Peyton Pritchard is a super fun player to watch and emulate and has been for years but this season it's really coming to light he's got a really intriguing mix between deploying Elite craftiness and then an ability to keep the game simple both of which help him make up for a lack of height as well as athleticism although I definitely consider him athletic in different ways while it's clearly taking him years and years of work to get here all these techniques will discuss ways that you can study learn from and apply to help you score on bigger players and compete on the biggest stages let get it so first off let's check out his attacking and finishing ability and shooting 65% at The Rim his stature is crazy and to me a lot of what this comes down to is his ability to get to 2 feet and working creatively from there sometimes this will be more in stride like this mainly in the form of extension finishes where he rotates to get his numbers to the sideline and create max distance from his Defender and although it's definitely not easy to orate everything for a smooth twoot finish he has great timing even off the catch or off a tough move to fluidly gather and get into a smooth onew jump don't forget Dallas has been very very good pton Pritchard so maybe they want to challenge most times though you actually see him come to a Full Stop which is quite rare in the NBA where one foot finishing definitely takes precedent so this throws Defenders off big time especially considering how he uses this so unpredictably sometimes it wait for a second pivot out of it fake and use it patiently which works well of course but other times as soon as he stops he's straight up into the layup which is really tough to time up kind of a calendar of events then when he does go off one foot it's mainly when he has a pretty good advantage on his Defender either he's already in front and he trusts that he has enough space so he just keeps his speed going or he has a speed advantage and knows it getting to two feet which slow him down too much so like here for example since he's in full stride and the defender is still turning and recovering he gets the feel that he'll be able to get up quickly and release it off one before they're able to get to it but even still he uses these with just as much unpredictability whether it's using the off foot to jump his eyes to look off or down at the floor until he quickly pops into it so he doesn't Telegraph it or different ball paths and release points like this he makes these super tough to block you also notice that he doesn't shoot floaters much at all and actually only made three all of last season which at first is a bit weird considering he's not the type to just go up and use athleticism on shot blockers every time until you realize he's mastered an alternative to floaters short jumpers and one of the big reasons why this is so effective is because if you think about it players very rarely stop around this area they're 95% of the time going to get all the way to the rim so if you do pull back around this area it's super tough to anticipate on the drive pulls up other times you'll see him kind of stop his momentum a bit so this Defender ends up flat footed which then lets him pop up right into the air and get enough of a step on that defensive play and if you combine this with a bump to get that defender's momentum backwards there's literally no way to recover from that it's almost like a step back well I mean it is but one where you have a ton of momentum to bump with and the defender is out of control because they think you're getting to the rim and once you step back you're basically shooting a form shot not a bad option and again this is also a great option if you do have a full advantage on that first Defender so usually you'd be able to just make a layup here but this big steps up in that next layer and you want to avoid going up athletically with them but this takes insane deceleration ability and you'll see Pritchard literally be at 100% speed and fully stop on the dime and then transfer his momentum upwards that's Elite and as I've mentioned in past videos one of the best pluses to these is that there's a lot of room for error meaning you can shoot these from tougher foot positions fading with different arcs Etc you have a much higher chance to make these in a deep three with the same shot and probably a floater two because at the end of the day this is still a jumper which most hoopers have worked on thousands of times if not Millions also notice how off the dribble he's great at taking more dribbles when needed and less dribbles other times he constantly goes between these floats and then quick sequence dribbles like these to throw off a defender's Rhythm and quickly respond to how they played them and this takes serious ball control so here he uses one dribble to cover a ton of ground so he's using less dribbles to put pressure on his Defender and then as he gets closer use these quick two drib rbes in a super short amount of space to time up his finish and give him more options he also uses his speed to create momentum advantages on Defenders very well or in other words finds times in the game where he can really put pressure on an initial Defender by getting ahead of Sting as soon as he identifies one of these opportunities and a relatively empty second and third layer his first few steps off a slower paced dribble are insanely fast and it's tough to stop and with this sometimes he'll stay with you by cutting you off and getting a chest stop and this is usually the most dangerous part doing this but Pritchard is great at being able to lift up with his torso a bit position the ball away and decelerate to protect the ball one thing I want to point out is that guys like Pritchard who effectively dance with their dribble always have their Defenders a bit behind with much of this coming from a speed Advantage so what that looks like is this where he uses a simple powerful rip through to get an advantage so now on the snatch the defender's a bit out