The Part of Basketball That Great Scorers Have Mastered - 0.5 Decisions (Podcast Episode 42)

Foreign welcome to the Visionary Bow training podcast. Appreciate you guys for tuning in. Shout out to you guys who are on Spotify, Apple podcast listening right now. And of course everybody who is tuned in watching on YouTube, shout out to you guys. Today's episode is very, very important one and if you guys are not following me on Instagram, make sure you do that. Visionary basketball actually this episode and a lot of episodes as you guys who are regulars tuning in, know a lot of topics that I get come from questions I get from you guys, suggestions from you guys. I put a Instagram story up with a question sticker on it a couple weeks ago. Talking about or just asking you guys, like, okay, what topics you guys want to see, like what question questions you have for the podcast. And this is another topic question that I got and it was really, really like a very. And I didn't realize, like you guys wanted to hear about it more because I, I just did a breakdown on it. But it's such an important topic that I feel like it probably is a good thing to be able to talk about. So we're gonna talk about 0.5 decisions today. And I think that it's one of the most important concepts in the game of basketball. I think that if you understand this, this, this concept, it's not only going to shape the way that you train, the way that you actually approach the game, but it's going to allow you to be a lot more successful and you're going to be, you're a player that it's going to really going to be helpful when it comes to, like, coaches are really going to like you and you're really going to fit into any system because of the way that you play and the way that you understand how the game of basketball is played. So this is something that I wanted you guys to, I wanted to talk to you guys about and I was glad I got a question on. So again, shout out to all you guys who answered in that, that story poll because there's a lot of really, really good questions in there that I'm gonna get to for sure, but definitely want to talk about this one today. So 0.5 decisions. That's what we're gonna talk about. And like I said, I just posted a video, a breakdown on it, a film breakdown on it a couple weeks ago. So maybe at the time of this, there, there may be a workout out on it as well. Not sure, but I think there may be depending on when this drops. But that all being said, I wanted to kind of go more in depth with those.5 decisions because again, I think it's one of the most valuable and important concepts in basketball. You know, I had somebody ask me, I actually I was on a podcast a couple weeks ago with coach TJ TJ Jones, shout out to the SDP podcast, Skill Development Playbook podcast. And I was on there and it was just kind of a, kind of an interview talking about skill development. And one of the questions that he asked me was what are the three most important areas that players are? The three most important skills that players need to have. And number one for me was shooting. Number two was the ability to read and attack closeouts. Okay? And that's where these point pipe decisions are going to come into play. So skill one and skill two both have to do with this. Just in case you guys haven't seen the videos. Video videos depending on again, a bunch of different things. But if you guys didn't see the video going in depth talking about with the phone breakdown on point by decisions point point five decisions are basically just decisions that you make within half a second of catching the basketball. Okay? So the ball is in your hands for half a second and in that time you do something with the basketball. So that might mean catch and drive, catch and shoot, catch and pass, catch and shot, fake catch and jab. Like there are options out of this, okay? But the basic premise of it is that when you catch the basketball, you're not catching it and holding it for four seconds and then making a decision. You're taking advantage of being quick. The main reason for this is because when the ball gets passed to you, the defense has to rotate. Okay? A good defense is going to be in help. So if the ball gets passed to you, you're going to have a defender who has to go from help to now closing out to play on ball defense against you. So in that time, as they're moving towards you, that's going to be a really good time for you to make a decision on what you're going to do. Okay? So for example, right, let's say you're in the corner, okay? And the ball is in the opposite corner. Your man, if it's good defense, should be in help in the paint. Okay? So maybe your teammate sees that and he's in the opposite corner, he skips the ball across the court to you in the other corner, okay? That means that that defender has to go from the paint all the way out to the corner to close out on you, okay? So that means that he's going to be moving out of control, like, very, very fast. You can take advantage of that. So if he gets a good jump on you, then you might not be able to shoot the ball, but at that point you might be able to rip and drive by him, or you might not be able to get the shot of you maybe go shot fake, which is going to get him to jump and then get out of the play. And then you might be able to take the shot there or you might be able to drive off of that. It's just, it's, it's, it's