- What's up everybody, I'm Alex Caruso,
and this is Reel Talent.
[upbeat music]
I'ma watch a few clips,
break them down,
and see how good these guys games are.
First step, we have Austin.
Let's look at this first clip.
So Austin's coming down ball in the right hand,
defender commits to early,
oo, nice slow Euro step.
Everybody's gotta have the Euro step
in there game nowadays.
At this point, right.
He's got two decisions to make.
He's got either finish strong over the top,
which I don't think he is an above the ring player just yet,
so I think the finesse finish the way to go.
I'm a pass fast guy,
but in a scenario like this,
I think he made the right play.
Being aggressive and transition is the key,
and I think he did that well.
Then the impressive thing is that left-hand finish,
Soft Touch Off The Glass, easy bucket.
And the second part here,
we gonna watch Austin place of defense.
Two way players, you'd love to see it.
You did a great job of just staying in front,
and staying in position.
That's one of the keys on defense
and just not giving up an angles.
Attacker keeps coming downhill,
he doesn't commit.
Attacker should have done the move
Austin did in the last clip and try to Euro across.
That probably would have been the better choice,
but Austin does a great job of just staying vertical.
That's a coach's dream and transition defense right there,
straight up don't foul and make them make a tough shot.
Alright. Another offensive clip,
nice little rhythm dribble right into his three making pay
again, just being aggressive, right?
Nobody picks him up. Got him.
Keep the defense. Honest makes a great shot right into it.
Left. Right?
Held the follow through up.
Maybe could have kept it up a second longer,
but I think he did a good job
of extending through and finishing the shot.
Last clip.
Okay. He's got a little range too.
He's got a little range.
Austin does a great job of moving away from the ball on
penetration. Give the ball space.
If the defender doesn't help
this guy's gonna drive down the lane.
The defender helps.
He moves away is on good balance
Defender closes out short.
So he lets it fly.
Again, good shot holds the fall
through up there for a little bit.
He's got a good rhythm to a shot too.
He's got a nice one balance and gets it up.
I think he made the right read.
I think he could have pump fake
and try to re penetrate maybe baseline side.
See if he can get a lay up
and see if we can find another teammate.
But, you can't be mad if you get an open shot,
you gotta take it.
Austin looks like he's got a nice game.
You can tell he's been playing for a long time
and kind of has a nice rhythm, a nice balance to his game.
And he seems like he's an aggressive player.
That's something that is hard to teach at a young age,
to be aggressive and to make the right play.
And I think he did it a number of times.
And then obviously you got to love the two way players.
Cause they are added bonuses.
All right, next step, we have Blair.
Lets check out the clips.
First one, Jump Ball.
Gotta Love it.
You can tell he's ready.
And the other guy doesn't have his leg back.
If you're not seven foot or bigger,
and you don't have the leg back
and you're ready to explode and go jump.
You're not in that jump ball.
Obviously he's gotta be the most athletic on the team
and putting on the feet jump ball gets up, Nice.
Something about this.
There's a little trick of the trade that I learned from
Brooke Lopez. Shout out to Brooke.
Whenever you go up for the jump ball,
you just kind of move your hand into the path of the other
guy's hand and tap it back.
It's like defense during the jump ball,
he does a good job of breaking that plane going
and getting it.
Second one.
So if the defense a little, no, look a little flair.
You can tell you he's got a little flow to his game.
Don't want to know. Look,
teammate probably didn't do much with it.
It's okay, always make the right play,
push and transition.
Ooh!
Okay.
Little flair.
Okay.
Okay, Right here from the start.
Get the steel behind the back.
Risky a nice little change of elevation
with the ball right there.
But the defender runs through
and then finish the same side away
from the defender on the right hand.
That's a tough finish right there.
Ron had a finish like that against the pistons
and that playoff game where he scored
like 28 straight points to close out the game.
The chase down.
Another one.
Love this, love this.
Blair, you gotta keep doing this man.
This is something I did.
I did while back in the day
and I don't do it as much now.
But the chase on block. It's a lost art.
Time's it perfectly, especially off one foot,
go up and get it Pin it.
And then this is my favorite part.
He's worried about stepping up and bounce
grafting, call it,
keep playing play on gets the block, gets the chase down.
That's Charles Barkley that's right there [indistinct].
You got LeBron and Charles Barkley
comparisons within three clips.
It's pretty good start room.
[upbeat music]
One time.
That's Alex Caruso.
The high school transition still with Don.
This reminds me of me, man.
This is what I used to do in high school.
Get a little breakout still off of one foot,
right hand Tomahawk.
I love the camera into the behind the basket can rangle,
this one.
Good extension on that.
And I like that he dunk so hard.
I don't like when guys go up to dunk
and just kinda like put it in.
I like, if you're gonna dunk it, you gotta dunk it.
That's probably one of his favorite thoughts. It's gotta be.
She went up the defender, made a business decision.
He saw Blair takeoff
went up to level six, level seven.
He was still down on the ground.
You can tell it right. This two plays hard.
It's two points at the end of the day, you know,
that's a little saying it's two points, two points,
but there's something about Dante is just special, man.
For me, it gets me going.
It gets the crowd into it a little more.
It's just something about it.
It brings some extra juice.
And when you play the game,
play the game to but learn when you play it with intensity.
And I think dunking, the ball is intangible.
Now we have Jazmine. Let's check her out.
[upbeat music]
First of all,
if you see a first clip of someone's highlights,
it's a slow mo and they're wiping their feet.
It's about to go down
hundred percent. It's going down.
My anticipation for these clips. Grew tenfold,
just watching this. I was like, alright,
I want to see what she's got.
23.
I'd love to know the inspiration behind that.
Nice crossover defender steps up easy bounce pass.