of position which makes him overcompensate on this next between so again he overcompensates on this lateral Glide which opens up this Spin and makes it easy to bump him since he's still recovering these are just pointless moves and if he didn't first create this simple Advantage with his speed this would be tough to do he also relentlessly creates contact with Defenders and with tight angles he's really one of the best I've ever seen it getting fully in front of his Defenders knocked he's gotten to the point where it looks like an effortless bump on his part but the defender could go flying from it and that most times comes down to timing so hitting them in stride as well as leverage hitting them from a lower position so they kind of pop up into the air and he's able to stay more compact notice too that he has enough control to maintain balance even when really leaning into the defender being able to actually finish from these requires you to be super quick off the ground after the bump to get up well before the defender can recover from this so as soon as he bumps and this defender's on their heels he's already up into it and speaking of contact he operates incredibly well in tight spaces this is partially his maneuverability or Comfort making these super sharp turns and Spins and also these compact dribbles where he'll protect the ball and quickly change Direction with these kind of low tap dribbles he also plays at a very low level in general which in turn helps him create contact easier as I mentioned but also sneak around hips and speed up his handle a bit Richard is known for having one of the faster handles we've ever seen when you combine this with the lower level that he plays at part of this is also since there's less space for the dribble to cover from one hand to the other that dribble does get there quickly and this Speedy aggressive dribble can get Defenders feeling like they're behind because they both perceive the first step is faster and of course they can limit the delay between dribble and first step and this gets Defenders biting like trying and lastly I guess kind of under this topic is that he averaged almost an offensive rebound per game last year which doesn't sound like much but when you think about it that's a bench point guard coming off and giving you an extra possession and often extra two points as well as some energy every single game and that adds up three for Miami back comes Hower for an answer doesn't get the bounce that's Pritchard in fighting for the rebound and the shortest man let's quickly talk about his perimeter game as well most of us see a point guard and assume they're going super ball screen heavy Pritchard is the perfect example of a guy who can do that and does do it but also realizes that if he's going to get meaningful minutes with Superstar level guys he's going to have to play off the catch even more than ball screens or isos if you're a point guard who wants to play at a high level with better players learn to play off the catch learn to move off ball and knock down catch and shoot shots which sounds simple but it's actually way more rare than You' think so this year he's getting more minutes with that first unit and as a result he isn't going with as many ball screens but that's part of what happens each time you go up in a level get more minutes you have to play more specific constrained role he's doing that super well and what most people don't realize is that playing off the catch often makes it easier to kill Defenders with your handle cuz you'll create scrambling closing out Defenders and mismatches with bigs being forced to rotate out on [Applause] [Music] you working against L prer got it to ball now one thing you'll see him do a lot off the ball is start by getting by his Defender but then kicking to the perimeter and relocating for a three ball so often when you pass the ball Defenders completely forget about you and popping right back out to open space can get you wide open three balls so in a weird way getting downhill can help you get better catch and shoot looks from three but you got to be diligent enough to get there he also shoots almost the same percentage on contested and uncontested shots which is crazy but necessary for a guy like brard who's a bit shorter and consistently has super hard Closeouts coming his way and a reason why continuing to shoot defended threes and practice is vital obviously he can shoot it from super deep as well which helps him bring more gravity towards him further out from the rim and he's able to shoot when cold too you'll consistently see him shooting his first shot Off the Bench super assertively making it which is somebody trying to work your way up from the bench ranks is necessary and again a lot of this comes down to his training and everyone knows he's an incredibly hard worker he's talked a little bit about what he's done the last few Summers like 300 400 maybe 500 possessions of like for me live so you were talking about a bag I actually like basketball I feel like I can have a live Defender having people just to like spar with and it's just it's different when you have a live Defender as much as I can practice a move my body movement might be different when I'm feeling the momentum of him and the contact and like the angles change slightly you know what I mean so I always do that now although this isn't all of training this game's approach is something that's incredibly important for hoopers of every level and it's something I've seen insane results with over the course of my coaching career and it partially explains why he's been able to improve so much and develop such an uncanny feel for the game by the way the Celtics in general are huge on the game's approach and if you look at the results both as a team and players improving individually you can see its effect it's proven so get to it anyways as always thank you guys so much for tuning in let me know in the comments who you want to see next or what concept you want to see next and I'll make sure to get to it