really the best and most consistent way to create for yourself. I have so many, it's like so many players will ask me about, you know, like, coach, how do I get better at getting the basket? Or how do I get better at beating my defender doing all these things. And of course, there's stuff off the dribble that, that you can have that can be helpful. But the other thing to consider is that the, the other reason why point 5 decisions are so important is because, like, that's the majority of basketball. The majority of basketball is not Kyrie Irving, James Harden, dribble the ball a million times and try to break somebody down. Those are like incredibly, incredibly talented players who are allowed to do that. The majority of players, even the best players at like high school, college level, a lot of them aren't even allowed to do that. They don't, they don't dribble the ball like that. Okay. They score their points much, much more simply. And it really comes off of utilizing those point five decisions. So if you can get good at reading that closeout defender and you can get good at deciding, okay, shoot, attack, okay, quick pass to an open teammate, it's gonna be much, much better for you. So the kind of, the, the common topic and the common, the reason that point 5 distance can be great is because when you're able to, let's say, use a shot fake and beat your guy, that's gonna draw another help defender, which is gonna lead to you being able to potentially kick the ball out to maybe an open shot, or that player is going to be able to attack that closeout and then that's going to draw in another help defender. So now the defense has to do so many different things that someone's going to mess up, right? Someone's going to be out of, in the wrong position, somebody's going to be slowing to help, somebody's not going to close out very hard and they're going to give up a layup, they're going to give a wide open three, they're going to have a wide open mid range jump shot. Like there's going to be something good that's going to happen. You have a bunch of guys who can play with those point five decisions. Okay, so let's talk about where this starts. And like I said on that podcast that I was interviewed, the first skill that I talked about being the most important was the ability to shoot the basketball. Because the, maybe the biggest key with this is that the number one decision to make is do I shoot the ball or not? Okay. If my defender, if my teammate drives and he kicks the ball to me and I have space to shoot it, like I've got to be able to shoot that shot because now the defender has to respect that. If the very first, you know, possession of the game, my teammate drives, my defender didn't help and then my teammate kicks the ball out to me and I hit the open three. Well now I'm a shooter and now that defender knows that, so he's got a rush to get back to me. So next time when that same situation happens, my teammate drives and he kicks out to me. My guy's booking it to get out to close out to me. And now I'm shot fake. He jumps trying to contest that shot and flies by me. And now I'm two drill, pull up easy right or now I'm drive to the basket finish or drive to the basket, help steps in, kick out right there. Again that's, that's how basketball is played. If you watch, like watch high school basketball, college basketball, even the NBA. For again the majority of players in the NBA, you're going to see that they're going to score a lot of points off of very, very simple catch and shoot threes. Catch and drive, two dribbles to the rim, two dribbles into a pull up shot, fakes into, you know, drives and that's really where a ton of scoring is going to come off. Now there's also obviously ball screens and off ball screens. Like there's other aspects too. But when it comes to just like straight up driving kick kind of flow basketball, the ability to attack those closeouts with those.5 decisions or shoot the basketball really is a major, major thing. So that's really where it stems from though is can you shoot the ball? So that's why I always will say that shooting the most important skill because if you can hit shots, then the defense has to guard you differently. Now that help defender is care. He's cautious of that. If you can really shoot it, they might not be able to really help off of you. So that's going to open up driving lanes for your teammates. And then of course, if they do end up getting sucked into, help you get open shots and you score a lot of points doing that. So that's something to think about. Starts off with shooting the basketball, then you have options off that. So like I said, you catch the ball first time you shot it, right? So now the next time that that defender comes, he's closing 100 miles an hour at you. You might be able to just catch it and just immediately rip through and drive because he's moving his momentum towards you. So he's gonna have to slow himself down, stop and then move his momentum the other way if you decide to drive by him. Okay. So you really can kind of leave that guy in the dust. So there's another option for you. Just catch and then drive right away. Then there's the catch shot fake, where if he's really coming at you close, you don't have enough room for a shot. If you go shot fake, he's at least gonna raise himself up and then at that point it's much easier to drive by him. Okay. Because he's not in