#MicroSkills Michael Jordan | Episode 3: Perimeter Moves

What's going on y'all it's NBA skills coach Drew Hanlon and welcome to episode 3 of my Michael Jordan micro skills film breakdown series. Tonight we're going to go over Michael Jordan's best isolation and perimeter moves. The first we're going to talk about is his stutter steps. His stutter steps were unstoppable and unguardable and he made them so good because he would chop his feet, he would throw his shoulders and then all he did was read his defender. You can see right here he's chopping his feet aggressively attacking the defender and then when the defender starts to lean in one direction he just plants off of that jab foot. So you can see right here jab plants loads and explodes and goes in the opposite direction. So again a great way to attack defenders just chopping your feet throwing your shoulders and all you're really doing is trying to get your defender to guess and bite in one direction. Once your defender bites in one direction all you simply do is load and explode off that plant foot and then attack in the opposite way. So you can see you keep the ball in the same hand right here he's just chopping up he's just using long kind of fakes shoulder fakes hip fakes eyes fakes and basically rocking his body back and forth so he can beat the defender once the defender guesses the wrong direction. Really really good defenders are expecting you to cross the ball over change directions all you do is keep that ball out and then one other thing that he was really really good at was keeping the ball back and protected you know a lot of times he'd keep the ball in front and then would bring the ball back right before he exploded and that allowed him to keep the ball protected if the defender reached in to try to get a last second steal. So if we rewind this one back right here you guys can see the defender reached in but look what MJ did so the ball is out in front defender reaches in right there and you can see the ball is already back so he always brought the ball back as he was getting ready to load and explode that allowed him to keep the ball protected and avoid getting those kind of little steals that you see a lot of players get when they expose the basketball. So again great job of just you know stutter stepping throwing his shoulders right here you can see the amount of change of direction that he had but he was just really really good almost dropped defender just by stuttering throwing his shoulders and making the defender bite on his fakes. The next one we had was an inside out so the inside out was one of his go-to moves and he was so good because he really put defenders asleep and then just used a half kind of crossover to beat defenders. So right here you can see inside out you can see he really changes he goes from up to down look at his eyes his eyes are selling that he's going middle then he uses that inside out to get the defender to slide and then he just goes ahead and makes a play downhill. Again MJ was so good because he's always reading defenders you can see right here clear path to the basket big inside out it was always basically if you had the ball in your right hand it was going to be a left jab to sell that you were crossing the ball over and then MJ was so good right here you can see this at breaking down going from high to low so right here he's high he breaks down and gets low he drops his hips plants off that foot and now has a clear path to the basket. He was also really good at doing the stutter step or inside out into crossover so if the defender you know was able to make the right read then all he did was quickly cross the ball over and make kind of a counter move which was the inside out crossover or the stutter step crossover. As you guys can see a ton of separation right here just really throwing your shoulder so what does he do he starts in kind of a higher stance then he would break down using the inside out or a stutter step get his defender leaning in one direction and then quickly cross the ball over and beat them the opposite way. Great way you can see right here big time just fake and then it was either an overtop crossover or an under crossover depending on where the defender's hands are. You can see right there stutter steps really puts the defender to sleep and then crosses over same exact thing. We'll go over this a little bit later in the film edit but you can see he's always kind of floating and skipping so he can change you know speeds and directions so right now he's relaxing so the defender relaxes and then he goes into that quick kind of stutter step crossover right here you can see another variation of it but over and over again you can just see he's really good at short choppy steps so that he remains on balance while throwing his shoulders in either direction so that you can really get the defender to kind of bite. One other thing that he did a lot of was he would delay the crossover so right here you can see an inside out and then he floated and then crossed the ball over afterwards to change direction and beat the defender the opposite way. He also had a push out jumper. A push out jumper is very similar to like an inside out jumper where look at this right here you can see him throw those shoulders and once he throws his shoulders then all he does is get on balance if the defender drops and then knocks down the J. So again all you want to do is you just want to throw those shoulders if the defender's backing up on your stutter steps or on the inside out all you do is get on balance get your feet set and then knock it down. You can see right here he slows down he's always changing speed then he really breaks down by throwing his shoulders aggressively dropping his hips. Right here you can see a long lunge you can see the ball is way out because he's acting like he's going to take off. The defender is going to relax or drop once that happens he's squared up to the rim and then holds that follow through to knock down the J. You can also see how aggressive he was you can see what it did to the defense. Lots of defender right here really bite hops back now he's created enough separation to get on balance and knock it down. So again Michael Jordan was really really good just mastering kind of the simple moves and footwork that allowed him to just make reads. He wasn't a guy that had a ton of crazy moves what he was was a guy that was so fundamentally sound that he could use you know change of speeds change of directions change of pace to to really get defenders off balance. This is crazy he had a lift so look at this right here I'm going to rewind this back and then I'm going to show it to you in slow motion. He also had a lift where he was basically like skipping on that foot and then he would break down his defender so he just relaxed the defender by you know skipping up on that foot and then he would break it down. I call it a lift just because he really lifted and elevated look at right there same exact thing. Defenders do not know how to react but he did it all the time you just you know float and then boom then