Estimated read time: 3 minutes

I was watching film with a player a few years ago.

He was frustrated. He wasn't getting enough shots. And from his perspective, the problem was everyone else - the ball wasn't finding him, his teammates weren't seeing him, the offense wasn't designed for him to score…

So we sat down and we watched.

And for the first few possessions, I didn't say anything. I just watched him watch himself. He was looking at his shot attempts - the ones he made, the ones he missed. He was grading his shot.

But I was watching something different.

I was watching every moment before he caught the ball. The screen at the top of the key he went under instead of over. The cut he didn't make because he was standing in the corner watching the ball handler. The time a defender turned their head and he didn't move.

He had been working on his shot for years, but nobody had ever worked on his ability to GET A SHOT.

That's where most player development stops. Players are trained to make shots. Build their mechanics. Do shooting programs, track percentages and measure release points. And then we put them in a game and wonder why they're frustrated.

But the shot isn't the problem. The opportunity is the problem.

Mike put it cleanly this week on The Hours: “Get as open as you can, as often as you can.”

That sounds simple, but isn't.

Most players, when they don't have the ball, are waiting. They're standing. They're watching. They're thinking about what they'll do when they get the ball instead of how to make it easier to get it in the first place.

Here's what I've started asking when I watch a player: not how many shots did they take, but “How many shots did they create?”

How many times did they move specifically to become catchable in a scoring position? How many times did they read a defender's eyes, feel the help rotating, and cut to the right place?

Most players can't answer that question. Most coaches never ask it.

This is the shift: scoring is not a shooting skill. It is a movement skill first.

Get yourself into the right position, at the right time, with enough of an advantage — and the shot takes care of itself. Try to make something happen with the ball without creating the opportunity first, and you're asking a shooter to be a shot creator without ever teaching them how.

Pick one player this week. Watch ten possessions where they don't have the ball. Count every time they make a move specifically designed to get themselves into a scoring position. Then count the ones they left on the table. That number will tell you more about their offensive ceiling than any shooting drill you've ever run.

Stay SAVI,

Tyler

P.S. If you have a player who wants to score more, the work starts with movement. Basketball Training by SAVI is where your players can build this from the ground up.