Speed is definitely an important factor to possess amongst athletes who play the fast-paced sport of basketball. Over the past few years, Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry has established himself as one of the fastest points guards of the modern generation. Spectators are often left in awe when the 39-year-old picks up the pace when possessing the ball or dashes to defend it from being dropped through the hoop by their rivals. The same pace, unfortunately, is not something that is possessed by Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic. However, what makes up for his lack of speed is the ability to create scoring opportunities through a unique factor.

Former NBA player JJ Redick recently made an appearance on comedian Andrew Schulz’s show ‘Flagrant’. During the discussion, Redick proceeded to list down the things that he believes are possessed by a great basketball player. The list includes change of direction, balance, coordination, change of pace, strength, vertical plane, pliability, reflexes, stamina etc. On the cognitive side, the 39-year-old highlighted ‘Court Mapping’ and ‘Cognitive Load’ as crucial abilities. Redick does not admit to possessing most of these abilities, stating that while he may be rank in the “1%” of basketball players, he is not in the “1% of the 1%”. However, he does believe that the majority of these abilities are something that are possessed by Luka Doncic. There is one amongst them that gives the Slovenian player an edge over all others.

“Luka Doncic is not a vertical or linear athlete, but he’s got the best breaks in the fu***ng world,” said Redick. He explained how Doncic makes use of a constant “change of pace” to confuse his rivals by getting them off balance while maintaining his stance. Redick enlightened how even if a rival manages to catch up to the Mavericks star, he wouldn’t be able to get the better off him. “You’re now going in acceleration full speed and he goes into deceleration, and you fly by” Redick continued. “So on his drives, his ability to decelerate is special”.

Doncic’s ability to slow his drive and use it to make shots or draw fouls has definitely made him a crafty scorer. Furthermore, this is not the first time that Redick has highlighted being impressed over the Mavericks star’s ability, as evident by the conversation the duo had a month ago.

Luka Doncic believes that his ‘slow step’ comes out of natural instinct

Back in February, Luka Doncic appeared as a guest on JJ Redick’s ‘The Old Man and the Three’ podcast. During the same, the former player questioned the 5x NBA All-Star about what went into developing his ability to decelerate. Doncic didn’t take long before replying “I didn’t practice that”. Dubbing his deceleration move as the “slow step”, he highlighted how he attempted to teach the same once to his former teammate Dorian Finney-Smith without much success. This led him to realize that ‘instinct’ has a big role when taking the “slow step” into consideration.

“I don’t know, maybe it’s the IQ, I don’t know, but I never really practised that one,” said Doncic.

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