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Tuesday 2 June 2020 09:38, UK
In his Lockdown Lowdown, skills coach Gary Maitland reveals the secrets behind the NBA's most iconic shots and moves. Here he analyses the slick handles of Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving.
Irving's mesmeric dribbling is part of an elite offensive game that makes him one of the NBA's biggest scoring threats and smoothest shot creators.
Coach Maitland explains how the Nets star's ball-handling and footwork set up a two-point floater against the Detroit Pistons and, when defenders sag off to protect the paint in a Brooklyn game against Minnesota, how Irving can step back to score from three-point range.
If you want to handle the ball like Kyrie Irving then we need to take a closer look at what makes him so special at blowing by defenders and then scoring under pressure.
In the clip from the Nets' game at Detroit, you will see the defensive pressure from the Pistons is quite tight. The defender starts to reach in, and when he does, Irving is able to make a split-second decision, wrap the ball behind his back and use his team-mate's screen to attack downhill.
During this play, you can see there is a little bit of space in which Irving can manoeuvre. The bigger player is in what is called a 'drop coverage'. That allows Irving to stop on a dime and hit a two-footed floater over the Detroit defender, enabling him to score two points on the attack.
Let's take a more detailed look at how Irving wraps the ball behind his back. It's not just simply dribbling the ball behind your back. What he does is skip with his feet, something that allows him to get outside of the defender's hips. His footwork, combined with his behind-the-back dribble, means he gets outside the defender's hips and is able to his team-mate's screen safely.
Once Kyrie is able to attack downhill from using the screen, he sees the taller Pistons' defender is deep inside the key and he has space to shoot over the top of him.
As he moves into his shooting motion, the ball and his opposite foot hit the floor at the same time. He dribbles the ball with his right hand, pounds the ball alongside his left foot and then hops into a jump-stop. Then he shoots the two-footed floater over the defender.
Here's why guarding Irving is a tough time for defenders. When they are guarding him, they do not want to give him too much space.
As the clip from Brooklyn's home game against the Timberwolves illustrates, when they do so, he can also step behind the three-point arc, shoot from long range and knock down the triple.
Click the video at the top of the page to watch Coach Maitland demonstrate Morant's mesmeric ball-handling and ability to score under pressure.
