Grainy offseason workout footage, Robert Covington edition

I SAID SIXERS FANS, DO YOU WANT GRAINY FOOTAGE? HOW ABOUT SIXERS PLAYERS SHOWING OUT AGAINST INFERIOR COMPETITION IN AN EMPTY GYM? COMING RIGHT UP.

Robert Covington has been in the gym this summer, working on improving his game in areas like creation & dribbling. He’s been doing his training in Nashville with Spencer and Jamal Richardson of All-Around Game (AAG). Both Coach Spencer and Coach Jamal have been leaking out snippets of Covington’s progress on Twitter (@AAG_Basketball), and yesterday evening Spencer posted a series of plays by RoCo.

I feel that I don’t need to write out the caveats with these things. Sixers fans have become accustomed to offseason workout videos, right? Now with proper caution in place, I can still say that the footage of Covington is impressive. Mostly because we haven’t before seen the type of play Cov exhibits in the videos.

Covington noted finishing at the rim as an area he needs to work on, and it seems as though that wasn’t just lip service:

That’s a pretty finish at the rim, something we haven’t often seen from Covington in the past.

Another encouraging sign from these workouts: Cov shooting out of a dribble.

In the video above, we see Cov utilize a hesitation dribble move, and then pull-up from deep.

Last season, only six players attempted more catch-and-shoot field goals per game than Covington (would you believe me if I told you Nikola Vucevic was one of them?). And of those six players, only one (Dirk Nowitzki) had a higher percentage of his overall shots being catch-and-shoot than Bob Covington (Dirk’s 67.3% to Robert’s 65.9%). Thanks to Ben Simmons, Cov doesn’t need to create his own shot very frequently. But it only helps a player to be able to create his own shot, especially when defense cracks down come playoff time.

So you like those two videos, huh? A little finishing at the rim, a little creation. Well, how about BOTH in ONE video:

Okay, the finish there wasn’t the prettiest or flashiest. But it worked! And how often do we see Cov bust out a spin move?

The final video from last night includes not a score but a dime. I’d expect to see the following pass from Ben Simmons. Getting it from Cov is just as satisfying.

The most impressive part of this play is the way that Cov used a crossover (from left, his off-hand, to right, no less!) to move his defender to his right, juuust enough to create a window to squeeze the pass through.

Both Jamal and Spencer Richardson have been posting videos of Cov’s workouts this summer. They’re encouraging at the least due to the fact that they demonstrate that Cov must be very aware of his weaknesses. I provided a link to Spencer’s Twitter above, but here it is again: @AAG_Basketball. But Jamal, @allaroundgame10, also posts some of Cov’s training as well, like the following:

Grainy footage. Short trainers. Inferior competition. Empty gyms. Christmas came early!