any position to slow himself down. And then again, when you get downhill now it's a five on four. He's out of the play. Okay. So there's five teammates and there's only four defenders. So you might have an open shot that they're going to have to rotate in. You got another kick out. Again, it's where good basketball is stemmed from. Okay. And I'm going to put up some examples of this too. When that's when this, when this drop. So be ready for that and we'll talk more about this as we move on forward. But the other thing too. So right, you have that shot fake and then let's say you also have that right that you. That rip through. So catch, rip through right away. Well, again, maybe now they're onto that. Now we can go catch and then jab. So now we're excelling that we're going with that rip through right away. That defender is going to lean that direction, probably moving fast and not in very good control themselves. And then we're driving the other way and do a pull up or into another kick out. It's just like defender, you'll beat defenders much, much easier when they're moving very fast towards you in a closeout. Okay. So that's why making 0.5 decisions is very, very important if you want to be better at beating your, your defender consistently and creating opportunities to score for yourself. So, you know, like for example, all you guys who are in the perimeter score system, we have, we've at least four, four or five workouts just targeting what I'm talking about right now. The, the past five minutes I've been talking about the whole, these different situations. We have workouts that just target that. So just target your ability to catch and immediately go split, catch right through. Okay. Your ability to go catch, jab and then go, you better go catch, shot, fate, go catch, trigger step. So we got four right there that we work on because like I said, the majority of scoring, the majority of points you're going to get are going to come off of plays like this. So it's important that we work on stuff like that. Okay. And then of course we're going to put, we have catch and shoot shooting in that as well, where we're relocating. Drifting to the corner for catch and shoot, rising up to the wing for a catch and shoot and put all that together. Now we're really building your skill set to execute in these 0.5 decisions. Okay? So that's again, that's why I think it's so crucially important, which is why when I made that big update to the perimeter square system, I was like, listen, we have to have like, in this advanced program, I've got to make sure that we are doing 0.5 to like, we have to have work on that because these guys have got to like just drill into their minds that, that, okay, I'm going to excel here. The situation I'm going to be in 80% of the time is I'm going to be in a, in a catch and shoot or a catch. Make a point about decision situation. That's where I'm going to be most of the time in games. So if I'm comfortable with that, I'm good at that. I mean, that means in 80% of situations offensively, I can do something with the ball, right? I'm a threat to score in 80% of situations that I find myself in. That's phenomenal for your confidence, right? That's, that's what you want to have. Because now, you know, like, listen, no matter what their defensive scheme is, no matter who is on the defense, no matter who's in the court, I know that I'm going to see a closeout today. And I know that I have the skill set to be able to do, to be able to execute and Read that closeout, shoot the ball, drive shot, fake, whatever it might be. Okay? So the key to this, though, is that your decision starts before you actually catch the ball. Okay? It's not just now, like we said, it's a 0.5 decision with the ball to your hands. Really what that means is that you have 0.5 seconds to do something. It's gonna take you probably more than 0.5 seconds to actually make a choice. Okay? That's why it's. It's not just called, you know, 0.5. 0.5. I don't know what the work could be.5 doing. Right? It's 0.5 decision. You have to decide what you're gonna do. So it starts by reading where your defender is in help before he gets there. Right. If you guys go back and watch my video on this, my film breakdown, there's a clip where I talked about Gordon Hayward. He caught the ball in the wing. His defender was in help. The that ball gets swung out to him. His defender is closing out. Gordon Hayward says, oh, my guy's closing out really, really quick. If I catch and drive right away, I'm able to beat him. He decides that before he even has the ball. And you can tell by watching his feet. He gets into. Again, I just referred to it, we call it a split catch. He gets into that position where his feet are an explosive stance, so he can get downhill and leaves his defender in the dust. And I believe he got to the ribbon finish on that one. So that decision starts before you actually even are, like, have the ball physically in your hands. Okay? So something to consider that that decision starts before and that that comes to reading what your help defender does. Where is he at? How close is he to you? Is he late, rotating back to you? Well, you got the shot. Then is he early in a good position, coming back to you? Well, now you have a shot fade to get him to raise up, or you have a jab to sell in one direction and then go, okay, and then is he wildly out of control? Well, then