Why Simple Passes Will Make You The Most Valuable Player on the Floor

What if I told you that the secret to your success on the basketball court was you passing the ball more? Now, some players might hear that and just turn this video off because they don't want to know about passing the ball more. But I'm telling you, as a coach, as somebody who's worked with hundreds of players and watch a ton of basketball, players who do this are so valuable, they're indispensable to a team, and they actually score way more points than players who don't understand this. Everything about basketball training is focused on what you do with the ball in your hands, how to score more points, how to shoot better, how to handle the ball better. The worst thing that you can be on a basketball court is a ball stopper. The ball gets to your hands and the. The action stops. Because when the ball is just in your hands, that means the defense isn't moving, meaning there's no advantages to go at. We want the ball moving. We want to be putting pressure in the defense as much as possible. There's a concept called 0.5 decisions. It just means that when you catch the basketball, you have half a second to shoot, drive, or pass. Those are your three options. The one thing you cannot do is hold the ball for longer than half a second, because when you do that, like I said, the defense isn't moving, Everything stops, and there's no advantage to go at. It's bad basketball. And because players are so focused on scoring, they do this all the time. They catch the ball, hold it. Can I go? Can I attack there? Can I get my shot? Can I set something up? And they make the game way harder on themselves than they need it to be. And they don't provide much value to their team unless they're able to make some crazy play, which is hard to do consistently. So we talk about 0.5 decisions all the time. And if you watch my channel for any amount of time, you've heard me talk about it. If you've seen other channels, you maybe you've heard them talk about it. But when we talk about this, we talk about shooting, we talk about driving, we talk about us scoring the basketball. We don't talk about the value of the pass option. I think Draymond Green actually summarizes this really, really well.

I was actually telling the guys yesterday the power of a swing pass. Not I catch it, I survey. I need to do this. The power of simply catching the ball, swinging it the other way, or catching it in a simple dribble handoff the other way. It may look like nothing's coming out of that. You didn't score right off that immediate action, but what it did was it made the change size of the floor. Every defense in the NBA is good if you play one side of the floor. It's once you start switching sides of the floor and now all of a sudden the low man is now the strong side corner man. He gets lost and the low man who was over there, strong side corner, forgets to pull in and he's lost. That's when you can really dissect a defense and pick them apart.

When you're willing to make that quick swing pass, you force the defense to rotate. And what that does is it opens up an advantage because it means that there's going to be a closer. That happens when they go from the right side of the floor to the left side of the floor. The whole defense shifts. Whoever catches that ball. If you're swing pass is going to have a close up coming at them. They're going to be open, they're going to have a drive, maybe another extra pass right there. Maybe they have a drive to a kick. You set up that point five situation for them. And a lot of times if you don't have a great look, you don't catch it and have a wide open shot or a great drive, if you make that quick point five pass, that next person probably will have that opportunity. Just because you made the right decision to move the basketball, what this is going to lead to is higher percentage shots for your team. Your teammate's going to get a better look, a better drive. But like I mentioned, what it's also going to lead to is better scoring opportunities for you. Because you make that swing pass, your teammate's going to drive, get into the paint, draw in, help kick out again. They're going to make an extra pass back to you. Now, next thing you know, you're wide open or you have a wide open drive that's way easier. So you're going to start to score more efficiently, and because of that, you're going to score more consistently and your coaches are going to look at you and say, wow, he's got to be on the floor, she's got to be on the floor. Because every time they're on the floor, they make the right decision and it opens up opportunities for our team. Our offense looks so much better and it's going to lead to everybody benefiting. The more the ball moves, the harder it's going to be for the defense to stay disciplined. And so if you feel like you're struggling to score, you're struggling to get consistent opportunities, get in the habit of not holding the basketball. If you don't have a shot that you love, a drive that you love, just move it, move it, get to the next action. Because when the ball comes back to you, it's going to be way easier for you to score. And if it doesn't come back to you, you probably just created a better opportunity for your team, which maybe people who are watching aren't going to know that, but your coach will know that. And if you have any aspiration to play at the next level, coaches who come and watch you or see your film, they're going to know that too. Like I mentioned, I coach a lot of basketball players and the majority of them struggle to do this and it stands out. And the players who are good at this, who are willing to make that quick pass, really, really, really stand out as a player that you want, as a player that has to be on the floor. And sometimes these players aren't the most skilled, maybe they're not even the best player. But because they do that, they make everybody else better, they make the team better, and they get more opportunities. So if you want to gain more opportunities for yourself, become that player who's willing to make that quick swing pass and a lot more is going to open up for you. Passing the ball and making that quick decision to swing in a 0.5 decision isn't always going to show up in the box score and it's not always going to get you high fives and applause from the crowd, but it makes an impact on winning. And the people who matter, coaches, people who are going to give you more opportunities, are going to recognize that and they're going to reward you for it. Your teammates are going to appreciate you for that. People are going to love playing with you and it's going to provide you with so much more opportunity. It seems backwards, right? Well, I want to score, I want to score, I want to score. When you actually take a step back and are willing to move the ball, you will score more points. This is the easiest way that you can start to get ahead of other players and you can really separate yourself in a great way. So apply this to your game and it's going to make a massive difference. If you want even more stuff that's going to help you become a higher impact player in the core. I have a free basketball IQ Mascots link down below. It's going to help you learn how to score more, how to create more for yourself and your teammates, play with more confidence and just transform the way that you view the game of basketball. You're going to learn stuff in there that you can apply the next time that you play, so make sure you click that top link down below completely free. Appreciate you for watching. Talk soon. Peace.