Siddarth Sharma - sidbreakball

Basketball Moves Breakdown: Chris Paul (6ft) beats Bynum (7ft)

Published on
September 9, 2015
by
sidbreakball

Originally published on 23 Aug 2012 on Sportskeeda

On our courts here in India, when a tiny player is being guarded by a bigger player, the shorter player may be hesitant to pull a move. Lack of size is seen as a disadvantage. Actually, having a lower center of gravity gives you a lot of leeway to make your bigger defender lose his balance. When I play NBA video games, it’s way more fun to take a smaller player, and make things happen off the dribble. Chris Paul is one of the best in the league at that. Check it out.

Watch the front foot. Especially when going up against a bigger opponent. The foot closest to you, is the one which tells you which is the easier direction for you to blow by them.

If your man has his right foot forward, then it’s easier for you to drive by his left. Because he will have to turn his shoulder to turn to his right, giving you a split second advantage.

Take a look at how Chris Paul, a tiny man, makes Andrew Bynum spin round and round.

As soon as Chris Paul sees that he has Andrew Bynum on him, his eyes light up. He waves for his teammates to clear out.

One thing you need to visualize is your defender’s momentum. Every time you make a fake in one direction, your opponent starts to predict that you want to go in the opposite direction more. This move is done in five steps, four of those steps involve Paul faking right.

Above, Chris has faked right, and pulled the ball back.
Right-1Advertisement

Again, he fakes right and pulls the ball back between his legs.
Right-2

Watch the foot position of Bynum and Paul below. Bynum’s right foot is forward, giving Paul room to lower his shoulder and plant his foot ahead of Bynum’s right and drive in.

Now that he has sold Bynumon his intentions to go right, which from Bynum’s POV reinforces the idea that Chris is actually faking right so he can go left, now Paul lowers his shoulder, drives in, one dribble and pulls back as if to make a jumper.

Above, Paul is seen taking a step back, pushing off his right leg, pushing back to create space.

Bynum has fully bit on the fake and closes in with his left foot. Watch as soon as Bynum is pushing off his right, Paul changes direction and goes to his right.
Right- 3

Having got a step on Bynum, Paul lowers his shoulder as if to drive in. Watch below, as Bynum moves inside the paint to cut Paul off.

Instead, Paul pulls back and drops in a fadeaway with the ample space he created after putting Bynum in a spin cycle.

To recap:
- if your man has his right foot forward, fake right twice,
- drive hard to the left, pull back as if to make a jumper
- instead, drive in right hard and pull back and make a jumper.Advertisement

Isn’t being short and pulling off such intricate moves to slay Goliath way more fun than backing your man down in the post?

Siddarth Sharma - sidbreakball

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