First-Step Gravity: Elite Athletes & Shooting Development
On Amen Thompson, Jaden Ivey, and tailoring off-ball development to their elite traits
In late October, I had a conversation with a trusted scout regarding Amen Thompson, one of the top names in the 2023 NBA Draft. Thompson has a ton of elite skills: he’s 6’8”, jumps out of the gym, has a blazing first step, decent handle, great vision as a passer and exceptional finishing craft. Amen’s biggest flaw — which is widely known — is the lack of proven jump shots he makes, both of the pull-up and catch-and-shoot variety.
When discussing Thompson with this scout, they mentioned their desire to see Amen play off-ball more, especially spotting up in the corners. “I just like wings being able to space from the corners in the NBA,” said the scout. “ It’s one of the most important aspects of spacing, in my view, at the next level.”
That clearly isn’t wrong on its face. So many teams place their wings and off-ball threats in the corners, teaching them to master the impact of being a knockdown catch-and-shoot guy. But to stand in the corner is to diminish one’s offensive role, as there aren’t many other options to positively impact the game when standing in the corner. If you’re a positive contributor in several other ways on offense, the corners aren’t an area you’ll frequent often.
This isn’t meant to be a hit piece against the opinion of that other scout. The beauty of this industry is that evaluations are based on personal preferences and the things each evaluator notices, and no one person is right this early in the game. One thing I tend to believe in is the idea that each prospect deserves an individually-tailored development plan based on their skills, anticipated role, and natural tools. Based on everything I’ve seen from Thompson, I believe he’s one of those scarce prospects who deserves a really unique development plan — especially in regard to his off-ball role and positioning.
The corner 3 is pretty dang different than most other 3-pointers — and not just because of the distance. The players who take the most corner triples are the ones who are jettisoned there on offense because, frankly, they don’t have many other places to provide value. They’re typically not bigs that are involved in the screen-and-roll, gravitating toward the top of the key in pick-and-pop actions. Most importantly, they aren’t key creators in their team’s offense.
Look at this list of the 25 players from last season (2021-22) who took the highest percentage of their 3-point looks from the corner. None of them are guys we would consider as a top option on their team and are not asked to be offensive creators in almost any circumstance:
Conversely, look at the players who took the fewest corner 3-pointers as a percentage of their total deep attempts. Almost all of them are either pick-and-pop bigs or top options on offense who are creators in the middle third of the floor.
(Side note: players 1-11 were taken out of the frame below because they did not qualify on an attempt basis and were all big men who did not make a 3-pointer on the season).
It feels pretty fair to say that the corner 3-pointer is only important for players who are not initiators on the offensive end. As we go deeper into this article, I promise we’ll start to understand why.
The importance of 3-point shooting doesn’t diminish, just the location of where that shot has to come from. We talk a lot about gravity in the draft space, as in the value of 3-point shooting to team spacing and playing off-ball in a way that’s a net positive for the team. But gravity is wildly different based on the role you play on offense.
Gravity is most often associated with shooters. The elite ones, like Steph Curry or Klay Thompson, are so good at moving without the ball and drilling shots off screens that they have a sort of gravitational pull whenever they are whizzing around. Defenders — particularly help defenders — have to cling to them more closely. In the urgency to prevent the shooter from getting open, two will go to him as he moves, leaving a slip wide open to the hoop:
Kevon Looney, among other Warriors bigs, get gift-wrapped layups because of the gravity of Curry. It’s a term we’ve all become accustomed to after watching Golden State’s magic over the past decade. It’s far from the only form of the word, though.
Pull-up range from elite shooters who can snipe across half-court raise the pickup point for opposing defenses. As a result, they are sucking an increasing amount of defenders away from the hoop, thus having a certain type of attraction akin to Curry’s off-ball movement. Damian Lillard and Trae Young, for example, are feared when they get in a rhythm for being able to cripple defenses from 30 feet away.
That attention, especially when a ball screen is set for them, can open up teammates in the lane. It creates a 4-on-3 in a huge area, not the traditional short roll spot beneath the free throw line where quick decisions and a lack of space can plague the short roll playmaker. Instead, with so much room to operate, the offense operates at a distinct advantage.
Watch Damian Lillard here, who gets trapped so high on the floor due to his renowned shooting range:
I call this “pull-up gravity”. Only a handful of players in the world truly have it, but when they do, it changes the dynamics of a defensive attack. The inverse would be something we know as “roll gravity”, which is the idea that the help defense fears a lob to a pick-and-roll threat, and therefore chips down early and tags rollers to force corner kicks in a proactive way. Some teams may, against the top threats to finish alley-oops or score after diving from a screen, completely alter their defensive scheme so that the roller does not get into open space.
The challenge with roll gravity is that it often gets mistaken for sound, principled defense. Defenses try to take away easy 2-pointers at the rim first and foremost. Yes, the corner 3-pointer is a high-value shot, but it’s certainly not more important to an offense than open-rim attempts. If a player gets tagged on his roll to the hoop, that isn’t always an indication that he’s got this extreme amount of roll gravity. Most players in that position would command the same attention.
You can most easily spot roll gravity by seeing if help defenders rotate to the lane early — about the same time as the ball handler comes off a screen — to tag preemptively. Here’s a great example of how the Miami Heat clog the lane whenever Giannis Antetokounmpo is involved in setting a screen:
As the NBA has featured a boom of education and high-level conversation taking place online, terms like these are thrown around more frequently and identified by the masses more easily. We hear about screen assists, hockey assists, 45-cuts and tons of terminology on the regular, and there are tons of folks to thank for that.
Yet one particular type of gravity seems to be missing from the equation, either due to the absence of a term to describe it or a failure to recognize its importance — even among scouts and trusted basketball minds. So allow me to explain what I try to think of as “first-step gravity”.
At its most basic core, first-step gravity is the idea that a player’s speed from a standstill is so threatening that help defenders have to always be alert when that player has the ball in their hands. Think of the fastest of the fast in our league: Ja Morant, prime John Wall, and even rookie Jaden Ivey. They are so blazingly fast at the point of attack that they blow past their primary defender on the regular. And it’s in the heads of all five defenders on the floor.
You can see what happens to a defense that doesn’t respect that first step enough. Guys like Ivey can get into the lane and, suddenly, are at the rim before help can arrive. And it’s pretty fucking explosive when it happens:
Okay, great. A massive highlight based on his speed and unreal first step. But what happens when help defenders rotate early to stand at the rim and prevent those jailbreaks from turning into points and highlight slams?
Well… skilled passers like Ivey can throw dimes to their open teammates on the move, because if the floor is spread correctly, one guy is going to be open. Ivey is already really good at making those plays:
What’s amazing to me is how Ivey is basically at a standstill before his drive, just turning on the jets and going from 0 to 60 before his man can react. It’s such a special trait that makes him a guy I’d fear if I were an opposing coach — even this early in his career.
Plays like these from Ivey display the importance of corner 3-point shooting for the Pistons. Ivey himself doesn’t need to be great from those spots, but he needs to be surrounded by guys who can drill those shots. Again, the location is more for complementary players, not the stars.
Such footage on Ivey was available at Purdue, where he was a really good passer on the move and knew how to leverage his speed to his team’s advantage. Yes, getting elite athletes like Ivey on the move is important to get their athleticism attacking downhill. But they can do it from a standstill, not needing a screen to get two feet in the lane and produce a paint touch. That is such a valuable trait because it forces every helper away from the ball to be that much more alert.
Well, Amen Thompson can boast some of those same traits. It starts with his first step, freakish in its explosion and functional in how he attacks defenses and gets a paint touch. See here in his game against Mega from this August, where he gets separation from his man and forces the primary defender to foul him:
While we believe Thompson has a really good passing feel, his playmaking ability for others is dependent on his first step and the threat he is to score at the rim. The best way to illustrate the attention he gets from help defenders is to understand how, even when a primary defender bumps him and forces him to drive wide, help defenders are still waiting at the rim, worried that Amen will find separation eventually.
In the Overtime Elite game against HoopNation from late-October, Thompson had a good drive downhill and got pushed wide. Instead of recovering to the corner shooter, one of the HoopNation helpers stayed at the block and forced the kick from Thompson:
While one could chalk it up to poor defense from a high school kid, we expect to see this a lot from helpers, even at the NBA level. Thompson converts at the rim efficiently enough to have that be priority number-one on the scouting report whenever he has the ball.
As a non-shooter, most teams will sag off Amen when he’s on the perimeter and dare him to shoot. They’ll go under ball screens and take their chances by staying beneath the action. There’s danger in that strategy, as getting clipped even in the slightest could give Amen a runway that he can more than capitalize on. He’s also been working on leveling those ball screens and taking jumpers from 3.
It’s a vital shot for his arsenal. The more defenders respect it, the closer to him they will be when he’s standing on the 3-point line. The closer they are, the more he can gain separation with that blazing first step. Without a doubt, his shooting ability is connected to how frequently and effectively he can use his athleticism in the NBA.
That doesn’t mean Thompson is going to automatically be a negative in ball screens, though. And it doesn’t even mean he’s going to be a negative when playing off-ball. That’s the main point we’re getting at with this piece and the entire discussion of gravity.
First-step gravity, in order to be stopped, requires defenders to be never out of position, as the slightest crack in their armor gets exploited with an all-out assault on the lane. Help defenders are constantly on alert, but when a player is a great finisher and passer, the best fix is at the point of attack, not the back-side scramble.
Because of that, whoever is guarding Thompson will want to ensure he never gets out of position. By standing in the corner or on the 3-point line and never moving, Amen becomes rather easy to corral. All it takes to stop his ability to exploit a mistake is to closeout on-balance and short. While that’s easier said than done, Thompson’s lack of shooting ability right now means closing out way short is a viable option. Improvements with his jumper will negate that option, but him taking a 3-pointer may always be a preferred result for the defense to his driving, even if he’s league average.
Of course, good offensive players don’t just stand there, spotting up and waiting for the ball to find him every time it isn’t in his hands. Good players know how to loop and slide on the perimeter without the ball to put themselves in advantageous positions when it comes their way. Great coaches design an offensive system that helps get them the ball on the move.
In order to take inspiration for the best ways to utilize a non-shooting elite athlete off-ball, we looked at some of the ways the other best players with similar confines have operated.
Russell Westbrook stands out as a clear comparison point: a freak athlete with natural tools and a lack of shooting touch. For years, the Oklahoma City Thunder worked to make the fit work between Westbrook and other stars, like Kevin Durant and eventually Paul George.
While it wasn’t often, teams would actually deny Westbrook the ball when he didn’t have it, or at least play him tight so that the ball wouldn’t find its way back to him. This wasn’t as much about him being a great shooter, but teams not wanting him to have the ball. To get him downhill, he’d stand up near the logo, waiting for a big man to get the rock. Once the big had it, he’d dribble toward Westbrook and engage in a dribble handoff.
Thompson, Ivey, or any other athlete has to become an insanely lethal scoring threat to be denied and face-guarded the way that Westbrook was that high on the floor. Those illustrations show how pre-catch movement is important for athletes of a high caliber, not just that teams who deny can get torched.
Even without a denial, the same handoff action can work marvelously. Watch here as Westbrook hits Steven Adams, looking for the give-and-go. Westbrook’s man, Tony Allen, goes underneath the screen to try and meet Russell on the other side, betting that Russ won’t be able to shoot it and penalize him for that decision. But Russ stops on a dime and reverses direction once he gets the ball, spinning Allen around in a circle and giving Westbrook a straight-line drive to the hoop.
Re-screens for non-shooters are always impactful in screens, but they’re often slow to develop because the ball gets dribbled relentlessly waiting for the screener to flip his feet. Quick handoffs like this are much harder to establish defensive positioning for, especially for help defenders.
In a similar fashion, the New Orleans Pelicans did a lot of transition pitch-backs and weave actions to get Zion a head of steam going downhill early in his career. Zion would wait by the half-court logo, sliding laterally toward the ball before unleashing a full-steam-ahead assault on the handoff and, shortly thereafter, the rim.
Transition actions are a great way to attack because the defense isn’t set yet. Thompson can make a killing in those areas if he works in conjunction with another lead guard and handler.
As Thompson ages and learns to play with other stars, he can also learn how to move and cut without the ball in his hands in the way that other great non-shooters before him have:
Even as a cutter, there’s more value that comes from being on the wings than being in the corners. Sure, he may be able to sneak along the baseline and get to the rim every now and then. From the wing, 5-cuts have so much more impact in getting other people open for jump shots, especially pick-and-pop or corner 3-point shooters. They bend the defense in a really targeted way that pairs well with Thompson’s passing ability. Should he catch it early on one of those cuts, he can identify open teammates if the defense collapses on his cut.
All this action and movement needs to take place in the middle third of the floor. While it’s a simple geometric concept, it deserves to be stated here as bluntly as possible: standing in the corner doesn’t give a player either direction to drive, thus taking away part of their attacking arsenal and giving the defense an advantage to hone in on. By keeping the player with such a special driving trait in the middle third of the floor (above the free throw line and about five feet off the sidelines), the threat of that first step is available for the offensive player to exploit.
Many skills trainers and coaches teach isolation drivers to attack the top foot of their defender, causing them to retreat and open up their stance, which creates separation. Space is required to turn back in the opposite direction if a defender is too guarded against such an attack, and that simply isn’t afforded as often on the outer third of the court.
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
It’s definitely not present in the corners. Here’s where the projection of role and responsibility comes into play for prospects at not just an early age but from their inner circle. The elite of the elite athletes — the guys who possess first-step gravity that can get to the lane whenever they want — need to be kept in the middle third of the court as much as possible. From a coaching standpoint, if I had a guy like this on my team, I’d do as much as I could to utilize him as a threat in the middle third of the floor.
Herein lies the juxtaposition with what the scout told me about Amen Thompson earlier this Fall. If Thompson is so impressive with the ball in his hands and so blazingly quick as an athlete, he shouldn’t get to the corner often, even if he’s a somewhat respectable corner 3-point shooter. To put him there, instead of atop the key with the ball in his hands or relocating on the perimeter to be a cutting and handoff threat, would be to waste the utilization of his biggest skill, one that puts the fear of God into defenses. Even if he doesn’t have the ball.
Just to reiterate, that does not mean elite athletes do not need to have a respectable jump shot, or that their game isn’t taken to the next level by adding it to their arsenal. Shooting makes everything easier for anyone with the ball in their hands, plus it allows them to most effectively play next to another star. Amen Thompson needs to work on his jumper, and it is entirely possible that he never turns into the type of on-ball creation hub that we currently project him to be. If that’s the case, the corner 3-pointer becomes a hell of a lot more important.
But for where things stand for Thompson right now, the corner is low on the priority list of areas he should be working on his game. Catch-and-shoots should come from the wings. Pull-up shooting to kill teams that sag off him and go under ball screens is vital. Tightening his handle, becoming more in tune as a help defender, knocking down free throws, avoiding leaving his feet before knowing where to pass it… there are plenty of areas he can improve.
Thompson is also working with more from a natural perspective than nearly any prospect in this draft or in the last few years. His development plan, as well as his future NBA usage, will change based on those natural athletic tools. When unleashed and utilized the right way, he can have a great deal of off-ball impact, even without letting the jumper fully develop. That’s one of the main reasons he’s seen as a top-three prospect in this draft class even without a dependable shooting stroke.