Breaking Down Barcelona | Study Basketball with a Current Pro

What's up guys, welcome back to another Players Corner. And remember, this video is not for fans, it's for students of the game. So let's lock in and know what's to watch. Barcelona versus Hapoel Tel Aviv in our first EuroLeague game as a club. I'm just going to talk about specifically what would help you as a player, not specifics to our schemes and stuff like that, because I'd be shooting myself in the foot. I like this closeout from Collin. Don't let him shoot. I'd let him stickhand, but I'll let him shoot, force him left inside and make him finish with his left hand. Can he make this? 100%. But it's not something he wants to do. And I think as a basketball player, when you're guarding someone, we always talk about KYP, know your personnel. So understanding that the game's not gonna finish 0-0, there's gonna be shots that are made, there's gonna be shots that are missed. But if you can make the other player do more of what they don't wanna do, then you put yourself in a better position to win. So just a rule of thumb, it's something that Giannis really taught me as a player, is when you play a ball screen, always prepare your ball screen. So here, the screen is here, and he knows the screen's here, so always prepare it by rejecting first, right? This sets it up, and sometimes the guy's not even ready. He doesn't create that much of an advantage, but it's just something to know in your head as a guard. Prepare your ball screen by rejecting first. So here I got to be better right here. Just rule of thumb, general basketball rules, is being at the line of the ball. My guy can't score from here, so in order to help Collin, I need to be at the line of the ball. Good defense. So here I was kind of like, uh, Collin has it. But I think right here when I saw him gather to take off, I said, oh, he might, he might— like, that's a— it's a layup, but it's still— you're going this way so much and then you have to kind of like let it go. So I was like, he might back rim it. That's why you always follow the shot no matter if it's a wide open layup. So I'm bottom of the I as you see, and considering Vasa helps, which never helps strong side, but he does knowing the personnel. But he wouldn't do that obviously if there was a shooter here. But if he did, I would stunt here and come back forcing him to back cut knowing it's a good shooter in the corner. I gotta do better here. So here, screen's coming. So what we talked about before, preparing the screen, seeing how the defender's already leaning there allows you to set that up. The pass is here to Ish. I gotta sprint back better here. Watch, watch my first 2 steps. Okay, turnover. Look, I kind of do the same thing as Dio actually. Watch. Body language. 1, 2. Gotta be faster. Your first 2 steps in transition gotta be your fastest steps. Good contest. Left hand on right hand shooter. I mean, obviously Punter can make this shot, but knowing that he wants to shoot mid-range, so, and he won't go inside. I mean, that's a pretty decent contest. So right here they're setting the ghost screen, trying to create some confusion. As you see, Will comes up, doesn't do anything, but wants to create confusion here to allow him to get to his right hand. And I think Shingelia needs to be here to provide more space if he wants to get to his right hand. Dumb pass. Don't pass, keep your dribble alive. Gotta be more aggressive, gotta be more aggressive there. We have a mismatch with Punter, they switch, so you gotta punish that. It's so annoying, I hate this one. Boom, boom, gotta stop right here. Dribble it out, bring Vassa up, play the mismatch. I hate stupid turnovers so much. Communication is so key on a basketball court. No matter if you're wrong or right with whatever you say, communication and clarity is so key. So now we have a mismatch here, and I'm guarding Punter, so I'm not— I can't really help as much. It should be here. He should help, and then if they pass it to Will, we— I X out. Because you see, for a second I try to stall, like, uh, can I help? But no, Puna would have a wide open shot, so you can't help. So right here, you see me like, ah, where it should be calling here, me taking first pass. It's called X-out. But since Vasa fights a little bit, doesn't give up, then we create a turnover. More patience here, more patience, more patience. I gotta draw that foul there. As soon as he puts his hand on me, I gotta draw that foul. So those late ones, like especially guarding a, a score, ghost screen, none of that, like my advice to a player is stay in front. Don't look for help, don't look for none of that. Bend your knees, put your hands out and guard. It's late shot clock. Worst case scenario, I'm thinking I'd rather 2 be on punter than 2 be on Shingelia. So at the end of the day, I'm staying. Even, even though Tomer stays, you see on the other side we have help. So rule of thumb, go screens, guard the ball. And a go screen is just when someone's running towards the