Stupid Simple Stephen Curry Scoring Hacks | NBA Breakdown

Hey, what's good? It's your boy, Coach Collin Castellaw, back with another breakdown where today we're gonna talk about how Steph Curry is getting buckets at an unbelievable rate and how you can too. Now, Steph is on an absolute tear this season. I saw a stat just the other day that he's on pace to shatter his single season three-point record. And he's looking like probably the front runner for MVP and he has the Warriors playing at an elite level. Now, there's a lot of reasons why Steph is great at getting buckets, but the thing that I love most about him is that he's not an absolute freak when it comes to the athleticism, right? He's not 6'8 with a 7'1 wingspan. He's doing all of this damage in a normal person's body against other freak athletes. So what we're gonna do today is we're gonna break down his performance against the Nets the other day and show you exactly how you can do some of the same things he does to get buckets. But what I want you to do is watch to the end of this video because I'm gonna give you something 100% free that's $150 value that's gonna improve your jump shot instantly, but you're gonna have to wait till the end. All right, so the very first highlight against the Nets is a super sick step back jumper. Now, this is something that Steph utilizes all the time and that more players really need to add to their game because if you can shoot out of separation, it opens up the entire world of possibilities when it comes to scoring off the dribble. So, Steph sets this play up. He comes off with a dribble and really what he does is the subtle movement of this jab with his right foot into the ground, get the defender to slide back slightly and for him to pop into his separation into his jumper. Now, most players are gonna shoot a lot better out of separation going to their non-dominant hand. So, because Steph Curry's a right-handed shooter, he's stepping back to the left, getting better alignment on his shooting arm and shoulder and hip and making it a lot easier to knock down this shot. So, what I want you to think about in your game is anytime you're getting to the step back jumper, think about selling it with a jab step in the opposite direction first, right? Think about if the defender's playing you. If you sell that jab step first, they're gonna slide and react to it, giving your separation even more so. So, it's a very subtle movement, but it's something that Steph does a lot to get that extra separation to get his jumper off. So, another reason why Steph gets a ton of open looks, even though everybody knows he's the best shooter on the planet, is because of his constant movement. So, on this next clip, watch as he drives the lane, he gets a nice dish and the ball ends up getting tipped, right? But once he gets rid of the ball, he continues to move and really hunts the three-point line. A lot of times players, once they drive, once they pass, whatever it is, and they get rid of the ball, they kind of take a one Mississippi to stop, gather themselves, and they're not really in attack mode. But you'll notice as soon as Steph gets rid of the ball, he continues to move and gets out to the paint as fast as he possibly can. And because of that, he's in the right place at the right time. So, you might watch this, you know, kind of highlight and think, well, this is just kind of a lucky break. The ball falls right back into Steph's hands, he gets an open three, right? But it really starts with his movement on the front end, by once he gives it up, he's continuing to move. So, a lot of times younger players have an issue with this. They get rid of the ball, they stand, they loaf, they kind of think, okay, my job's done. But with Steph, he's always looking for attack mode and always looking to be, you know, kind of keeping that off ball movement. If you can do that, it's gonna help you hit more shots immediately. And not only that, but get more shots in a game. Just by this constant movement, Steph gets an extra four or five shots a game that he wouldn't get otherwise. So, it's something that you should definitely add to your game. Now, the next thing that a lot of players don't realize is you don't necessarily need a giant step back every time to be able to get your separation. On this next clip as we roll the footage here, you'll notice that he gets kind of caught off on a switch and he gets a big man guarding him. And he tries to go by and it doesn't really work. But then he notices that he just needs a little bit more space for his jump shot. So, he doesn't need to get crazy off balance or jump back a long ways. He just gives a very subtle mini step back as we like to call it, to get just enough separation to get that shot off. So, what's really important about your game when you train is you don't wanna just practice one step back over and over and over again, right? You wanna practice a mini step back, a large step back, a lateral step back, a jab step back, right? You wanna practice all these different footwork patterns. That way, once you get into the game, you have an unlimited arsenal just like Steph Curry. All right, this next shot is absolutely ridiculous, right? But it all starts because Steph Curry gets out and he runs the floor early. A lot of times, players don't take advantage in transition. And this is when you can actually get a lot of great shots before the defense sets up. Now, Steph Curry bombs this one from the logo and your coach might get mad if you shoot from that deep. But the really big key that I want you to take away here is his power generation and motion transfer, right? So, you notice that when he shoots, the ball and his