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While many are wondering what the next move for the Warriors will be, Steph Curry finds himself around the game of basketball and not concerned with any rumors or speculations. Curry is not only working on his game, but helping others improve theirs. Curry held the first “SC30” Select Camp earlier this month in the Bay Area and hosted 20 of the best guards in the country to come and learn from some of the best coaches and brightest minds in the sport of basketball.
Curry was able to sit down with Malik Newman, considered the top shooting guard in the country and one of the best players overall. Newman is a senior from Jackson, Mississippi that stands at 6-foot-3, but his game is much bigger. Newman will likely have every major university in the country chasing after him, but before the start of his last high school campaign, he had an opportunity to learn from one of the best shooting guards in the NBA.
After dissecting the tape, Curry was impressed from what he saw, but still had a few suggestion for the youngster:
“The biggest thing that I saw, was getting to your spot and being able to rise up, the way you get most of your space is really extending that back leg and get into that shooting position. The only thing, your feet kind of do a natural fadeaway when you shoot, see how you jump from the red line here and watch where your feet land.”
There is no human being on this earth that can shoot better than Curry, so when he gives you some tips, you listen. Newman was already considered a great shooter, but with Curry’s mentoring, he might be able to take his shooting to the next level. Newman sounds like a mature and confident young man and asked Curry what he’s concentrating on when strictly going through shooting drills:
“I’m focusing on trying to simulate some competition, so a lot of the drills that I do I’m keeping tracks of makes, putting a little pressure on myself. I am not just shooting freely. I kind of simulate, alright I’m 9 for 12 I gotta make this next one to get to the next spot, I am not going to finish this drill until I make that goal.”
They had all the high school players going through Curry’s normal routine, so not only did Newman get to go through Curry’s routine, but he was able to understand how Curry approaches every drill from a mental perspective. Newman followed up with another great question, he asked Curry what separates the good players from the great players, especially when everybody in the NBA is athletic and strong:
“You got guys that can do a straight line drive every single time, that can count on their go-to move, but also have a lot of different counters out of that, knowing that they are going to be defended and scouted as they go through their career, they gotta be able to have counters and have additional moves to get space.”
Curry has not always been the most athletic, but he is usually the smartest player on the court. Understanding your opponent and having an arsenal of moves to choose from is key, especially when NBA teams scout you and know what to expect. Curry is able to teach Newman the importance of preparation and how to apply it on the basketball court.
Newman, along with the 19 other high school basketball prospects really got a treat by coming to this camp. They learned about the game of basketball from one of the best in the league and were taught valuable lessons about life. If you want to see the video of Curry and Newman in its entirety, click here.
h/t: Bleacher Report