Who You Want to Become

Very fun and busy week.

I had one of my best friends (high school and college teammate) in town.

He had visited me my first year playing pro in Belgrade, Serbia and now again in my fifth year in Lisbon, Portugal.

He has seen every step of my progression both as a man and a player.

Rare friendship.

Precious friendship.

Treasure those people who want to see you become the highest level of yourself possible.

Why I Do This:

The Atypical vision is to inspire the next generation of hoopers to develop their own mindsets that will not only translate to basketball, but to life as well.

My brother right here is out in Italy owning his own development and truly pushing to become Atypical.

I love it.

This is some good shit haha

Let’s Clear Something Up…

I got the message on the left in February and the message on the right today.

I really did not want to ever have to do this, but I knew that eventually things like this would start to happen more and more.

Yes, I could easily just ignore these types of messages, but let me just address it in the spirit of transparency and honesty.

First off, I am not an agent, I am not a “connect”, I cannot “put people on” at really any level (college, semi-pro, or pro)…

My intention behind Atypical is to give back knowledge I’ve learned and am learning, to inspire others in their journeys by showing mine, to motivate through sharing the lifestyle my commitment to my craft has earned me, and to mentor the next generation in constructive habits and mindsets that lead to success in all areas of life.

I am not here to vouch for anyone that I do not personally know and have a close relationship with.

I know this may be coming off as a bit harsh, but I want to set a clear boundary that I am here to walk alongside you in your journey and not to “put you on” with some opportunity.

Please be respectful.

Basketball Ideas I’ve Been Experimenting With

Fake It Until You Make It

My first intention of the week of practice was to experiment with more fakes. I left it a bit vague in terms of kind of fake because I wanted to see how many different fakes I could think of.

When I really thought about it, I realized you can fake anything on the basketball court and that should give you an inherent advantage. The reality is that if you never fake, then you are voluntarily giving up your “unpredictability” (this might not be a word haha) advantage.

Most players do not do this intentionally, but tend to simply forget to use fakes or do not have the habit of using fakes.

I am one of those players…

As I started paying attention to opportunities to use fakes, I started seeing all the beautiful fakes players were using at all levels whether intentional or instinctual.

Fast forward to these timestamps in a these three videos and just watch at how effective fakes are (all three are the most obvious form of fake, a shot fake):

~5:33 LeBron with a great use of a fake using the added expectation of the shot clock on the defender (Zion)

~6:20 Eli Carter uses the over-aggressiveness and emotions (did not want to get embarrassed) of the defender to set him up beautifully with the head-fake after the step back… this was so nice…

~17:33 Some “Overseas Pro Hooper” does a nasty step-back does not get any separation, but bails himself out with a shot-fake step through to filayyyyyyy.

The more frequent fakes were used on offense, the more effective both the fakes were and the initial move without a fake became.

Basketball is a game of advantages. Faking more gives you more advantages on both sides of the ball.

Here are two types of fakes you can consider trying next time you play:

Defensive Stunt: Use this when you are off the ball and guarding in space (between your man and the ball). The idea is to almost jab with your arm and inside leg towards the driver when they begin their attack to your side. This creates the picture that you are in the help, when really you are “stunting” or “showing” in the help and actually retreating to your man. Often it makes the attacker kick out when they really did not need to.

Pass, Shot, or Jab Fake: These are all relatively in the same fake “family”. They are used when you have the ball in your hands. Relatively self-explanitory fakes, but think about the different sequences of your fakes. Maybe you fake a shot, then fake a drive (jab), and then actually pass. Maybe you fake a drive (jab), fake it again (another jab), fake the shot (your defender jumps), and instead of driving you zip a quick pass to the guy whose man jumps to help your defender. The point is be creative in the different fakes you use and the timings of these fakes.

UNPREDICTABILITY… don’t give it up.

I hate being that “you should of seen it” guy, but I swear I had one of the coldest step-through fakes in practice on Tuesday. I was outside of my normal bag, and I believe the only reason I did it was because I had set the intention to search out fakes.

Use more fakes and see how much more in control of your opponents you become.

Mindset Ideas I’ve Been Workshopping

Who to Look Up To

I have a teammate this year who is a 20-year old, Angolan kid (my guy Eduuuuuuuu) who is an absolute freak of nature. If you watch this week’s YouTube vlog, then you will see a glimpse of his potential. He is a beast, plain and simple, but like any young hooper he is navigating the process of owning his development.

He has to figure out what it takes to become who he wants to be as both a basketball player and a person.

Everybody goes through this process, including myself, and I came to this simple advice or theme or whatever you want to call it:

Find someone who is where you want to be and closer to who you want to become, and do things similar to what they did.

AND… (even better if you can)… spend as much time around them as you can.

You have to be really picky in who this person is, but once you do make up your mind the concept is simple.

Do as they did.

The secrets to you accomplishing your dreams are in the journeys of those that have already accomplished them.

From my perspective, for Edu, the simple answer is my veteran teammate, Betinho Gomes. Now 39 years-old, Beto has played at the highest levels in Europe (Euroleague and Spanish ACB) and grew his game from an athletic young hooper to a polished, skilled, sharp-shooting position 3-4. Beto has his routine to take care of his body down to a science with the same 20-minute stretching routine after every practice and even at his age puts in extra focused shooting work outside of our team practices.

The answer of how Edu can get the best chances of achieving his dreams seem to be crystal clear to me.

Do as Beto does/did.

High-Level Decision Making

My wife and I are in the process of one of the bigger decisions of our life up to this point, buying a house. As we have been looking at houses and touring them through FaceTime (the joys of the overseas basketball lifestyle), we have had very intense evaluations of the houses after each one of these tours.

We both noticed that initially we would say blanket statements like, “I liked that backyard” or “The location was bad”. These statements did next to nothing to help improve or validate our decision making. We needed to be more specific in our communication and thought processes.

Once we began being more specific in our evaluations, our decision making became much more clearer. There was a clear benefit in being able to articulate what we were evaluating. The process has become less overwhelming and more enjoyable.

This learning can be applied to basketball.

As we grow as basketball players and encounter new scenarios, defenses, plays, teams, environments, simply newness. It is essential that we practice the skill of describing what it is that we are actually experiencing, learning, and doing.

We can’t run a play a couple times and say “we don’t like it” without being able to say why we do not like it or why we think it does not work.

What are you seeing?

What are you evaluating?

Tell me. Tell yourself. this is how you can actually learn the game and learn to how to make decisions.

This may have been a bit of a reach, but I really do not think so.

Practice articulating your “why’s”.

Sunday YouTube Drop

I had one of my crazier game day experiences in my career this last Saturday. We flew 3-hours on a little plane and played on the same day on a Portuguese island in the Atlantic Ocean.

Fun stuff… I can only get these experiences from overseas basketball.

If you have not already, then you should check it out.

How to Workout Better:

@treydrechsel

How I Structure my Basketball Workouts as Current Pro Hooper in Season! #probasketballplayer #basketballworkouts #probasketballworkout #pr... See more

@treydrechsel

Simple Ways to Get Better at Basketball From a Current Pro Hooper 🔥🤝🏻 #probasketball #prohooper #simpleways #simplebasketballtraining #pro... See more

I’ll Leave You With This:

I am proud of what we are building here.

It has not been the most glamorous or beautiful, but it has been ours.

Atypical is becoming closer and closer to what I imagined it to be, and it is not possible without your support and your commitment to growth and learning.

I am eternally thankful and excited for what is to come.

I hope you are too.

Love..

Trey