Fastbreak Pass

Quite often, the simple things are the key to success. Nowadays, our basketball is full of scouting, full of study, full of X’s and O’s, and even when I’m a believer in those things, time makes you see the small things count most.

At the end, the execution of the fundamentals is the greatest diference between a good and a great player (not to say between a bad and a good one…)
The pass is a long forgotten fundamental, as everybody seems to think about shooting and dribbling first. But is the key to play team basketball, and team basketball makes everything easier on the court.

Here we have Caja Laboral Baskonia’s playmaker, Marcelinho Huertas, giving passing lessons. These are two great fastbreak passes during their last game in the Euroleague’s Top 16 last night.

Take a look, in the first one, he just get the ball and almost without even looking (he knows where his teammate is) he gives the pass. Look at his feet, pointing toward the receiver, look at his arms extended at the end of the pass, look at his balance… It’s a great pass. In the second one, he receives the first pass, then dribbles once (perfect, throwing the ball forward) and again the fabulous gesture to make the ball fly towards his teammate.

Do we spend enough time passing during our practices? I’m kind of old school when I talk about fundamentals, but in my opinion we should think about it.