he would break down and get it to attack mode and it allowed him to really take advantage of defenders that didn't know what was coming. Here you can see that little lift and then goes into his move. He also used a lift into kind of like float crossover. The difference between a lift and a float in my opinion is a float terminology wise is just when you're floating laterally a lift is when you're going straight up or going forward. So right here you can see him floating laterally and then crossover he was so good at decelerating so like right here you can see big time float you can see he's big time floating and then as soon as he plants that right foot he makes that right to left crossover changes directions and gets downhill. Again you can see over and over again how good he was at decelerating so right here you can see you know a little bit fancier footwork he literally as he's floating he flips his stance to sell that he's driving you can see the defender really lunge and then he pulls back and then knocks it down. So float crossover something that he used a lot you can see right here back in his you know Chicago Bulls day same thing float open up the hips get to an angle where you're in a sprinter stance sell the downhill drive and then decelerate and go. You can see the counter move right here you know acted like he's going to shoot got his eyes on the rim got his hands set and really destroyed the defender with a nice hesitation. So he had so many moves in his bag just because he had such a fundamental package. He also had the overtop crossover a lot of times he used this anytime he was rejecting a ball screen but he was basically just putting the defender to sleep taking a half of a breath and then pushing the ball forward to his next spot. So you know you see a lot of players in the current NBA use this when they're rejecting ball screens the biggest thing is let the ball rise take that half of a breath and then as the defender is kind of sitting down to get ready to get into the ball and then get over the ball screen or in an isolation situation when the defender is kind of looking over their shoulders that's when you just change speeds and then get downhill and make a play. So good at just relaxing and quickly kind of turboing downhill. Obviously everybody knows Michael Jordan was an elite athlete but he uses athleticism so well just by stopping and starting and keeping the defender off balance with subtle fakes and reads. Right here you see the double team come and use that overtop crossover to get to space. Right here gets downhill and he was also so good at once he did make the move of veering back in front of his defender so he could cut off the angle so he could improve his finishing angle. Here's another change of direction move between the legs. So again watch how he just changes speeds and changes direction at the same time. So right here he's kind of skipping up and then boom between the legs and now he's attacking the opposite way. Float and then between the legs attacking the opposite way. Very similar to kind of the cross step that we talked about in episode one but right here you can see he just drops and when he drops his hips he goes between the legs and attacks the opposite way. Boom. So you guys can see right here he goes from high to low. He's floating he's high and when he goes between the legs you can see how he sprints down into a sprinter stance. He drops down into a sprinter stance and then takes off downhill and then gets a dunk. Now we got the between the legs dance. You guys all know the most famous one you know the Larry Bird one but he did this all the time. He would just you know rock back and forth between the legs between the legs and then make a read whether it was attack or cross the ball over. This is the one that you guys probably know dance dance and go between the legs but he did it all the time. Again all Michael was really trying to do was get his defender to relax or to kind of overslide or guess and then after that he was able to make reads. So again I know that you guys know the most famous one but there's a bunch of other kind of examples for you guys. Quarter spin. Some people call this the smitty but it's basically like you act like you're going to spin off your defender and then plant off of that inside foot so that forward foot that's closest to your defender stays down and you wheel do a forward pivot you know bringing your back foot all the way around past your defender. A big key is getting your hips squared and getting on balance once you spin. A lot of times when you do this move if you really go from kind of deceleration to acceleration you have to kind of get on balance so you see right there he's a little bit off balance. You have to regain your balance that you can go up and finish. You can see right here again change of speed boom he goes from high to low by taking a breath. A lot of Michael Jordan's biggest secrets were just he was able to change speeds by kind of putting defenders asleep or making them play the guessing game. You know is he going to relax or is he going to take off? Is he going to change speeds or is he going to go? Is he going to float or is he going to stay low? You just never knew kind of what he was going to do which is why he was so versatile. You also had the wheel. The wheel is a great way to kind of spin off your defender. So instead of just spinning naturally what you're going to do is you're going to try to almost spin off that back foot instead of the front foot but it was a great way to kind of cross step. You see right here he cross steps. He sees three guys coming at him. He spins off that back pivot foot, creates space, gets on balance, and knocks down the J. The last move we're going to talk about is the settle spin. So the settle spin was just a way for him to act like he was backing down. You know MJ was so versatile in the mid post and low post by posting up and shooting fadeaways. So a lot of times what he did was act like he was going to sink down into kind of a post up and then he would just spin out. So it's basically you're popping your feet and then doing a spin off right there. So you can see right here pop your feet boom and then spin out and then you can get downhill and attack. Again right here you know the defender's thinking maybe he's waiting for a ball screen maybe he's going to sink down into a low post move then he spins off gets downhill and then finishes at the rim. As you guys can see MJ had a ton in his bag but the real reason that he was so good offensively is he mastered the fundamentals. He had the ability to always stay on balance. He always made the right reads. He had the ability to change speeds, change directions, raise his hips, drop his hips, float laterally. He had so much in his bag just because he mastered those simple skills. If you guys want to add to your game the best advice I can give you is learn from MJ. Start with the fundamentals, master your change of speeds, master your change of direction, master your ability to read your defender and you too can start beating defenders like MJ.