Shake Milton doing fun things on a basketball court

The NBA restart is just around the corner (maybe), which has everyone jonesing for some basketball. If you’re like me, you’ve spent hours your living room in pajama pants with the blinds drawn and a cornucopia of snacks sorting through Shake Milton highlights for days on end. Kidding, of course. It was one day.

But in that one day — which definitely wasn’t today — it struck me: why not a series of highlights and some discussion to get the juices flowing? Today, we’ll take a look at three plays I picked out from Shake Milton’s stash on NBA Stats.

No. 1: Shake & JoJo

Shake Milton’s wingspan is over seven feet long (7’0.75”) and he uses every inch of it to get the lob to Joel Embiid while three defenders blanket Shake just before the shot clock expires:

Jeff Teague may have been able to deflect that pass if it was anywhere but on the money. But it was right on target. Teague is in for a baptism if he offers a sincere contest to Embiid and he makes a business decision. The extension, the touch and the accuracy from Milton is not a combination of weapons that many guards can reliably wield. That’s not to say they wouldn’t have found some way to get it to JoJo, who had a whole lot of space to operate in. But remember, the shot clock was expiring. Embiid had to catch and finish.

It’s especially encouraging to see Milton and Embiid working a two-man game with chemistry.

No. 2: The Razzle Dazzle

Very — dare I say — Fultzian.

Despite every Warriors defender collapsing in on Milton, he spins, shimmies, and scoops his way to a bucket.

No. 3: Baseline dish to Glenn Robinson III

Using a hesitation dribble, Shake buys some time to filter his options. He glances back to check Horford’s intentions:

In that glance, Milton quickly processes a lot. He recognizes that Horford hesitated on the roll and that Rajon Rondo has elected to stay back on Horford. For Shake, it’s a race to the rim against a big (Dwight Howard). But it never really seems like Shake has any intention of shooting once he gets to the rim.

We’ve seen the Shake Scoop:

But the move by Howard at the rim is a delay awaiting a passing lane. Milton picked up Glenn Robinson III when he peaked back at Horford and Rondo.

In addition to his court vision, Milton’s patience made the play a success. Shake lacks explosive agility but he’s got a great sense of when to change pace. In a game of manipulating tight spaces, that can often be just as lethal as speed.

Bonus

I wanted to be sure to select plays from different games, but I had to include this: