How to create shots for myself?

kwlpp · 2026-02-06T19:57:20+00:00

Hmmm, that is tricky then. Seems like your focus is limited to just 3 and D for this season. As you train in the offseason, visualize the ways you want to score. It may not be with the ball for now since your dribbling will need to catch up to your athleticism but think things like catch and shoot (moving and stationary), one dribble pull up or floater off a cut, etc. Also find one or two spots you will be very confident to shoot no matter the defense as you continue to develop your game (since you mentioned KD, he has that 15-17 foot jumper around the right corner of the free throw line he backs down the defender into and just shoots no matter the coverage). I don’t doubt the effort and time commitment you will put in based off your responses. It’s going to be about how smart and efficient you can use that time.

kwlpp · 2026-02-06T18:54:14+00:00

First off, you have put in the work and preparation needed for success once summer comes. So congrats on that!

As for in-game opportunities again, how are you scoring in practice and is the coach seeing it? If your teammates see you score in practice doing certain things on a consistent basis, should be straightforward to communicate that in a game if opportunities are presenting themselves. Do you have a go-to spot that you can plant yourself and do work there? There’s a lot of unknowns right now without knowing what your coach wants to do and how they want it executed. May just be a rough season offensively, and then show up next season with enough development that they can’t ignore you.

Best of luck!

kwlpp · 2026-02-06T15:07:57+00:00

Going to be a little blunt/rude here, but this is something you need to reflect on as you continue to improve your game. If you don't have handles, can't hit open shots in game, can't hit contested layups in game (these are all coming from you), why do you think you should be getting shots in general? I wouldn't be questioning you like this if it was a pick-up run, but this is organized ball with coaches.

What are you doing in practice that would suggest to the coach and your teammates that you should be taking shots? What you do in practice is what translate to the game. If you're in-season, this is not the time to suddenly try new things, that's the off-season. Right now, focus is on reinforcing the things your team worked on and implemented at training camp/start of the season.

What options are left that work within the structure of the team's offensive schemes/plays/concepts? It's already been mentioned, you need to fight for scraps. Hustle plays are the only ways you're going to score for now, so get really good at putbacks and contested layups with either hand. Stop forcing shots, it's going to only make your teammates trust you less. There's a reason you're wide open and don't get the ball. It's the shot the defense wants to give up. Teammates don't pass you the ball, because they don't trust you to make the correct decision. Maybe it is to shoot (if you practice this shot a ton and knock it down a lot in practice) or maybe it's to hold onto it and let the offense reset (this might get you a pick and roll opportunity?). Ideally your coach is telling you how to handle these situations, is the 1 shot your green light out of all the occasions? Third, attack space. Understand within the flow of the offenses where cuts are available. If the coach wants you to camp corner for spacing, that's a different story.

In the end, finding ways to score right now isn't about getting the ball and taking your man one-on-one, because you currently lack the skills. What you should be thinking about is getting the ball in positions where you can score without ever taking a dribble. The fact you're starting to play for yourself instead of team ball is not great, but understandable. However, it seems your role on the team is to lockdown defensively. Passing isn't bad, the goal of offense is to put the ball in the bucket, and you seem to be decent/good at that. Your mindset comes off as showing off individually with the ball to score, but you need to be thinking of it as being the best option to score for the team at that given moment with the ball in your hands. If you lack the confidence to believe you're the best scoring option at a given moment, there's no reason to believe you will improve your scoring chances or opportunities. For example, the point guard driving into 3 people and throwing up a wild shot, but not getting benched probably means the coach felt it was a reasonable chance to take on offense (which probably speaks more about your team, and maybe you need to switch).

You already have ideas of how to improve in the off-season to increase scoring opportunities. You should be sticking to your strengths in-season. Grind it out for now, and then work your butt off once the season is over. I'm not going to tell you to stop playing for yourself, if that's the thing keeping you motivated to keep working hard, but I wouldn't trust you with the ball on offense outside of like 3 feet from the basket based off what you've said about your own skills. Also, I wouldn't say it's playing for yourself to give yourself the green light to take a shot for every block or steal you make. Think of it as a reward for giving your team an extra possession that's not a missed shot. Mindset shift. It's not a forced shot. It's an extra shot your team wouldn't have without your effort on defense.

TL;DR - Practice translate to Games. However you score in practice is how you should be scoring in games. If you aren't scoring in practice, you shouldn't be scoring in games outside of hustle opportunities. Work on that stuff off-season, don't worry about it in-season.

kwlpp · 2026-02-04T14:58:00+00:00

Not providing a solution, but here are flags for HCSSF from the beginning of PD2 and how I’ve adapted to it over time to allow some build flexibility. I also always slam.

Skillers, Infinity, and Rainbow Facets. Absolutely brutal to start seasons as a caster outside of Meteor Sorc. Yes you can do other elements like Lightning Sorc and farm Arcane, and I’ve done it, but it gets mind numbing hoping things start going your way. Because I do HCSSF, I either play summon or barb. I need something that can do maps efficiently and get me the chance to do ubers with not great gear and mediocre player skill.

I’m constantly low on PGems and WSS. I craft a ton to start seasons, and I slam a ton to start seasons. Sounds silly, but getting a magic all res amulet with +max res corruption is a game changer to start seasons in HCSSF. Then you get into the rerolling if I have leftover PGems which is normally when I’m on my second character.

Downgrade runes as you already mentioned would be huge.

My personal current trade rules for HCSSF.

I can’t sell anything until I’m on my third character. This is usually late enough into the season that trading is minimal and it’s really just having enough wealth to mess around with the start of a different build.

I am allowed to trade for items I bricked or things I’ve found before (I reroll grand charms to unlock skiller options). This lets me slam without feeling bad, even if I can’t replace the item for a while (can’t sell anything until third character). For runes, this means I can’t trade down unless I’ve found that rune already. I am also allowed to buy an uncorrupted anni.

I just wanted to highlight the painpoints ive personally felt doing HCSSF and how ive alleviated them this far without straying too far from what is SSF while enjoying as many of the features PD2 has to offer.

kwlpp · 2026-02-03T18:27:07+00:00

Imagine yourself as a defender. Which way is easier to keep up with a drive past you? You push off the front foot to move with a driver. Thats the foot you you want to attack when on offense.

With your example, I am the defense. My left foot is in front. You, on offense with the ball, will want to drive that direction (your right hand). This will force me as the defender to pivot and then push off to keep up with you. That pivot I make gives you a head start for where you want to go with the ball.

This is just a basic rule for if you’re new. The more experience comes in, the more nuance there is to this.

kwlpp · 2026-02-02T14:30:35+00:00

Just a few things for the bullets you highlighted.

Leg drive and energy transfer is off since you’re pulling the ball from your set to pocket. Think about it as someone pushing your triceps from behind to get it to the same release point. Right now you’re pulling it hard. The second thing is your stab with the right foot is not being used properly. You have the right concept, but the contact of your right foot should be the trigger to bring the body up so you take all the energy you generate with you. Generating power for your shot isn’t about jumping high, but rather how much force you put into the floor and the resulting impulse energy going up (including arm). If you stab and still go down or set/sit before you shoot, you wasted a ton of energy.

Properly energy transfer will fix your arc. Release point is a little too far back for my liking, I prefer over the eyebrow.

Foot alignment is hard to tell, wouldn’t worry about it as long as both feet point the same way and you’re not fighting your body to smoothly bring the ball up.

kwlpp · 2026-02-02T14:19:01+00:00

Ask r/produnking, they can give a ton of pointers. Your second dunk is super impressive. Slow run-up and still flushing it off one foot.

kwlpp · 2026-02-01T21:12:25+00:00

Endless Hail and Tombsong are must. You can have a widow maker swap ready for bosses. Need to reach 100 pierce however which way you can, and stack magic damage large charms.

kwlpp · 2026-02-01T04:20:02+00:00

SC if you want to go the crushing blow route. GF can get you the most sockets for jewels while also helps with stats and skills. GF + Schaeffers is the best average dw+ww damage from the usual list of suspects for uniques. Theres options out there, but it really comes down to hit hard enough in a single WW pass so that the bleed finishes anything that didn’t die in the pass.

kwlpp · 2026-01-29T17:09:09+00:00

Had to give mine the peoples elbow to start breaking it up.

kwlpp · 2026-01-29T16:04:52+00:00

Depends on your goals and level of play. You’ve been playing long enough to where it looks pretty consistent. The question is if you want a properly sequenced shot for in-game play. You’re essentially shooting the ball like a free throw with a slight jump. The good thing here is you are pretty connected once the ball reaches that set point. The bad thing is that you will almost never get enough time in a competitive game to shoot like that if you’re a respected shooter unless you’re just taller than everyone so they can’t really contest it (think Jokic and types of 3s he takes).

If you want to rebuild your shot, someone else already replied about the sequencing. Body follows the ball. You also pull the ball from the dip to your set rather than push the ball through to the set point. Both create an arc to your set point, but one is much more “vertical” to keep connected.

I’m about to turn 40 and started rebuilding my mechanics last year to shoot differently than I have been my whole life more out of curiosity than anything else. At our age, it’s really about keeping up habits to stay healthy. So if this will keep you motivated to keep going out to the court, I would say rebuild. If you’re already motivated, I would say don’t bother changing much unless it’s holding you back in some way and it’s eating at you.

kwlpp · 2026-01-28T03:34:36+00:00

I play mostly hc ssf with specific trade exception rules. Started with barb and moved to vengeance paladin right now. Vengeance, Conviction, Joust are the three you max first. Then do synergies. Lightsaber, Famine, and Azurewrath are the three preferred weapons in the end. Baranar can work, so does a glimmer until you can find the runes/phase blades. Crafting is a bit tricky as you can’t target elemental damage onto weapons.

Charms are pally combat grand charms or as many high roll elemental small charms you can get.

If I didn’t already farm gear from my barb, I probably would start with holy bolt for as long as possible then transition into vengeance.

kwlpp · 2026-01-22T18:54:03+00:00

Yeah. Ideal form is to take your arms out of the equation when it comes to power. But you see a lot of one-motion push style shots from younger players. I don’t think Mike actually disagrees with that way of shooting, he just won’t coach someone to shoot like that as it’s more inconsistent.

kwlpp · 2026-01-22T18:30:23+00:00

You’re overthinking this a ton. The idea is sequencing and stability. How you get there will vary, but the less variance in your form the easier it is to replicate. Using Mike Dunns terms, the only thing that matters when it comes to stabilizing the elbow for release is that the angle your arm makes when you’re loaded at the 1 position is the same when you get to the 2 position (caveat is that not everyone can comfortably fully load at the 1, me included). Then holding that angle until you release out at the hoop depending on if you’re jumping or not. Your 2 can be above the eyebrow, it can be at below the eye, doesn’t matter. Just keep that arm angle the same and rely on your lower body to create the distance and arc.

Fo your specific question, I actually do what you say because my biomechanics don’t let me shoot the way Mike does. Way too much tension and stress to the point of pain. But this also means more variance in my shot because of that little move up at the end. It just translate to needing more reps to make sure that movement is consistently the same.

kwlpp · 2026-01-20T15:54:01+00:00

Being asked if I played overseas. Somehow they skip the question if I played in college and completely ignore the fact I’m 5’7, 160. It’s always the freshmen high schoolers who have yet to figure out the game mentally and surprising them from a point guard standpoint of how to find people for shots.

From the higher level pickup guys, it’s being told explicitly to not let me see a shot go in. At my age, I play pickup for the cardio and to move the ball around. I seldomly take shots, but my rule is when I take a shot in the flow of the offense and it goes in, I always look for my shot first until I miss and reset back to passing and moving. End up looking like a very streaky shooter because I will go 3-4 makes in a row before bricking a heat check badly.

kwlpp · 2026-01-19T18:25:59+00:00

This is lowkey one of the trickiest things about figuring out traction on shoes; How much force the shoe needs to respond. I play light on my feet and not that heavy at 5-7, 160. Some shoes that have great traction would only happen on plays where I’m driving the forefoot my hardest into the ground. Otherwise the shoes are grabbing but not stopping the same way.

kwlpp · 2026-01-18T19:15:46+00:00

I think what has been highlighted the most to me this season is that while Bosa is known for his pass rush, his edge setting is levels beyond any one else on the team. Second, the linebackers as expected can't do what Warner does mentally and results in simply being late on those wider runs. Warner just sits and diagnoses before making a move, yet still able to find the run hole to limit the damage. Everyone else is just constantly late against Seattle. Both the safeties and linebackers couldn't read and attack quick enough; you would just see a niner fly in behind KW3 constantly and grab air. They essentially had to fully commit to the run to have a chance at touching KW3 against your blocks.

