99% Of The Time, The Answer Is: Shoot It!

Why shooting should be at the epicenter of every player's offseason development.

For seven years, I worked with NBA clients who hired me to help them shoot the basketball better; it’s a pretty simple job description.

Almost every player who reaches the NBA has been the best player on every team they’ve played for. However, the NBA is a filtration system, and you never know how much the jump in speed and athleticism from college to the NBA will impact a player.

Shooting is the lynchpin skill within the filtration system; it can either unlock a player’s game, allowing them to stay and thrive in the league, or filter them out.

At the beginning of the off-season, I would tell every client the same thing¹:

Our top priority is to establish foundational mechanics that will enable them to elevate their shooting ability to the highest possible level. If we do that, there will be two distinct benefits:

1. Simplify:

   The confidence and skill to take and make more shots will allow for more opportunities, better reads, and fewer turnovers.

2. Unlock:

   The better they shoot it, the more space it will open up for them and others; it’s pretty simple math: shoot it better, and the closeouts have to get more aggressive.

   The more a player can simplify their reads through elevated shooting, the more it unlocks their thought process to see space as 360 degrees instead of only downhill. This perspective shift from downhill to 360 maximizes the available space on the court for them.

Their Game, Not Yours:

One of the most important lessons I learned during my time working with NBA players is that you² can only have a minimal impact on how a player perceives their game. You might be able to move the needle by 10-15%, but no more.

They’ve reached the top of the food chain playing their game. Trying to get them to play a different type of game initially is a fool’s mission.

I’ve found that improving a player’s shooting is the quickest way to influence their game. Most players have significant opportunities for growth in this area, so better shooting can significantly boost their overall performance. After achieving this small win together, it opens up the opportunity for honest conversations about how they view their game within not only their team but the larger NBA ecosystem.

Cash Rules Everything:

He who has the gold makes the rules.

Only one type of event has the potential to shift a player’s game outside this 10-15% window: A change at the top.

• New Head Coach.

• New GM/President.

• Changing teams, which results in both a new Head Coach and GM/President.

This change in leadership determines the person who pays or plays them, aka whose primary opinion matters. Only a few players' games are immune to a change at the top affecting the way they play; they are the top-of-the-food-chain³ guys, like LeBron, Luka, and Giannis, among others.

I have had three former NBA clients undergo leadership changes. Below is a look at their synergy breakdown of “Play Types⁴” from a three-season sample size surrounding these regime changes:

Numbers Represent % of Player’s Action:

---

Player A:

Years 1 & 2: Same GM and coach.

Year 3: New team, aka new GM and coach.

Player B:

Year 1: Same coach as the previous year.

Year 2: New Coach

Year 3: New team, aka new GM and coach.

Player C:

Year 1: Traded in the offseason between Year 1 & 2.

Years 2 & 3: New team, aka new GM and coach.

The only event that moved these players outside the NBA’s version of the Overton Window was a change at the top. Each of the three players played different positions on the court and held various statuses within their teams and the league’s hierarchy: role player, starter, and All-NBA.

This is why shooting must be the epicenter of every off-season. Whether you’re the center of the wheel or just a spoke, your primary actions can always change. However, one thing that won’t change is that the better a player shoots the ball, the more effective they will be at everything else on the court.

Shooting is never out of style, like florals in spring or black in the winter; it’s a classic, not a trend.

Shooting is Development & Development is Shooting:

Last summer, I worked with a 15-year vet. He has played in the EuroLeague, China, and nearly every country you can think of, accomplishing incredible success.

During our first conversation, this player expressed what he wanted to work on during the offseason. It was a laundry list of actions, moves, and different types of specific shots. This is a common theme among players, regardless of their level of experience. From youth to the NBA, they all want to work on everything.

The problem with working on everything is that you can only put a limited amount of time into each thing, making it ineffective in terms of compounding. Sure, you are getting “better,” but you are not getting any type of compounding effect.

It’s like the laser on the Death Star:

Darth Vader didn’t have 100 small lasers firing at 100 individual targets; he used 100 small lasers collectively firing at one target, creating a compounding effect that could destroy planets.

