I’ve mentioned several times over the course of this season, the best of Kyle Lowry’s career, that he seemed to be sporting some new and improved handles. Whereas in the past, he’d stick to orthodox north-south dribble movements (like the stuff you saw in the 70′s and 80′s), he’s really added some flavor in 2012. I noted many examples of this last night and decided to go back in and compile them. I found the exact instances of the plays using SynergySports.
As I said above, in the past, we’d usually see Lowry go north-south, driving to the hoop only either in transition or off of picks. This year, much more often he’s attacked his man in isolation circumstances, with quick east-west dribble moves. The clip shows him use a conventional east-west wide cross, a between-the-legs cross, a stop hesitation dribble, a shot headfake hesitation dribble, and finally, most impressively, a behind the back crossover.
What’s the cause for this new creativity? It’s tough to say. We know Lowry worked his tail off this offseason, so it’s probable he improved his handles. With that said, I explained at length in the Trevor Ariza series that the ability to create is rarely developed past a certain age; that comfort level is something that comes most easily during adolescence. Sure Lowry probably brushed up a bit in the summer, but the cause is likely a combination of two factors: the new Rockets offense and confidence.
In the past, Lowry would typically walk the ball up, hand it off to Hayes or Scola at the elbow post, and then only receive it again off the screen. This year, as the clip shows, he’s getting many more chances to attack his man in one-on-one situations. Without a pick, not many people can beat an NBA-level defender head-on off the dribble without some form of crossover. The added responsibility and repetitions have also probably worked to boost Lowry’s confidence to try out new things. Simply put, while Kyle probably did improve a little bit over the summer, I think he probably already had all these moves you’re seeing this year, but only now decided/got a chance to bust them out. After all, he is an NBA point guard.
Another theory might be more interesting: the ‘Love stomp’ occurred around the 8:30 mark of the 3rd. After that point, most agree that Lowry was most affected, rallying his troops and delivering a hard foul to Love at the other end. Notice that every play in the clip above occurs after the 8:30 mark of the 3rd. These plays weren’t arbitrarily selected; I went into the Synergy log from yesterday’s game and pulled every instance of a dribble move from Lowry – I only noticed the coincidence afterwards. One theory might be adrenaline: it’s possible that an angry Lowry put the team on his back, when nothing was there from their set offense, using his natural talents to try and bring them back. It’s encouraging that he has that in him.
While he didn’t really use a dribble move, I wanted to call attention to this play, from the 1st quarter, because it too is something we hadn’t seen from Lowry in the past. As I explained in the 2009 Ariza series, that moving jumper going right (for a right-hander) is one of the toughest shots in basketball to make and a high indicator of skill. Unlike when rolling left, the feet aren’t set and it requires a great degree of body control to stabilize.
This is all important because early in the year, after Lowry burst out of the gates to lead all point guards in statistics, I said he still probably might not ever crack the truly elite class due to his inability to create in isolation. If the evidence above is representative, maybe he can? With that said, because Ricky Rubio is such a poor defender, it’s best to just keep an eye on the situation before arriving at any conclusions.