This is something pros work on, got them off balance.
Front foot, stop, changing direction.
Defender steps up. She keeps her eyes up.
Easy, drop off at the right hand.
Great pass. She was feeling a little too.
You can tell look at the way,
She bounces out of the past and a teenage goes up.
She noticed she had one.
That's a good play.
Third clip, great steel playing center, field,
little shoveled, a little flair.
When she stays with it, gets the board just doing it, All.
Doing everything for the team gets the steel.
Probably the best read right there.
She had two defenders in the paint made a good read.
Teammate, got an open shot.
She stays with the play. That's just as hard right there.
This is probably my favorite clip.
A little in and out. That's tough.
Ooh. First off defender, cheats.
The screen always gotta reject,
rejects, always an option as a ball handler
in and out, just the defender off balance.
Secondary defender steps up
She is probably the best player on her team.
Watching this just of how many people are focused on it.
You got eyes from the side, eyes,
from the baseline eyes from the corner.
Thought of maybe throwing into the corner,
but I love the aggressive move.
They can't stop you. You just play your game.
Nice little hop step pro pro hop through the lane
to a nice soft touch floater and then on net.
I mean, what else do you want?
I thought that was a really good play.
That floater is a really hard shot.
She had a full speed split defenders.
And then lastly,
she's probably already scored three or four times
on this girl.
Point guard, setting up the team
and out girl doesn't know where she's going.
Hard foul.
Jazmine You know, when you get the hard foul,
you got them.
A hundred percent. You got them.
You're in their head for the rest of the game. She comes up,
change the pace, a little between the legs,
feeling herself little in and out. She likes to in and out.
That seems to be the go to move.
She probably [indistinct] down to I'm sure she did.
She's got a game you can tell.
She made the right read to,
she could have tried to force it to a teammate,
but this girl this defender on red in the middle
is kind of playing both.
I think she did a good job with
I think she made the right read.
Alright. Next, we got Malik from Barbados.
First clip.
Well, pull up.
He does a great job. He's posted up to the elbow.
Maybe he could have waited a second longer,
just to get him a little more time,
give yourself more room to operate, Malik.
But I liked the quick aggressive decision.
Get there. Shoot over the defender.
Raise up soft touch. It's a good shot.
The next one. Good screen.
Always nice, you love seeing screens
or your teammates send them up.
And then a teammate does the right thing and rewards them.
He gets him open somebody going down
and then right here, he's calling for the ball outside end
defender gambles outside.
He's got a good sense of the game.
He feels someone on left side.
No need to fight the pressure. Just go opposite,
easy drop step.
Woo, the left to the left on that
That's a nice move. Right hand left hand.
He's got it all.
Same concept right here. Right.
He's posting up. He's wide open.
Maybe don't take the dribble.
He might not have had the awareness
to know who was around him.
So he might take that for safety
just to check it out.
But again,
it's an aggressive dribble and he finishes strong.
Try to play without dribbles.
The more you can play without dribbles around the basket,
catching and finishing the easier
it's going to be for you to continue score.
Board quick outlet.
You love to see that
you love to see a quick board,
quick outlet.
Now you're starting to break,
pulling guards up ahead of the floor.
Who's crossing half court before
the defense can even turn around and set.
Another board.
He's rebounded out of his area too.
That's another great thing that you love to see
from guys that rebound well.
Something I wish I could do better.
As rebounding out of my area.
He defends the shot about eight feet from the basket
already turns looks shot, goes to the left,
chases it out.
There's a rebounding machine.
And Malik is getting boards boards,
and he's rebounding all these with two hands.
That's another thing
two hand of rebounds are strong.
They're safe.
And most of the time it's gonna be a foul
from an offensive player, tries to come over your back.
Another one he's going in towards,
towards the basket.
He's right in front of the goal ball bounces to the right
quickly, quick outlet, two defenders behind them.
They got the whole team running out. That's great.
That's just good, solid basketball Malik.
[upbeat music]
Last but not least we have Jamie.
Let's check it out the clip.
One,
two,
three,
four,
five, six,
okay.
Eight in a row.
[laughs]
Oh, we want to be the re bounder on the one.
When she misses at like six.
Oh, she's doing like cross the basketball.
She's about to.
Ooh.
Hand clean in jumper,
hand clean
jumper.
Majority of people alive.
Couldn't just hit five shots in a row. Let alone,
it looks like it's probably like 135 ,245 on the
outside.
Clean that five times
and make a Jump shot in between each one.
That's impressive.
The spot shots and going around is probably pretty normal.
The weightlifting straight into it.
I've never seen that before. That's that's unique.
Maybe that's like the next generational skill training that
hasn't been tapped into yet.
She might be onto something ,she might be ahead of the game.
A little backyard hoops.
Everybody grew up with the backyard whoop!.
She held to follow through to. She knew it was going in.
I've done this so many times as a kid.
I probably never made it.
But, Google through call the shot, throw it up.
Money.
Consistency is the thing, right?
Just sit and do a packing
Same jump, good balance.
You're straight up straight down two feet.
Good snap of the wrist at the end too.
The hard part about that too,
is she keeps getting closer and closer.
You have to take a little bit off,
take a little bit off, take a little bit off.
The ability to do that seven times in a row is impressive.
Was really impressed with everybody's game.
Everybody kind of had a different aspect.
They showed in their clips.
There's athleticism, Austin's offensive ability.
And the Jazmine showing the quicks and the handles.
Everybody had their own game.
And you could tell that the skills they have now,
if they continue to work on them
they're only gonna get better.
If I could give one tidbit of advice,
I think it would just be fall in love with the game.
All right, everybody.
I appreciate you tuning in.
Make sure you keep working on your game and I'll see you on
court somewhere soon.