PLAYERS CORNER: Elijah Bryant Breaks Down Film (ASVEL VS EFES)

Hey, what's up guys? Welcome back to another film breakdown. I'm Elijah Bryant, currently a professional basketball player playing overseas in the EuroLeague, and we're going to break down this basketball game we just had. So this game, I didn't start. Doesn't matter if you start or not, it's about how you can affect the game when you get in. So I just checked in, we're gonna watch my minutes, not the full game, the minutes I played. Okay, let's get here, get to the offense, stay spaced like we talked about before. Like, even this little step right here is creating more space, so I need to take one more step and don't creep up, because I creep up, it gives him an opportunity to guard too. So as Shane comes towards him, his job, number one, Harrison, is to stunt, and then he will stunt back here. So just that little space can help a lot. Boom, looks at the clock. So he slips, try to be quick, but the slip doesn't give me any advantage. Okay, I guess I could have, um, forced it here, but that's a risky pass. So knowing I feel comfortable shooting from out here is instead of driving in here with 3 guys, or 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 guys, let me just get to a shot where I know I can get it off. So I know I can get that shot off anytime. Felt good actually. Okay, here, just a lesson to be learned. You got to be careful doing it, but I don't want to avoid contact here. This is an opportunity to get a foul drawn on the player. So I can— sometimes I'll put my arm under his arm to draw the fact that he has his arm on me, but sometimes they'll call offensive foul as well. So you got to kind of pick and choose. Early in the game, not going to force the issue. Knowing we have fouls to give, we're kind of— when we're back, but we've been going up and down a few times. Foul. Take the ball out, sideline. So just something to think about as a guard or a big, because this guard, this hedge, I don't think it does much. So the person I played against is really good at the hedge, Bryant Dunston. So right here, he would get a swipe at this ball and sometimes steal it. And then retreat back. Because if you get a swipe at the ball, it allowed the guard to get back in front, and the guy dribbling the ball had to take one dribble back, so he couldn't even focus on the pass. Right hand, uh, left-hand shooter, correct. But he had already hit one, so I got to be closer. I got to force him to drive knowing he's a shooter. Bad defense by me. But one thing I will say for young players is this happens if you make a mistake. Next play. Don't look at your coach, don't put your head down, keep playing. Next play mentality. No one plays a perfect game. So right here they're playing ice defense, and one of the solutions is to drive down, making the big retreat back. Then I can pass it to our big to play second side. So Darius has to be faster here. Instead of a DHO, you probably want to pass. Great high-low action, great high-low action by Dio. Okay, so since Dio is fronted, flashes to give him an outlet. Not open, drives, great finish. And if he didn't have the drive, he could have kicked it out too. Shane in the corner. Boom. So right here, one drive, Shane's wide open for a better shot, but he finishes it, so it's all good. So now I'm empty side, so trying to get a bump here, but also knowing this guy's 2 for 3 from 3, number 8. So kind of deterring him a little bit, but it's not my responsibility, it's the double side responsibility for that. And again, getting them to play to their weaknesses. I gotta box out better here. Even though I get the rebound, I gotta— so he crashes, I gotta go body to body, boom, box out better, balance, whatever. So I got open there obviously because we talked about it earlier, D.O. rolled, so he put pressure on the rim. A lot allow my guy to react. Okay, let's watch the whole thing. Watch Dio compared to the last time. He rolled just a little bit, which allowed my guy to help, but gave me a shot wide open shot. Thank you, Dio. Okay, there's another thing that I learned. Rest in peace to my best friends that passed away, Dimitri, my teammate in college. But he used to always do this. He used to always have his hands out just for— and you don't think it's much, but you're bigger with your hands out, you know. So to shrink the floor— so on offense you want to open the floor, but to shrink the floor— so right here is kind of an emergency switch. This isn't really fundamentally sound, but I've played with Shane for a while and we kind of know each other. So he gets beat, he gets beat strong side. You never help strong side, right? But knowing we've done this multiple times before, is I'll take his and he'll go to mine, allowing cards to stay on each