Last night in the game between FC Bayern Munich and Ratiopharm Ulm, a 40-minute battle played out to a 4 point win for Munich. Unfortunately for Ulm, they could have easily won the game. However, throughout the course of play, they missed a minimum of 10 layups. If not outright one-two-and-up layups, they missed 10 shots from within 1 meter of the net. That's 20 points! If they had simply made their layups and putbacks, they would have blown out the Bavarians in grand style. Let's dive a little deeper!
So, how many easy buckets does your team miss? Probably too many. "But the other team misses them too!" you say. Well, that is likely true. But what if they didn't? What if you didn't? Now you are playing a whole different game!
On average, most games end with a close score. I read somewhere (but of course I can't find it today) that 65% of college basketball games end with a difference of 6 points or less. Now, that may not be totally accurate, but I think the overall trend it implies can be assumed to be true. I know I have won and lost my share of close games over the years!
But assuming most games are close, what would make the difference? Just imagine that you made one more layup each quarter. That alone is 8 points. Now look back at your season and check how many games you lost by less than 8 points. Beyond those 8 points, there is the momentum and attitude swing that happens.
Momentum plays a huge role in basketball. Perhaps those layups would have changed the score enough for the other coach to call a timeout. Maybe that layup or putback is just what a player needed to get hot. Or conversely, maybe the miss caused them to get frustrated and make a bad play at the other end. Possibly fouling and giving the other team two easy points from the line, furthering the momentum swing from the missed layup.
Hypotheticals aside, making your layups will help your team win games. Fact. So, what can you do to improve your ability to make layups? Well, practice for one. But not just heading to the local court and jacking up a bunch of shots and calling it a day. That is not how a 0.5 player trains.
Targeted, game-style training of multiple finishes is needed if you want to be a 0.5 player. That means training the proper footwork, training against mixed defensive approaches, and training at game speed from game spots. Ideally, you would get a personal trainer to guide you through this.
As a team, it comes down to creating better scoring opportunities where these layups are not contested, or, at the very least, less contested. To do that, you need an offense that creates player movement, ball movement and maintains proper spacing. But beyond that, the players need to improve their decision-making skills to become 0.5 players. I'm talking about not only making the right decisions but making them immediately so the defense has a harder time making their proper rotations.
As a basketball coach who values good fundamentals over fancy play, I could go on all day about the value of making your layups and putbacks. But, I won't. I will simply say that making your layups will win you more games than almost any other adjustment you can make. Especially at the youth level, where layups make up a much larger percentage of the shots taken.
So, get out there and focus your training on game shots from game spots at game speed.