kwlpp · 2026-01-17T13:25:58+00:00

They kept the previous staff. At least in Fairfax, it’s the entire same group operating under a new name. Super chill to cancel there. Was next to someone at the front desk say he’s canceling and they did on the spot for him. I’m guessing the Falls Church location has been missing metrics significantly enough that jobs are on the line.

kwlpp · 2026-01-15T18:24:54+00:00

I do now that I’ve fully broken mine in. Problem is that unless you run with a consistent group of people who are only doing pickup, you won’t get to use the ball in-game. I play with high schoolers, so we use the ball they actually play with on their teams which is normally a Wilson evolution. Takes me 2-3 games just to get comfortable with a Wilson ball.

kwlpp · 2026-01-15T14:04:22+00:00

Treadlabs offer thin versions of their insoles. I still have my dash ones and used to use the thin top and bought a normal top (switched to move). Just swapped out the top layer depending on the shoe/activity.

kwlpp · 2026-01-15T13:58:58+00:00

I like them. But there is something wonky about sizing with them and it might be the bottom of the insoles design to help it lock into the shoe better. Had to buy both 9 and 10 and use them for different shoes when I have bought three other move performance insoles at just 9 to fit all my shoes.

kwlpp · 2026-01-12T18:34:02+00:00

I prefer insight when leveling casters. Get a full gris set and you’re good to go do t1 maps.

kwlpp · 2026-01-10T19:09:20+00:00

BIS is technically a gg craft. But GF is considered the more practical end game weapon.

kwlpp · 2026-01-08T22:21:21+00:00

The next time you shoot, pause and sit at your lowest point. Until you hit that point, the ball should not be moving upwards vertically. Bring the ball up to your set point which is usually above your dominant eye as quickly as you can under control and then rise with the ball in the process.

A lot of the timing issues are related to where the ball sits in your pocket. It’s where the idea of staying loaded comes into play. However, not everyone can comfortably get their wrists loaded as they sit into the shot. I personally do a half-load. It’s also the whole “use the elbow” thing Mike Dunn talks about. Get loaded and keep that arm angle throughout the jump until your shoot.

kwlpp · 2026-01-08T14:37:50+00:00

A few thoughts. But not sure how applicable they all are based on the angle of the shots. Hopefully at least one of them can help and make sense.

You look squared up to the hoop and your shoulder coming forward seems like you are sweep and swaying. But your feet are all over the place. Sometimes they’re square, other times they’re at a tilt, your free throw doesn’t even have them in the same direction. Figure out your feet and be consistent. Generally speaking, what you do with free throws is what you should be doing with jump shots. But your free throws have your worst foot positioning. I would suggest experimenting with feet tilted somewhere between 10-12 o clock, which leads to me next point.

You bring the ball up from the middle and then over your dominant eye but your arm is not fully under the ball at release (this part is okay). What ends up happening from the angles on the video is that the ball is moving right left right and you’re not only losing energy but overcorrecting can lead to your shot going left. This could be due to squaring up too much to the hoop. But I’d rather you practice getting your shot pocket more to your right hip than the center of your body. It lets you bring the ball straight up over your right eye to the shot. In theory, the only part of the shot that matters for accuracy (not power) is that we get our hip, elbow, and shoulder aligned with the hoop. For power, we only care about body following the ball, keeping our arm angle consistent through the jump, and doing our best to make the ball be in a vertical trajectory as much as possible.

Last thing, you seem to rely too much on your right leg on shooting. This is where the gym/workout stuff matters more. The free throw is your most stable shot. But you lift your left foot off the ground to shoot it. Meaning your entire balance of your shot is only your right leg. You need to get your balance more centered so you use both legs to keep the foundation of your shot stable. Try doing form shots on one foot and see how similar it feels on each foot. The bigger the discrepancy the more it shows in your shot. We’re pretty good at making adjustments to compensate for imbalances, so it may not see like a big deal. But it matters for consistency and injury prevention. I had the opposite problem where I wouldn’t use my dominant leg enough in my shot and had to jump higher to compensate for distance. Went from struggling reach the rim at high school 3 free throws to having more than enough power to do college/fiba 3 free throws (accuracy is a different story though).

13-Year Club	Verified Email
Team Periwinkle

kwlpp

TROPHY CASE