You take two hard steps at the ball, show your chest and your hands, and then you get back to your man. You never really left. The point is to make the driver pick up his dribble, change direction, or throw the pass a beat early, without the defense having to rotate behind you.
A stunt is a bluff, and like any bluff it only works if it looks like the real thing.
Why coaches use it
Every rotation costs something. If your low man genuinely helps, somebody has to cover for him, and then somebody has to cover for that. A stunt gets much of the effect for none of the price: the drive slows down, the offense makes a decision under pressure, and all five defenders are still attached when the ball is swung.
It is also how a defense buys time. Two stunts from two different directions on the same drive usually end with the ball being picked up at the elbow with nothing to do.
The word gets used two ways. Most staffs say stunt for a fake at a driver and dig for a hand at the ball on a post-up. Others use the two words interchangeably. Agree on one before you put it in a scouting report.
How to attack it
- Read the feet, not the hands. If his feet are still under him, he is bluffing. Keep going.
- Play through the flinch. A stunt is designed to make you quit the dribble. If you pick the ball up every time somebody shows, you are guarding yourself.
- Punish the man he left. A stunter is out of position for about half a second. Post splits and drive-and-kick reads are built on that half second.
- Drive at his outside shoulder. Stunting from the top foot leaves the baseline side open, and the other way around.