other. I like that hedge better. Only thing, this is more like a trap, low-key, but only thing I don't like is he reached with his opposite hand, which is risky. I'd rather err on the side of being aggressive than being passive. I should have went for that. I for sure thought he was going to pass it off. I need to space more. If I space more— so look, he's helping, so he needs to go here. He's going to help him. So if I come here It allows them— there's more space to make the decision easier for me. Well, if Dio sets a half a screen, he gets open. Just a half a screen. Trying to tell him maybe moving screen, but the screen makes the big man have to make a decision. When the big man makes a decision, it makes it easier for the guard with the ball to make a decision. When there's no screen, there's indecision, and now it's like, come and re-screen, or now it's time for me to attack. So you want to create decisiveness, decisiveness on offense, and you want to create indecision when you're playing defense. Okay, right here, I know, I know this is just thinking psychology and understanding how to Give yourself the best chance on defense no matter who you're guarding. I know we have one foul to give, shot clock's going down. He's a very smart player, so he knows we have one foul to give, so he knows we're probably gonna foul. Therefore, I have to be careful of not allowing him to get a shooting foul. We switch, I'm screaming to D.O., foul, foul, foul. Good foul. So right here, after I know— can we get the rebound? I know I got a shooter behind me. Let me screen this guy in right here to get him an easy one. Boom. Good shot. Don't put your head down. Good shot. Good shot. Good shot. So the screen's too high, so I go into the first one. Very beneficial for me in this situation because then he's going left, not right where he feels more confident. So this, what Dio has to understand and know that this is a double side, so he doesn't have to help as much, knowing he only has one guy on this side. So a little bit, uh-huh, back. This Juice should be more here. So the floor is— the spacing's horrible here for the offense. So he's coming towards Juice. He should be here. He should be here. That allows Dio to not help as much. So Dio helps a lot and gets out of position, now it puts us in a bind on the back end. So we talk about putting pressure on the rim, right? Just watch how when Rollins doesn't even really set it but just rolls, watch his reaction. He has to— and Drew should come up a little bit more to give a better pass for What am I doing? I need to stay spaced. Why am I cutting? I'm bringing more people to the paint. Don't cut, stay spaced there. Space the floor, not shrink. I would say here I could be— once he picks it up, I gotta be more aggressive on the ball. But my first initial reaction was to help Brodie know he was in a mismatch. But if I drop back too much, all he's going to do is hand off with Black and then go right into a pick and roll or whatever, and I'm dead. Great deny by D.O. There's another thing about shrinking the floor here. So now that he passes it and he's out here, I should drop to right here to help Roddy. I do it late, but— and D.O. should drop too. He's not guarding a shooter. He— D.O. should be right here. I was looking for the foul here, but looking like breaking this down, so I like to take, but there's— I can slow step at the end. If I slow step, it allows me to see more options. So right here, I'm kind of already back in front. There's no reason to really hedge, like no screen, no scheme. There's no screen. There's no coverage, like get through. He doesn't even screen, so I'm back in front already. I should have went here, but it's tough. That's why my role in here— knowing what their top scorer stick hand, having your hand up just to deter big men, don't realize how much that actually does something to a guard, deters him from shooting. And knowing we have fouls to give, he can be aggressive. Raise his hand to foul. So here he's dropping. I'm thinking he might be open. I'm coming inside. Um, pause that. Coming inside, uh, good thing. And if he's gonna throw the wraparound pass to Black, as soon as he picks it up, my job is to shoot out. Right? Because I'm not responsible for this anymore. I mean, this is a wide open shot. I know I'm guarding, got to be super aggressive, push the catch out here. So make them uncomfortable and do something they don't want to do. They don't practice playing their offense out here, so that's the goal. It's too high, go under, re-screen, hedge. This is the thing I've been trying to work on. Like, I— as much as— as much basketball as I watch, I watch a lot of OKC, New York Knicks, but I watch a lot of— I watch OKC for Shay. I watch Lou Dort and developing different techniques on