Big 12: Isaiah Taylor A Jump Shot Away From Stardom (Video)

Very few people outside of the Texas Longhorns coaching staff knew the name Isaiah Taylor prior to the beginning of the 2013-14 season. With expectations as low as they were for Rick Barnes’ Longhorns last season, it seemed pretty improbable that Taylor’s name would resonate with anyone outside of the select few die-hard Texas basketball fans in Austin. It’s crazy how much things can change in the span of a year.

After leading Texas to an unquestionably surprising 24-11 campaign and an NCAA tournament victory, Taylor will be entering his sophomore season on the cusp of college stardom. That is, if he can develop a consistent jump shot, of course.

For those who were able to keep a close eye on Taylor’s noteworthy freshman season, you likely noticed he almost seemed like the complete package for a first year point guard on a competitive team in college basketball’s deepest conference. But what you didn’t notice was his jump shot and that’s because he almost never pulled it out of his bag of offensive options.

As you can see in the video above, his primary and secondary go-to moves are layups and floaters. This isn’t necessarily an issue as he made a name for himself and compiled 12.7 points per game on mostly layups and floaters, but he will lead an even deeper and more versatile unit next season and will feature arguably the largest target on his back for opposing game plans to focus on.

More from NBA

Yes, Taylor could do so by simply continuing to polish the offensive weapons he displayed last season, but what would take him from being a good starting point guard to an all-out college star would be incorporating a jump shot into his arsenal, making him that much harder to defend.

Taylor concluded last season as one of the quickest and craftiest players we were able to feast our eyes upon in 2013-14. This ability to blow by defenders is what made so many of his layups and floaters possible. Plus, even when there was constricted defensive pressure, Taylor still had the cunning ability to sneak the teardrop in over your head before the defender ever had a chance to get off the ground. But as the season rolled on, defenders began to simply sag off and try to force Taylor to be them from outside of the paint.

Of course, this wasn’t always a very successful tactic and he impressed more and more with experience, but his sophomore season will be one where teams will focus their game plan around him and be well aware of his ability to score around the rim.

But just as obvious as it will be to keep Taylor out of the paint, so it will be with letting him shoot at will from the outside. Again, that is, unless he can develop a jump shot.

If Taylor can make a habit of knocking down jumpers and forcing the opposition to defend him out to the arc, not only will this reopen the opportunities to beat defenders off the dribble, but it will also open things up for his teammates as well, which will translate to his assists numbers and ultimately, the win column.

Obviously, this would just be the icing on the cake to Taylor becoming even more difficult to contain as the countless openings he will create for himself will then be finished with pull up jumpers instead of having to force his way inside to score. If this were to happen, it wouldn’t be much of an issue for Taylor to see his scoring numbers rise to around 15 or 16 at the least.

Then when you factor in how this will open things up for his teammates as he will draw more attention, his contribution as a facilitator will increase and his assists numbers could jump to somewhere around seven or eight a game, which they probably will anyway with so many options to choose from.

A stat line of 16 points and eight assists would lead Taylor beginning to be mentioned in the conversation of the best point guards in all of college basketball and garner some NBA attention along the way. But if a simple man like myself can notice how crucial of an area this is for Taylor to improve upon, I trust the Texas coaching staff and Taylor himself will be aware of this weakness and assure it won’t be an issue in 2014-15. It’s a very real possibility and even probability that Taylor will take the necessary steps towards becoming a college star next season.

As it stands, he’s just a jump shot away, but those concerns will be no more in a few short weeks once the season begins.

Big 12: Isaiah Taylor Is A Jump Shot Away From College Stardom

By Cody Daniel | Oct 7, 2014