i love when perimeter players have polished post games. they're often smaller, quicker, and more fluid. it's art.
demar derozan is one of my favorite players to watch in this regard. his game is rather unorthodox for the 2020s - the style is straight out of the mid-2000s. it's obvious how much influence kobe bryant had on him growing up.
demar's footwork extends far past his ability in the post; he's got euros, spin moves, drop steps, reverse pivots, pump fakes, step throughs - his offensive game is wonderfully complete. in my opinion, he has the best footwork in basketball.
for sake of brevity, i'll be focusing purely on his back-to-basket post up game and some of the different moves and counter moves he has.
he's got the basic back you down, turn over a shoulder jumper:
but get up into him too much and he'll spin off of your body on the bump into a drive:
he'll spin in the lane to create space to finish:
but if you commit to the spin too much he can fake spin and go back the other way:
don't commit enough to jump and contest and he can simply quickly rise out of the half spin off of one leg:
commit too much and jump too early and he can pump fake and step through:
try to cut off the spin and he can hit you with a mean hesitation dribble on a fake spin:
sometimes he'll come down and you'll think he's about to post up and get low in position, only for him to fake the post up entirely to spin and get to the rim:
here's one of my favorite clips ever - demar absolutely schooling a high school marvin bagley in the drew league:
fuckin' tuff.
younger generations should be studying demar derozan, phd (doctorate of footwork).
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