Ethan Khoza argues that each basketball shot is a situational "solution" to the problem of getting the ball in the basket; because game conditions (momentum, defender proximity, direction, time) vary, elite shooters must adapt their footwork rather than rely on a single "perfect" pattern. He endorses drilling specific footwork for control but warns against over-relying on one fixed solution.
Chapters
Truth is, there's problems and there's solutions. Every time you shoot the ball, that's just your solution to the problem that you face. You came off of a screen and the shot you shot was a solution you had to the problem, which was getting the ball into the basket. Now, the issue with this is, like I said earlier, basketball is not a perfect game. And you're not going to shoot the same exact shot twice in a row. Momentum is going to be different. How close the defender is is going to be different. How much time you have to get the shot off is going to be different. The direction that you're going is going to be different. So your solution might have to different every single time you shoot the basketball. Now, this is not me saying that specific footwork shouldn't be drilled. It's important that you have control over your feet. So you can get to a 1, 2 if you want to, you can get to hop if you want to. You can be perfect when you choose to when the situation calls for it. There's certainly a time and place to work on that. But if you only work on one solution to any given problem, you're going to be extremely limited as a player when the situation shifts a little bit, and that perfect solution isn't going to work anymore.
