No one in the NBA scored more points last year as a pick-and-roll ballhandler than Kemba Walker. He loves to attack, with nearly 28 percent of Walker’s shots (5.7 per game) coming from within the restricted area last season.

So watching Kemba Walker with the Boston Celtics means you’ll see a guard who often finds his way toward the rim. Because he’s smaller than most guards, he has to find crafty ways to finish once he’s there. Here’s a look at five different ways he likes to finish around the rim.

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Floaters

This is a staple of a smaller guard’s repertoire. A floater is a great way to get the ball up and over a shot blocker parked in his way, but it’s hard to pull off consistently.

In this one you’ll notice how he slows down a little and lets Ricky Rubio bump him. Walker isn’t getting to the line at James Harden levels, but he knows how to manipulate a defender to get contact. He didn’t get the call here, but he was fishing for one while still staying in control enough to finish.

Set aside the fact that he landed on JaVale McGee’s foot and focus on the very fluid use of the pick to lauch a pretty floater from the free throw line.

It looks simple but floaters aren’t natural shots. They are lofted higher than most and because of that generally have less spin, so bounces are less forgiving.

Spin Move

A good spin move can clear just enough space to get a shot off. A defender is going one way, then the offensive player uses that defender’s body and momentum to suddenly spin and change direction.

Why the spin here?

Walker probably always wanted to go right, but with Marcus Smart guarding him, there was little chance of success. But by going left and spinning, he got to the same spot he wanted but he forced Smart to recover a little more slowly than he would have on, say, a crossover dribble.

He tried to do the same to Giannis Antetokounmpo, and though it didn’t work exactly the same, it still got Antetokounmpo off balance and out of position enough that he couldn’t really challenge the shot. Walker has no chance of scoring here straight up, but the spin changed Antetokounmpo’s momentum and pushed him underneath the rim, which neutralizes him a bit.

Hesitation dribbles

This isn’t necessarily a finish around the rim as much as it is a way to clear a path for easy layups. So on this move, the creativity comes a tick earlier, and it eliminates some of the degree of difficulty.

This one is a beauty.

I’ve said this before and I probably will again, but he ability to change speeds effectively is probably more important than just being fast as a basketball player.

The first element to this hesitation move is when Walker kicks into a full sprint right as he hits mid-court. Walker is an above average 3-point shooter, so the hesitation at the top get the defender to start changing direction. Because the defender is reacting and the offensive player knows what moves he’s going to make, that change in direction is the killer.

Walker went from five feet away to past his defender in less than a second, and that got him the space he needed for the layup.

It works in the halfcourt too. This hesitation is a little different. It’s goal isn’t to change a player’s momentum like in the last clip. This one is to keep Al Horford flat-footed, which adds quickness to Walker’s first step. Because Horford has to account for a pull-up jumper or a drive, he’s kind of stuck.

Using the rim as protection

Reverse layups look fancy, but they serve a purpose. If a guard has a defender on his back, getting to the other side of the rim puts an obstacle, the rim itself, between him and the defender.

With Marcus Smart on his back and a step on Aron Baynes, Walker takes off just under the basket with full confidence the shot won’t be blocked. Marcus Morris is occupied with the shooter in the corner, so Walker has a pretty clean look at a layup.

Smaller guards are really good at using their bodies to create space as well. Watch Walker slow down a little, create contact with Rudy Gobert, and use that bump to create separation while also using the rim as protection against an elite shot blocker.

He does it very well here, too:

It’s probably subtle to you, but it’s not to Gobert, who is taking elbow to the gut while trying to chase Walker down. When little guys get into the basketball trenches, they have to do what they can to send a message to big guys to keep their distance.

The quick-jump layup

There’s a reason I chose to show you the reverse layup first. Because when defenders see it first, they start to anticipate it. Instead of chasing and being blocked off by the rim, they take a different angle to try and contest the reverse layup.

That’s when Walker goes to one of his favorite moves, a quick-jump layup on the right side.

Walker saw Embiid tracking him for a reverse layup. Since he didn’t have the defender on his back, Walker stopped on a dime and laid it in. You can see Embiid’s momentum going the other way, so he couldn’t do much to challenge the shot.

Watch Walker’s feet. He doesn’t take the normal gather and two steps. He just bounces right up with a quick jump, which keeps the big off balance.

When a guard gathers the ball and takes steps, the big can time his jump. The quick jump is surprising, and therefore a guy like Serge Ibaka, who has been known to block some shots, is left flat-footed. It’s not that Ibaka got lazy there, he was just waiting for something else and this happened too quickly for him to react.

Walker is excellent at reading these situation and deploying an array of finishes. Keep an eye out for all of these either in the FIBA World Cup next month, or once the season begins.