I saw this picture by Charles Rex Arbogast on Sactown Royalty accompanying an article titled “DeMarcus Cousins Ain’t No Joke.”

Look at the position of his body as he changes directions. When I run clinics, I emphasize this position: the foot is outside his knee and his knee is outside his hips. Look at the angle that he creates to push from his left to right. He keeps his shoulders over his base of support rather than allowing them to sway to his left as he changes directions, which would slow down his movement.

Also, on another note, look at his ankle. Look at how much his foot is sliding in his shoe. In the low-top vs. high-top argument, would his foot slide as much in low tops? I do not know the answer, but it certainly seems as though his shoes need a better fit or there is something that could be done to improve the performance of his shoe in relation to his movement in this situation. Supposedly Kobe Bryant has asked Nike to create a shoe and sock system that prevents this type of sliding in one’s shoe to negate the tenth or hundreth of a second lost because of this. Kobe also famously wears lop-tops because he feels that he is quicker. Makes some sense when seeing this picture.

However, the greater point is the importance of creating the right angles for acceleration in the desired direction. To stop his movement to his left and accelerate to his right, Cousins create a big angle and a wide step. Some argue that this bigger step slows down the player because he travels further away from where he wants to go. However, that distance is small compared to the improved quickness of the change of direction movement by creating this angle to, as Lee Taft says, “meet his momentum” and drive in the opposite direction.