defense. I've never— just, just as much as about growing your game on offense, you got to grow your game on defense as well. So like, this is something I've been like trying to implement in my game, this spin-off thing. Drew Holliday is really good at it. So I get back instead of trying to fight under to spin off of him. So knowing the shot clock's winding down, we don't have fouls to give, I'm trying to force him to do something he doesn't want to do. I think a contested 3 would be a great option. So here we get the advantage, Roland sets the screen. Allows them to react. When they react, it makes my decision easier. Get the switch. They have a foul to give, but they switch and the guard is on our foreman. So look at that. Can't let that— this is hard for a big, but can't let them split. You're trying to hedge, but you can't let them split. But emergency, Roddy's the fireman, takes him out. I'm dropping back. So right here in this situation, wherever— if this guy passes here, I'm first pass out. If he passes here, I'm first pass out. It's called Xing out. Me and Roddy are Xing out. So right here, what you're looking at to make this pass— I learned this from— I would say I learned this from watching Vasa play a lot— is I get here, I'm stuck. I know I don't have that much time. I'm watching his head. Pause. As soon as he turns his head, that's when I throw it, because I know if he turns his head, he's a second late and the ball's out of my hands. If I put it over here, only my player can get it. As the ball drives towards you, you need to retreat to your man. As it drives away from you, It's like a string. Drives away, it pulls you away. If they drive towards you, it pulls you back towards the man. Still push the pace. So I need to do something here. I need to go play split action. I need to cut. I need to do something. My guy is crowding space. I'm not spacing the 4-wall here for him, for Vinnie. So right here, they're taking away space by icing. So I'm trying to create space, double side cutting, knowing his job, like we said before, is to help. But if he helps and I leave, there's no stunt. That move's so tough. So one thing I've already noticed, we're in bonus, so it determines what aggress— how aggressive I can be. So when guarding different players, your focus just changes, at least for me. So guarding him, knowing he would score, I got to be very aware. I'm guarding Roberson and he's playing the 3, I understand that I can help more because he's not really a shooter. So your mindset has to change depending on who you're guarding. Still aggressive, but I have to be more aggressive on ball. See, as soon as the big gets behind, they make him retreat or do anything. So this is— and this is technically my help, but like I said before, I'm trying to make sure I'm aggressive. So boom, I should be right here, but I know what's coming if I go right here. No-look pass to here, and Erjan, understanding that he's not a shooter, emergency helps. Okay, so we turn it over. Boom, I'm sprinting. We talked about first 3 steps before. Look at the score, time, situation. Watch my first 3 steps. It's not even apparent to where the ball is. It's more so like, I could have been quicker, I would have got it if I didn't like think about it more. Like, look, I think too much. Oh wait, a ball. You know what I mean? I'm ahead of him. If I go now, what I was trying to read right here is look at the ref to see if he touched it. So if he touched it, I can't get in the backcourt. They didn't, so then they would go like— so I'm here. Like, I understand they said that I went into his body. What am I supposed to do here? He's running in front of me. The ball's— I feel like that's a no-call, but whatever. I gotta be better here jumping to the ball, especially because the spacing. So look where he is. Yes, you can shoot it from here, but if I jump this here It'll deter them. I get to recognize this faster. They switch. There's no reason to play second side. Get the ball in the post. We have the mismatch. So right here, our advantage is D-O, Right, so if you want to get a deal, I can't get it here. Jordan has to flash, or Rollins has to flash right here. Okay, it's not— he's not gonna get the ball. Now it's time to get to work. Good shot. Could have found a better one, right, to Jordan, maybe. I don't know, but it's hard to just play assertive. Like I said before, on defense, it's rather to be— better to be aggressive than passive. Great defense by Shane, fighting over the screen, back screen. So here I'm guarding hot guy, meaning offensive threat. I help a little bit, but I should leave this up to Shane to help on that considering who I'm guarding. I'm back. Come out with stick hand, handoff. Ah, we miscommunicate. Switch, no switch. Now we're in a bind. Deal late, switches. I'm the bigger out of the two here, so I go to the big man. It's not going out there. So here, screen, he's behind. Right here, Theo needs to lock and seal this guy. This is just another aspect of the game. My, my aspect is a different perspective. My point of view is different perspective. Shot, drive. But if he locks, he's wide open for a layup. So I'll show you again. Boom, right here. Hit his knees. He has a layup. Good shot. As soon as he passes it, right now I gotta sprint to here. First 3 steps, I'm late. So when he starts driving, I react. When I react, I'm late and I give up an open shot. Right in this position, this is what I'm thinking. So layup's 100%. 