there's me. As simple as catch, rip through, and go. So that's something to think about when we talk about point five decision. It really starts before you even have the ball in your hands, being able to read your defender. Where is he at? Where is he closing off? What angles do I have right here? And so ultimately, this is something that we can drill, right? We can drill. We can work on catching shot fake into a two dribble, pull up. We can work on catch, immediate jab two, dribble, pull up. We can work on, you know, catch me, rip through. We can work on catch and shoot. We can work on all these things. But really, when it comes down to getting really good at this and knowing when to do what, it's a feel thing, right? This is a something that is developed best through playing through situations where you're exposed to having to read that guy and make decisions. So this obviously is something that you can just do when you're straight up in your pickup games, right? When you're playing even with a three on three, right, four, five on five, like you're just working on. Okay, when that ball gets swung to me, I'm reading that help defender and I'm not going to shoot the ball. I'm going to jab right away. I'm going to shot fake, I'm going to attack, or if I have a teammate who's wide open, I'm going to catch it quick swing back to him. Now his defender has to close out to him. Okay, so there's that. I posted a drill on Instagram where it was a one on one drill coming off of help. So basically how it worked is that there was, there's three players on the floor. There's a guy who has the ball on the wing and there's a guy on the other wing who doesn't have the ball. And then there's a help defender. Okay, so the help defender is actually guarding the guy without the ball. But because the guy with, with the ball drives down, he drives into the paint, that help defender steps over as if he was actually going to be helping. It's not live right, right there. It's just kind of to simulate him being in help. And then at that point, that player with the ball is going to kick it out to the guy on the other wing and then that help defender has to close out to his man and then they play off that. So that's where we kind of get into reading that help defender and then determining what am I going to do here? Okay, If I, if, if he's slow to get out to me, I'm going to shoot it. Okay. If he's, you know, kind of, if he's, if he's close enough that he can potentially contest my shot. Well, well, I'm going to shot fake him, get him to go buy me and I'm driving to the rim. Okay, Is he going to be, is he wildly out of control? Well, I'm going to catch and immediately go, can I sell him? You know, Is he out of control in a situation where like a jab is going to work? So I might catch jab, get him to lean that way and then I'm going right there so that player has to read that closer coming to him. And this is where we can get good at making those 0.5 decisions. Because now we've worked on those physical skills, right? We've done the workouts where we're working on shot faking to our pull ups. Like we worked on our catch and shoot. Like we can, we can make those shots and we can actually execute those physical skills. But then on top of that we also are working on, you know, our ability to now read that guy and make the right decision. Okay. I also love doing that like working on closeout drills out of like a 2 on 2 or 3 on 3, which I'll potentially post as well. And actually I posted in a couple workouts before where work on two on two. So now we actually have a true help defender. Okay. We're working on a guy closing out and attacking that close out and working off of that. That's some sort of like small sided games that again, like I talked before, but a lot of my workouts now when I have groups that we're just gonna play because the best way that for us to be able to get better at doing these things is by actually being in a position in a situation where we have to make a decision. And now we can trust our decision making in a game because we've done it before, okay. And we have those physical skills able to do it. So that's really, you know, what it comes down to. And again, like I said, these are skills that we work on in the primitive scores. Like we hit those skills for sure those, those that ability to, you know, split catch or catch and shoot, whatever it might be like we're going to hit that stuff, but then the important part becomes developing it in the context of a game. Okay? So how can I like, am I good enough to like be able to take contact on a drive if I, you know, if I catch the ball and I go, can I take getting a little bit of contact by that defender and still be able to, you know, get by and finish at the rim? That's where it's going to come down to your plane. Okay, but the reason that I want to say that is because now that you guys have that in mind, right, with those.5 decisions, like even if you don't have, you know, you're not able to set up game like I'm talking about these one on one games and all this stuff. Like again, go on my Instagram. If you have a couple teammates that will work with you, I would recommend that you guys do that drill like after your workout or whatever. Like just, just do that to play a little bit. Just, you guys probably play one on one anyway. So just switch up the way you play one on one now, okay? Work off a