It’s not that players get worse by working on many different aspects of their game over the summer; however, they fall behind the skill inflation curve of their peers.

James Clear’s illustration of The Power of Tiny Gains provides a helpful visual aid if the Death Star destroying a planet wasn’t clear enough…

Unless you’re dealing with the best shooter in the world, shooting should be the top priority every offseason. This focus and attention to detail will allow the player to reap the benefits of a compounding effect across all aspects of their game.

Shooting is the tide that raises all ships.

Downhill vs. 360 Degrees:

Players who do not consistently trust their shot often view space as only downhill, regardless of the defense's coverage. This compresses the court for themselves and their teammates and, worst of all, can prevent them from playing in rhythm and on balance.

Compression of space is important, but the deadliest sin in basketball is the lack of movement in rhythm and balance. To produce the magic needed to shoot a basketball from 25 feet away through an 18-inch ring suspended 10 feet in the air, the body and the basketball must work as a team, operating in rhythm and on balance the entire time.

This isn’t football, where you have to get your body from Point A → B before someone tackles you; basketball is a game of skill in which you must link power from your body to the basketball kinetically. (Read more about my definition of skill here)

A Malik Beasley edit from the 17/18 season showing Space is only Downhill: Catch → Go.

A Paolo Banchero edit of turning down shot reads → TOs from the 23/24 season. Banchero finished in the Top 10 during the regular season with 3.1 TO per game and led the playoffs with 4.6 per game.

This is what it looks like when a player only sees space as downhill: rushed, off-balance, and with no real power when they reach Point B. Both edits are prime examples of how NOT shooting the ball gets players into trouble via forced plays downhill when space is unavailable.

Every play from both edits could have been a shot or at least a catch → get your last shot prep foot (right) down. Great shot prep footwork is the first step in giving yourself the option to shoot the ball.

Flipping these plays from a football mindset of getting their first to a basketball mindset of hunting advantages while being in rhythm and on balance can be accomplished with a straightforward solution: shoot it. (Better!)

A Malik Beasley edit containing Catch → GET YOUR LAST SHOT PREP FOOT DOWN actions from the 18/19 season.

In the summer of 2018⁵, Beasley focused primarily on shooting.

• 3P%: 34.1 → 40.2

• 3PM: 0.5 → 2.0

Malik started to see shooting as the first solution (Simplify), which led to a domino effect (Unlock):

Better shooting → More shots made → More out-of-control closeouts.

If shooting is the first solution, then great shot preparation footwork is a non-negotiable on every catch. This made a few things possible:

• Rhythm + Balance on shot.

• Story Telling Pump Fakes.

• Commanded high hip closeouts, which will lead to easy Catch → Go reads.

Space is always 360 on the court and there is no league in the world where this concept is more important than the NBA.

Most NBA players grow up as athletic outliers who can blow up any angle, so space is always downhill for them.

When you’re an athletic outlier a missed shot read during a closeout, PnR, or DHO will likely still result in finishes or fouls due to athletic superiority. But not in the NBA; players look at their athletic equals every night.

More about the importance/benefits of great shot prep footwork here 👇👇👇👇

When considering a player’s off-season development plan, there is only one place to start: the epicenter of the game, shooting the basketball.

Improving a player’s shooting is the quickest path to more playing time, and it creates a domino effect that leads to advantageous opportunities on the court.

Shooting will augment any coach’s system regardless of the level; it’s the look that never goes out of style.

Marzie’s Enjoying Her Summer!!

1. I also tell them each one more thing: Ask me as many “why” questions as possible (I needed them to learn. Give a man a fish vs. teach a man to fish). And… If at any time I don’t answer one of your “Why“questions with a simple answer that makes sense, then fire me on the spot.

2. As an outsider.

3. Somehow, DeMar DeRozan is part of a group of players who do not have to change their game, regardless of the circumstances, despite not being a player who can be the best on a championship-level team.

4. I filtered out Transition. Only half-court actions are used here.

5. I have never worked with Paolo. I don’t know if he has changed his shot or evolved his game, which would warrant an “after” edit here. He’s only played a few games this year, so it's too early to tell.