screen and they scream switch, switch, switch, switch, switch, switch, switch to try to create confusion. Better patience here, time and score. We're down by 3. Um, better decision, better. Good job bringing it low, you know. Low, get nothing, bring it back out. I feel like I have nothing, call another ball screen. Like I said, the defense gets weaker as the shot clock goes on. Boom, I have Boston here, tight pass. If not anything, call D.O. back out for another ball screen. It's okay, we're learning here. Like, I'm learning with you guys. Like, yes, I'm professional. Yes. I've won some things in my career, but for me, everything's about growth. Like, what are you doing every single day to get— become better at your craft? Basketball player, real estate agent, teacher, doctor— you can never be complacent with what you're doing in life because at the end of the day, if I'm doing this for money, if I'm doing this for status, for fame, that fizzles, that fades. I'm doing this because I want to be the best at my craft that Elijah Bryant can be. This is what I'm doing right now. I'm a real estate agent later. If I'm a farmer later, I'm going to be the best at that that I can be. I'm going to try every single day to do that. So you look here, watch the defense. The defense is— watch them, watch how much they move. I, I do this sometimes too. Everyone's allowed to just stay still. Now if you pass it here and you pass here, play pick and roll, you get it back, or I play pick and roll, we pass to Ish, the defense has to shift. And I'll show another example of that of the defense shifting later in the game. We have a really good clip of that. I like to call it Warriors basketball or Spurs basketball. Ball's popping, everyone's touching it, paint touches. I like that shot. I mean, the only reason I would say I don't like this shot is because the ball was held in the hands of one player the whole time. But in terms of his shot, like So we talk about KYP, knowing the personnel. Who's the main scorers on this court right now? Brizuela, Parra, Vasily. Like, but Kel's last. So knowing that, I can help a little bit more. So here, knowing that this pass is wide open, he just checked in the game, Kel, he's not going to shoot it. So I'm, I'm waiting for Brizuela to throw this pass. I'm waiting here. There's nothing against disrespectful to Kel, it's just I'm trying to play psychology. And personnel and role. When you get a mismatch on a big, I'll take a peek at the shot clock on the other end knowing what to look for, if he's going to get the ball. But I always want to be super physical and you don't want to give them position because they're already bigger. So you don't want to give them position under the rim. That move was tough. If you look at the score, look at the foul count, this is something to know as a ball handler or a basketball player, knowing that they're in bonus, knowing they're not going to be as aggressive. So if you want to get the free throw line, he touches you, you're going to react. Like when it's iso to drive and knowing they can't foul, just something to keep in mind that you have to keep an eye on when you're out there playing. I gotta do a better job of pressing the ball here. See here, I'm kind of like, oh, he's not going to shoot it, but it allows him to pass easier. If I press the ball more then he won't feel as comfortable. I gotta do a better job of preparing the screen like we talked about before. So dribbling him down, they hedge, the pass isn't where I want it to be. See, Will's helping. So the next, the next evolution of my game is going to make this pass, but looking here. So Lucas is elite at it. All Europeans are very elite at that pass. Lock and chase. Lead shooter, switch. I got— there's a mismatch. I gotta do a better job of going under this because Shingelia could have sealed me even better. So switch, I gotta go under because Shingelia should stop right here and seal me and I'm cooked. But instead he keeps going and I fight over it and get the steal. Prepare the screen. Watch the defender. He knows the screen's coming, especially he's calling it out, so he's going to step. And that's another rule of thumb, is you can't step with your top foot, especially leaning that way, because then you're done if he doesn't go that way. Another thing for Barcelona is that, okay, eff it, you're beat, you're in put the fire out situation. Second side guy helps. The pass should be to here, but the other thing is, is as soon as that shot's up, best guess to box out D.O. Because look, that's another question for you guys: do you think it's easier to be a big man or a guard? Let me know in the comments. I'll tell you my answer at the end, so stay to the end when we get in the locker room. This is just one of those like junk plays, and they just— that is a junk play, but The end is easily controllable. Shot goes up, don't ball watch, box out, get a body on someone, free lane to the basket, finish. I gotta take a better shot here, or give the other lob, or hit ish. I made that shot plenty of times, but I'm trying to evolve into a better player. So here, if you feel like you're at a disadvantage, look at the foul count. Take a foul, take it out. You can't give baseline. You can't get baseline. And I need to be bottom help. What am I doing over here just chilling? I need to be right here even though I'm guarding Punter. It's too easy, it's too easy. We have fouls to give. Elijah Bryant needs to be in the bottom eye. Oh, this is the play, this is the play I talked about. Spurs basketball. Watch how many hands it touches. Watch how many paint touches it has. So let's touch one hand. We're gonna count hands first, how many people it touches. And then we'll go back and count paint touches. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, we'll count that as paint touch. 1, we'll count that. 2, 3, 4. So 4 paint touches and 4 passes, or 4 people would pass to. So that, like, that's the type of basketball That is fun to watch and fun to play. Oh, I remember this one. Lock and chase. Fall busted my lip open on this one too. Lock and chase shooter. Regardless, doesn't matter if you're late, still gonna get a test by D.O. But mistake by me. Why'd I take this foul? We have fouls to give. They kind of had an advantage here. Slow it down. We don't know who's matched up or whatnot. Miscommunication here. Lock and chase. Rule of thumb, I would say, if you're guarding a shooter, think about it. Just think about KYP. Like we said before, do you want 2 on punter or do you want 2 on fall? Exactly. So, D.O., don't leave punter. He missed it, okay, but we got lucky. Right in this position, I'm already at a disadvantage because I'm basically backpedaling. He's full speed downhill. Quickly thinking, knowing who it is, okay, if I buy time for him, if he beats me going left, he beats me going left. We're already at a disadvantage. Bonus defense. We have no fouls to give, so I'm gonna sit on his right hand. This is an evolution in my game. Evolution in your game is not just about offense or scoring buckets, stuff. It's just about getting better at the game to impact winning and to win more games. I like that shot. It's a very, very, very satisfying moment for me because this is something that I worked on for the past 2 summers. I think sometimes we forget progress isn't the result. So I missed the shot, but what I'm so excited about is that the footwork on the shot. 2 years ago, I would never shoot the shot. Been working on it. 1-2 shot, left, right, right foot behind, landing leg kick. That's even more elite for me because I usually don't do that. Back rim. Okay, eff it. This type of stuff you don't see on court. Who was looking at their man right now? No one's looking at their man. I had the ball, I was looking at me. So who's wide open? AB, cash out there. Cardinal sin to help strong side, but KYP, no one personnel, hasn't taken one shot all game. Lapavitula's getting downhill. I'm gonna stay a little bit longer strong side help even though it's a cardinal sin. Reach. He tries to pass it, it goes off on me. I don't say anything. See what the ref say. He says it's there. Atutis is like, should we challenge? I said no, I touched it, let's, let's move on. Bigger body on Chris, I'm last man of the eye. I tell him get out, get out, get out, get out, get out, let me guard him. He pushed him to me. If they have to score like that the whole game, you're gonna win the game 99% of the time. Prepare the screen. We talked about it. Prepare the screen. Doesn't matter if it's late game, prepare the screen. Oh, and the reason, like, outside in the locker room— welcome to the locker room. That's where we discuss everything that would be discussed in the locker room. I'll address the first thing. The first thing is that in the NBA, they always get mad at each other for scoring at the end because the game's over. It's bad sportsmanship. And EuroLeague, point spread matters. So depending on who's beating who. If you won one game home, one game away, now it's point spread. Or to get in the playoffs is point spread. So every possession matters. Literally every game counts. Now moving on to if it's hard to be a guard or a post player. No biases, I think it's hard to be a guard. This is why. Your advantage as a big is that you're tall. So if you're tall and you can catch and you can dunk it and finish a layup, you make a good career, right? But if you're all that and you're short, you see what I'm saying? Like, you have to do so much more. In terms of a guard— dribble, shoot, pass. Big— catch the ball, be able to run, be able to dunk it. Great career. But you're born with, you know, better athleticism, taller. So let me know in the comments what do you think, it's harder to be a guard or a big man. We're gonna try to do these as often as possible. Obviously it's a very long season and we'll see how it goes, but super excited, got the first win. And remember, this video is not for Pants is for students like yourself and I. Faith plus consistency. Love.