hips move together. So, when the ball moves down, his hips load and move down. When the ball moves up, his hips fire up. And because of that, it's almost like he gets that perfect timing of the ball moving through his body to launch and get that extra lift into his jump shot, which he needs if he's gonna shoot from this far out. And so, it's really important, especially anytime you're shooting deep, that you get that early momentum where you're loading down to spring back up, right? I always like to think about it like a spring. If we keep a spring and we just load it a little bit, it's not gonna spring up very high, right? But if I spring it all the way down and I bend it far, it's gonna explode a lot further. And you can think about your jump shot just like that. So, although this is an insane shot and most players aren't ever gonna have the green light to take it, we can still take a lot of main keys from it to help you with your jumper. And a lot of these same keys will help if you're trying to get from 15 feet to 18 feet or 18 feet to 21 feet. Doesn't necessarily have to be logo deep jumpers, but it could help you if you wanted to get out there as well. Now, obviously, Steph is dangerous in pretty much any situation, right? But he's incredibly dangerous out of a pick and roll because the help side defender, a lot of times is a big guy, a little bit slower, and he's got that super fast trigger. So on this shot, what I want you to notice as he comes off of a pick and roll is he does a great job aligning his shooting hips. So since he's right-handed, his right hip with the rim and tilting his feet slightly off to the left. Now, a lot of coaches think that you need to square your feet towards the basket and that just simply isn't true. If you watch pretty much all of Steph Curry's shots, he's always gonna have his feet tilted or at least rotate his hips after the shot is up if he couldn't get to there in the first place. So on this shot, it's deep, it's smooth, it's fluid, but he does a great job of getting his feet tilted and his hip on target immediately. That way he can get the shot up quick with nice power. All right, the thing that Steph doesn't get enough credit for is he's not just a shooter. Sure, he's probably the greatest shooter of all time, but he does a great job of moving without the ball and that shooting opens up other opportunities. So on this play, you'll notice he keeps his off-ball movement. He doesn't stand in one spot. Even though he doesn't get the ball the first time, he continues to move till he gets a great opportunity. And because of that, he gets the defender out of position and gets a wide open lane to the basket. And, you know, the Warriors have a lot of shooting around him, so the help starts to spread out and he gets a super easy point. So what I want you to think about as a player is you don't always necessarily need to score the hard points, right? Steph scores a lot of hard points, the deep shots, the step backs, all that sort of good stuff. But the way he scores so many points is that he gets a lot of easy ones because of it. So you don't always necessarily have to hunt the three-point line, but feel free to keep your off-ball movement and attack the basket whenever you can. And I promise you, the more you push in transition, the more open looks you're going to get. So on this next clip, check it out. Steph gets in transition, instead of just walking the ball up the court, letting the D get set, he starts to push the tempo a little bit to see what he can get. Now, you'll notice that because he's a great shooter, because he's already bombed shots from the logo, the D is going to jump up fairly high to stop him. And that opens up a ton of empty space on the court for him to attack and get to. And so a lot of players, they don't really realize this, right? The game is kind of things that stack on top of each other. So if you walk the ball up the court, the defense ends up getting set. Because the defense gets set, you get a tougher look because they're ready for you. But on this particular play, it's a great example of if you push in transition and stay persistent with your drive, you can get a lot of really great open looks at the basket, where in this situation, Steph does a fantastic job of using his body to box the defender out first, get a nice little initiation on the bump, and then go up for his layup. All right, now because Steph's an elite shooter, because you're watching my channel, you're probably going to be an elite shooter too. You're going to see a lot of defense pressuring you further out. So in this particular play, Steph gives up the ball and look at his man, doesn't slide to help side, he doesn't relax, he gets right up in Steph's chest because he knows he's always a threat at all times. So what you'll notice on this play is Steph utilizes that pressure against the defender, sets them up, hits a hard backdoor going towards the basket. So what I want you to think about is even when you give up the basketball, you're still a threat at all times, right? And you're going to basically look for the open pockets to cut to and try to time that cut so you can get a great pass from your team weight. Now the other piece of this clip that I want you to pay attention to is he doesn't go all the way into the trees, right? Where he gets that pass, he notices that he has that nice pocket for a shot and he ends up finishing with a nice little floater. A lot of players would get this pass, they take an extra dribble, one too many, get inside a taller defender and have a more difficult finish. And again, this is why you've got to turn yourself into a well-rounded player, right? You got to be