THE LIST: Fancy Footwork

1. Michael Porter Jr. has a tendency to get knocked off of his spot in the post or on the wing. Some of this has to do with his slender build, a weakness that will likely improve rapidly as he starts to add muscle and strength. But he also has a lot of room for improvement with his footwork. In the clip below, he concedes about 10 feet of space to his defender upon the catch before failing to regain that space with a back down dribble.

Space on the block is at a premium and if you can seal your defender that deep, you give yourself a huge advantage. Forfeiting that space lowers your chance at an efficient field goal attempt by quite a bit.

2. Prior to the ankle injury on January 31st, Porter was beginning to show some signs of improvement on the defensive end. Over the last two games, Porter has been back to making basic mistakes on fairly simple closeouts.

3. There is a lot going on in this clip. First, there’s the classic Nikola Jokic one-handed touchdown pass to Gary Harris. Then there is a nice relocation by Harris after he gives the ball up. But the real star of the clip is Monte Morris who gives Harris a high five without ever checking to see if the shot went in. That’s confidence in your teammate!

4. Morris has been playing some incredible basketball since the calendar flipped over to 2020. He saw a huge boost in minutes following Jamal Murray’s ankle injury and has taken advantage of the extra opportunity by running the show like a veteran, all-star point guard. Plays like the moon pass below are a prime example of the type of passes only Monte is making right now.

5. I think that the biggest benefit of Jokic dropping a reported 25 lbs. since the start of the season has been his ability to move and attack ball handlers in pick and roll (PnR). Jokic has been playing some of the best defense of his career over the last couple of months and plays like the one below illustrate just how mobile and crafty he can be on that end of the floor.

He’s averaging almost 2 steals per game over his last 16 games and 3.8 deflections, tied with Kawhi Leonard for 4th most in the NBA.

6. Jamal Murray busted out my all-time favorite post move last night. The jump stop, shot fake, reverse pivot is a thing of beauty when executed properly and Murray provided a near textbook example as he shook his ex-teammate Malik Beasley for an easy layup.

7. It was great to see Gary Harris knock down a pair of three-pointers last night and even better that one of them was of the dribble handoff variety.

8. Blink and you might’ve missed this beautiful touch pass from Will Barton last night. Bonus points for shaking free before the touch pass by using a perfectly executed “short cut.”

The Full List