We say that the game slows down for a lot of players, but there’s an elite few for whom it’s technically true. In the clip above, Irving once again takes advantage of his incredible balance and athleticism at full speed. But we still see his elite ability to finish through contact when he soars into big men for strong layups.Īnother skill of Irving’s that makes the hesitation hang dribble so fearsome is his footwork, especially when he goes to the eurostep driving to the basket: As the degree of difficulty on his shot attempts went down playing next to LeBron James, so too did that number. You see the complete chaos that Irving’s handle can throw a possession into.Įarly in his career, Irving consistently drew fouls on around 10 percent of his shots, according to Cleaning the Glass - numbers that put him in the upper echelon of guards in the league. Matt Bonner just gives up and tries to foul here, after watching Irving dance circles around Marco Belinelli. At that point, the defender is beat and needs help at the rim. As he drives, he begins to lean into the defender, keeping them off-balance. That hesitation - or hang - leads right into a powerful crossover, as Irving bends closer to the ground and gets a head of steam toward the rim. As a right-handed player, Irving will keep the ball in his strong hand for a half-second longer than normal, sizing up the defender’s tilt as he surveys the rest of the floor. What makes this combination so jolting is the stutter-step that initiates it. You will see Irving follow up the hang dribble with a crossover quite a bit, and it’s the quickest way for him to blow by an individual defender in isolation: Because Irving can follow up with a pull-up jumper, a drive to the rim, a pass or another dribble move, that split second of off-balance uncertainty is all he needs. Typically, it’s the move he starts his drives with, as it puts the defender off-balance before Irving goes into his next move. The move from which all else flows for Irving is the hang dribble. It looks easy most of the time, because when the dribbler finally gets to his finishing move, the defender is tied up and unable to do much of anything to get in the ball-handler’s way. They combine hesitations, crossovers and tricks to get their defender off balance and scoot past them. It’s why the players with the best handle have so many counters to their go-to move. The key with dribble moves is tricking the defender by using their uncertainty against them. No one can combine shot-making and dribbling as efficiently or consistently as Irving. Defenders are forced into a Catch-22 type of situation every team he handles the ball because of the array of moves and shots he has in his repertoire. This article has been viewed 495,812 times.Kyrie Irving is one of the most electrifying scorers to watch in the NBA. In this case, 87% of readers who voted found the article helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. WikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. Ryan was a two-time All-Metropolitan, All-State, and All-Conference point guard and the all-time three-point leader in the school’s history, landing him in the Caldwell University Athletic Hall of Fame. He went on to Caldwell University on a basketball scholarship where he was part of three championship teams. Ryan was a First Team All-Decade basketball player in Bergen County and finished in the top 20 all-time leading scorers in the county’s history with 1,730 points. Ryan created the National Sports ID as a platform to verify the age/grade of youth athletes and STACK Basketball to inspire young athletes to grow into mature individuals and basketball players. With over 30 years of experience, Ryan specializes in basketball coaching, social media marketing, and website design. Ryan Tremblay is a Basketball Coach and the Owner of National Sports ID and STACK Basketball. This article was co-authored by Ryan Tremblay.
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