact that Steph Curry is the best shooter to ever play. So while credit is given where it's due when it comes to his shooting, I think there's other areas of his game that are elite, that aren't talked about because everybody's so focused on the shooting. One thing I've noticed, especially during this last playoff run, is how great Steph is at beating his defender off the dribble. Steph is by no means a bad athlete, but by NBA standards he's probably average at best. And size wise, he's average at best as well for his position. But he's still able to go at the best defenders and the free freak athletes and beat them not just with his shooting, but driving the basketball as well. There's so many little details to Steph's game that allow him to be so effective, and that's something that I want to take a deep dive into this video. Let's get into it. The first thing I want to mention is the word gravity. And Steph might have more gravity than anybody in the history of the game, meaning that when he's on the court and especially when he has the ball, he requires so much attention from the defense and that everybody's going to gravitate towards him, especially around the three point line. So what this opens up is a lot of opportunities for him to be able to attack weaker defenders when they play ball screens and drop coverage. Because a lot of times that low guy has to get up to take away that three. But that's only some of the time. There are a lot of moments where it's Steph and a defender who's capable on an island. And Steph is extremely capable of winning that one on one matchup and getting downhill to the basket. So we'll start with maybe the most obvious part of how he does this, which is his ability to change speeds. Now, he typically is going to do this in one of two ways, or sometimes both of these ways at the same time. The first instance can just be him going from relaxed to explosive. So he might be dribbling the ball at 50% effort and then he might explode to 90 or 100%. This ability to go from being relaxed to being explosive and being able to control when you're doing what is a super important skill for players to have. And Steph is maybe better at this than just about anybody else in the league. He also has a certain type of unpredictability when he does this. As well, so he's really able to catch defenders off guard when he decides to hit that top speed, building on that. The other way that he'll a lot of times change pace and beat his defender is by using float dribbles or just getting lateral with his dribble to set them up in a certain direction before then exploding the opposite way, just depending on how they play it. But now I want to dig into the how another layer by looking at the angle of his drives. A lot of times, Steph doesn't drive in straight north and south angles. A lot of times he takes curved angles on his drives, and this allows him to really open up his defender as he drives towards the space, which forces them to have to turn and sprint into recovery mode. But what really makes this effective is the fact that Steph then tries to cut himself back in front of the defender after he's taken that curved angle. And by closing that space towards the end of his drives, he's able to neutralize the length or the athleticism advantage that the defender might have against him so that it's much harder for them to contest his finishes. And that leads me into my third point, which is the one physical quality that Steph has at an elite level that allows him to do all of this, and that's his strength. While Steph may not be elite athletically when it comes to playing above the rim, we've heard his teammates and coaches talk about how strong he is when it comes to the weight room. And this is pretty clear when you look at him on his drive. His. His ability to drive through the hip of defenders and not just accept being cut off. When it comes to claiming that space on those curved angle drives and cutting back in front of his defender, he has the strength to get to where he wants to get to. This also translates to his ability to come off of handoffs and other actions where he has to fight through very physical defense to still be effective. And he has the strength to be able to deal with that. A lot of times you'll notice how active his offarm is when he drives as well to get that defender's hands off of him. And this again, plays plays into his strength where it becomes very difficult for defenders to hand check him because he's able to use that off arm actively and get them off of him. And one more quick thing I want to mention is that a lot of times when Steph drives, he takes a lot of dribbles. Sometimes you'll see a situation where it looks like he maybe could get away with taking two dribbles and he ends up extending it and taking four instead. This allows him to stay much more on balance and powerful as well as allows him to maneuver quickly at the end if he needs to. And it overall just gives him much more control on his drives as well. And the last point I want to make about why he's so elite in this area is actually just a question I have for you. What do you notice about all of these plays? Steph can finish in just about an unlimited number of ways, whether it be right hand, left hand, reverse, regular, different hook finishes, floaters up and unders, off balance finishes. He can play with so much variability as a finisher that he's able to be effective in any situation. So no matter where he's driving from, who he's driving against, the contact, the lack of contact, whatever the case may be, he's able to finish in that situation. I really think Steph is the blueprint for any player who's not traditionally athletic to be effective as a driver and a finisher. Because all the qualities that he needs to be effective with the different affordances that he has, he takes advantage of and he does at an elite level. And that's why he's not just a great shooter, but he's also a great driver and great finisher. I appreciate you guys for watching. If you guys have noticed anything else about Steph Curry's drives or his finishes that I missed, make sure you let me know in the comments below. Drop a Like subscribe if you're new, include the top link in the description below to get my free Elite Perimeter Score workout. I'll talk to you guys soon. Peace.