closeout, whatever. But even if you don't have that, just working on, you know, in your own, in your own, in your own pickup games or when you're playing normal 3 on 3 or normal 4 on 4, like these are situations you can take advantage of, okay? And I want you guys to start looking for that as well and get good at them because again, this is how the game basketball is played if you can be good at those things. Guys who are really good at making 0.5 decisions are very, very valuable. Members of teams who have a play style like that, typically teams who play fast, right, who want to score a lot of points, who have typically more free flowing offense, maybe a five out offense or a four out offense where players are kind of given more freedom, Players who are good decision makers and understands what they want to get, we want to be able to exploit closeouts. So I might drive to the basket and I might not even know, I might know that, oh, I might be able to score here, but, but I'm literally just trying to draw in a help defender so I can kick out to my teammate who then is going to attack that closeout, who he might even hit the basket, but he's going to draw in another guy, he's going to kick out there, that guy's going to have an open three now or maybe that guy can drive and score, right? So players who understand that are very valuable to have. So again, the importance of being able to read your defender before he gets to you is really the biggest key. Because once that defender is on you and he's set in a good position, this is a good defender, then it's going to be tough for you to beat him, right? Again, most players aren't given the freedom to just, oh, you can take 20 dribbles right here and try and break him down. Some players might, but most won't. Okay? And in most good offenses, you don't want that because the ball is going to stop. Defense doesn't have to move. You want the defense to continue to be moving. So if you want to be good at reading your defender, get good at reading them before you even have the ball, know where they're at, know how much space you have, know how fast you can get a shot off. And again, like I said, guys, this is a field thing. So you want to get good at reading defenses, play more basketball. It's really as simple as that. And that's why I've just. I'm always preaching like, play, play, play, play, play. Do your drills, of course, get better at those skills, but then learn how to implement them. Learn how to make decisions. Okay, I had another. Actually, another. And I'm going to talk about this, too. I'm actually, I'm going to make this whole pocket episode at some point. But I had somebody who reached out to me writing an article, and he was asking coaches what they thought the five most important skills for players to work on were. So, of course I talk about some of the same stuff, but I ended it and I said, decision making. Like, how well do you make decisions? Where, like, what are your instincts? Like, do you have good basketball instincts? Okay. And that's not something you develop through drills. Like, you just, you know, like, you don't develop. You really don't even develop it. You can learn a lot through watching film and. But you don't develop instincts through watching film. You develop instincts through playing basketball. And that is really the biggest key. So when it comes down to learning how to do that, watch basketball. And like I said, I posted that 0.5 decisions breakdown, so you guys know what to look for, okay? But then you got to go ahead and actually do it yourself so you get a feel for how it is, and ultimately that's how you're going to be successful doing that. So again, like I said, guys, this is one of the most important concepts in basketball, and I felt like it was a good idea to expand on a little bit more. But of course, like, you know, this is something that I want you guys to go out and get better at as well. Because like I said, if you're good at this stuff, no matter what system you play in the majority of time, this is a skill that every coach wants. Okay? I got a guy who can shoot and a guy who can make quick decisions with the ball. That's the key for a good offensive team, is you have a bunch of guys who can do that. That's what you want to have as coach. So again, hopefully this helps you guys out. If you guys have not watched that breakdown, go ahead and check it out just so you can kind of see a physical example of what I'm talking about. I appreciate you guys for listening. Make sure you guys give me a follow on Instagram. Envisioner Basketball. Like I said, guys, questions are huge. I love them. Questions, topic suggestions, all those different things. Go ahead and send me that dm. But before you do that though, make sure you go back on my channel and see if there's something that already answers that for you. Okay. Like for example, like if I've, you know, say, hey, how does sleep affect basketball? Well, I mean, I do a podcast on that. So make sure again, you go back and check and make sure. Go type my name in on YouTube and search whatever topic you were thinking about. See if I see if I have it or not. And if I, if I don't, send me that question. Right. Okay. Or if you, I feel like I. You feel like I missed something, then let me know about it. Okay? But like I said, I ventured myself for that. Appreciate you guys for listening. I'll talk to you guys soon. Peace.