able to shoot threes, finish at the basket and then have kind of this mid-range game with floaters, runners, et cetera, because there are a lot of looks that you're going to get. So Steph does a great job on this play, getting a nice little floater and it's easy money for him. All right, Steph Curry is the master at being in control when he's shooting his jump shot. That's one of the reasons why he's one of the best of all times, right? So on this particular clip, watch he gets this kind of nice handoff pick and roll here, but a lot of players would come off of this with so much speed and be completely out of control, right? But there's two things that really help him essentially kind of dictate the tempo on this play. Number one, he comes off extremely tight to the screen, right? This allows the defender to get picked off and not be able to slide through and stay with him. So because of that, he can have more time and be under more control. The other piece I want you to focus on is what we call a control dribble. I mean, as he's getting ready to shoot, he could have just caught the ball and gone right up into a shot, but he puts one dribble down quickly to allow him to get on balance and then go up into a shot with perfect control. Now, a lot of players don't think about this because they think they're either going to dribble a lot or none, but sometimes one dribble's all you need to get under control, get your feet set and go up into your shot on balance like Steph does here. Now being a dynamic shooter is all about gathering your momentum and the good shooters are able to gather their momentum on a normal jump shot. The great shooters are able to regather their momentum after they've lost it. This is a great example of that with Steph. As he's getting ready to shoot, he ends up doing a pump fake, getting the defenders off their feet and he needs to regather. Now, most players, when they pump fake, they bring the ball down just slightly and go back into their shot. But you'll notice on Steph's pump, once he hits it, he ends up loading the ball further below his waist so he can regather that momentum or reload the spring, so to speak, to launch into his jump shot. So think about any time you're doing a pump fake or even if you're doing a pass fake or whatever it is, you've got to reload that momentum all the way down to where the ball's about by your waist. That way you can get that momentum to go back up through your body, into the basketball and get the power, right? I would say 95% of players miss a pump fake into a shot short because they aren't able to do that. So this one little tiny key can help you hit a lot more shots just like Steph Curry does in this scenario. So notice on this play, as Steph Curry comes off the pick and roll, he actually gets a switch as he's getting rid of the basketball, getting a big man on him. And so instead of cutting through and continuing his movement, he actually pops directly back out to get the ball because he knows he has the mismatch that he's been looking for. So think about this on your game. When you're playing, what are the mismatches that you're looking for? Are you looking for slower people who might be taller? Are you looking for shorter people who might be quicker? Right, and you want to try to do things to get those mismatches inside of the game because here, notice once Steph Curry gets it, it's absolutely over, right? LaMarcus basically has to make a decision. Is he going to play up tighter on Steph Curry and let him go by? Or is he going to play the gamble of letting him shoot from deep with a contested jump shot? And that's exactly what happens. And we all know how that ends most of the time. Now think about this. This is an NBA game. These are the best athletes in the world. And Steph Curry is widely considered the best shooter of all time. Look how open of a jump shot he gets. How many of these open jump shots do you get in a game, right? And you're not Steph Curry. So imagine if you ran the floor in transition like he did, how many open looks you'd be able to get. Again, he's the best shooter on the planet. Everybody knows he's the best shooter on the planet and he still gets an open look. So anytime you have an opportunity to fill a lane in transition, especially if you can be on the same side as the basketball, you're going to get a ton of these drag opportunities, kick out opportunities, just like Steph does. All right, now this video is brought to you by my guys over at the SIQ Basketball, the brand new basketball technology that is changing the game. And on them, they're going to give you a free copy of my custom shot design system, normally $150. That's a perfect tool to help you find your perfect jump shot in just 10 minutes. Most players have one or two small tweaks on their jump shot that are really causing the majority of their misses. And the custom shot design system was created specifically to help you figure out those. So all you gotta do is click the link in the description down below, sign up and get instant access to the custom shot design today, courtesy of my guys over at SIQ. And if you're new to Shot Mechanics, hit the subscribe button, ding the bell notification and join the Splash Army because we put out videos every single week that are going to help you get better. And if you want to, leave a comment in the comment section down below and let me know what sort of video you want to see next. This is a channel for the people, by the people, and we run pretty much everything off of requests. So leave it down below and hopefully we'll be able to get to it. Again, I'm Coach Collin Castellaw with Shot Mechanics Basketball and until next time, splash on.