3's best shooter, 40-45%. Who's better shoot out of here? DiCollo. But knowing if I can fully commit here, if he passes it here, then he doesn't have a wide open layup. So if he passes here, I'm going to stunt, try to delay, delay, delay to go back here because there's no one that can get here. So at the end of the day, I have to cover this and retreat back to here knowing, okay, that's the best situation in this circumstance. Luckily it doesn't go that way. If I'm not here, he makes his pass, it's a dunk, right? So when I go here, Roddy needs to be here because technically, like, this is a— this is a wide open shot for Harrison. If Maledon goes no-look to here, I'm done, toast. And we talked about before having your hands out. See how his spacing is horrible? If he's here, then I can't even be here to shrink the floor. So just because me being here— if he was here, I would be here. But having your hands out shrinks the floor. The floor becomes smaller. Watch Roland's hands. Boom. Still— oh, what is this? We talked about earlier, Dio selling. Watch Tarek freaking— his guy's out. I didn't sell this one. There's nothing— one coming up where he freaking sells like a maniac. See how Tarek sells here? He never allows Riley to lose contact. Still, still, still, still. Okay, so now my mindset changes. I'm guarding a bigger 3-man. Then he wants to post up, has a great shot. See, space the floor. If he was here, it's a lot different. I'm standing here instead of there. Great strip. So here I just need to— before I get going, I need to let everyone space out. So get the ball, they switch. Okay, 14 seconds is plenty of time. They switch. If anyone wants the ball, come and post up. If I want to play ISO, let them space, then I can get to work. Get the switch, mismatch, play in the post. That move is so tough. This is something I stole from Guterich from Fenerbahçe. He's great at rejecting, you know, I guess he's easy fouls. Okay, so we're in bonus, they're in bonus, we haven't really scored or got an easy basket in a while. It's time to get some free throws coming off. He's late, knowing he knows I want to go off the screen, immediately play off the pivot, reject. Shout out to Sirhan, one of my assistant coaches. He said I need to use that more. Giannis always taught us to, uh, drive first, but I need to learn how to play off the pivot better. Okay, now I'm guarding a shooter. This is just playing golf, like characteristics of players. Vinny's on DiCollo. That's a mismatch for us. Let's say it's a mismatch 1 to 10. De Colo being fast, all this stuff, he's a 1 and he's a 10. Nothing against Vinnie, nothing against De Colo, but just speaking characteristics of players with their strengths and weaknesses. Uh, number 8 shooter, Vinnie has a better chance to guard number 8 than he does of De Colo. He can guard anyone, okay, but I'm saying you're playing the percentages. So since his back is turned, I feel as if it's safe enough to switch and Vinnie will know to go here. With the shot clock situation. So I switch and get him out. Yeah, I feel like that puts us in a better position. Okay, so right here my reads are: if he throws it here, I'm responsible for X-ing out on the back side. He throws it to my guy, I gotta have more of this type of closeout knowing he's down here. So I need to be— come off. I'm playing 2, passes it. I need to be right here. Usually want the corner guy to flash high, but Darius is telling me, and I was confused on why he told me. But then I go late and we turn it over. We can't turn the ball over here. Can't turn it over at all costs. Can't turn it over. Anything, turn it over at the rim. Need to stop here, just trying to take some time off the shot clock. So right here, Darius tells me he's going. I'm not gonna let him play by himself. Look, tells me. So Darius is going to come here, I'm going to go there, he's going to get out. He didn't end up going, but Tariq killed us. Quick shot, kind of scramble, float. Could have shot off two feet, um, two-pointer, shot it, not floated it, or hit Shane right here. But I'm trying to get the quickest shot as possible.