Why Steph Curry Is One Of The Best Finishers EVER (Full Breakdown + Workout)

Steph Curry is obviously known for his incredible ability to shoot the basketball and his handles as well, but he's also one of the best finishers in the league, especially for a guard. And if you're a guard and you want to be a great finisher, Steph is somebody that you have to be watching. In this video, we're going to break down exactly what he does to be elite around the basket, and then we're going to go through some drills that you can add to your workouts. Now to take your finishing ability to the next level. Let's get into it. The first thing that Steph has that makes him so great around the basket is elite level body control. Something that really limits players around the rim is their lack of body control and their lack of ability to adjust in the air. This makes it really hard for defenders to block his shot because first of all, it makes it harder for them to time up, when to jump. And even when they do jump and they time it up correctly, he's able to hang in the air really long and he doesn't have to shoot the ball right away. So he's able to wait for them to come back down before he releases the ball. And this is really hard to defend. So you want to have a goal as a player, not just be able to shoot a layup on your way up, but also be able to finish on the way down. And this will essentially double the amount of layups that you can make, because now you're capable of making it not just on your way up, but also on your way down. A big part of being a great finisher as a guard is your ability to be unpredictable so that bigger defenders can't time up how to contest you. And this is a great way to be able to develop that ability. Another key characteristic of elite finishers is being able to finish when they're not going directly towards the rim. This, again, just allows you to be so much more versatile and adaptable when it comes to the angles you can finish at. And this means that you don't necessarily need to get as close to the rim as possible. You don't need to go towards the shot blocker to still be able to get that layup up and convert. Now, let's talk about something that Steph Curry is arguably most famous for, and that's the scoop layups. Now, he'll use these in a variety of situations, especially sometimes he uses almost like a floater, where he's looking to go all net with that layup, but he'll also use it as a way to just get the ball really high up off the backboard, which allows him to do two things. First of all, it makes the shot impossible to block because it's so high up, even by the time it touches the backboard, the defender can't get high enough to block it. And it also allows him to shoot the ball from farther away from the basket. Because he can put it up high and he lays it nice and soft, the ball is much more likely to just softly drop in. Another thing that he's exceptional at that really allows him to mitigate a lot of shot blockers is his ability to use his body off of two feet. You can see him in these clips here, getting to two feet and sliding in front of that defender who's trying to time up his block so that the only way that they're able to go up and contest the shot is to go through him, which is going to be a foul. He can also use two foot finishing as a way to split. Those help defenders to get to the rim. I'll link a video above about Tuva finishing for you to check out as well. Another thing I want to touch on real quick, and I think it's something that's going to really help you get to the basket more easily. I call these breaks in rhythm, and they're just quick stops that Steph does in the way of the basket. That allows him to break that defender's rhythm and then start up again and have that quick half second advantage which gets him all the way to the rim, sometimes to an uncontested finish. Now let's get into some drills you can do to work on these different qualities. First, we're going to work on being able to put that ball high up off the backboard. We're going to treat this like the mic and drill. We're going to go back and forth across to both sides, but you're working on putting the ball high above that square every time, mixing up the angle, mixing up one foot or two foot, making it different every time. Next, we're going to start at the elbow in a crawl start and you're going to get downhill, going as fast as you can. And again, we're trying to place that ball high above that square for our finish. Next, we're going to work on the ability to finish with our momentum not taking us towards the basket. So you're going to start off at the elbow again and you're going to drive directly down the lane line. You cannot land inside of that line, you got to take off and land outside of it. So working on being able to drive a different direction than right towards the rim and still be able to leave that ball there and put it in the basket right here. I cheated and landed on the line. Don't be like me. Now we're going to work on the same quality with these cross paint finishes. You're going to start outside of the paint, you're going to drive across, come out of this crawl, start going as fast as you can, and you're just going to leave that ball there as you go past. And I'm working on being able to drive opposite of the basket and still leave the ball there for the finish. Now we're going to work on these scoop finishes with the scoop finish freestyle. So you can be wherever you want to start here. But you're driving, working on different scoop finishes, going off of one foot off of two feet, really getting comfortable, being precise, getting that ball nice and high on these finishes. And now we're going to finish out maybe the most important one, which is working on our ability to finish on the way down. So you can get to any sort of layup of one foot off of two feet. But the only rule is that you're trying to actually let go of the ball as you're coming down, really pushing yourself and seeing how far away from the basket you can take off from and still be able to finish the layup. Make sure you click the top link in my description below to get my free elite perimeter score program that'll help take your game to the next level. Make sure you drop a like subscribe if you're new. I'll talk to you guys soon. Peace.