Strickland could cross up anyone

Sure, helps Strickland that Jordan already knows a pick is coming, but it still takes a really quick move to get the separation he needed to get his shot off cleanly here.

He used spin moves that didn’t make sense

No one does a spin move that exposes the ball to the help-side defender. It makes it way too easy for a defender to come in and poke the ball away or get an easy block. Besides, even if you got through cleanly, you’d still have to pivot off your weak foot and throw up a hard shot off-balance. Why even bother?

Because you’re Rod Strickland, that’s why.

He created shot opportunities out of thin air

Rod was a perfectly average sized point guard with average to below-average hops, depending on what he ate before games. Nothing about his physique suggests he should have been an elite scorer in the paint. But he just had that innate ability to wiggle through traffic and position himself at just the right spot to avoid the block and get the right spin off the glass to make the bucket.

His quick hands opened up so many opportunities in transition

I bet Rod could’ve been great at video games, if he was into that kind of stuff.

He was a master of chasing down loose balls while still looking ahead for transition opportunities

No seriously, he was really good at it

Really, really, really good at it

This is pure sorcery. Who else can just fling a crosscourt pass over their head to set up a pass that finds its man in stride, on the bounce, for an easy score?

For as great as Strickland was in halfcourt sets at wiggling around until he found a scoring opportunity for himself or someone else, I’d argue his best skill was his ability to create those unique scoring opportunities that most point guards missed either because of a lack of vision or a lack of courage to make the risky pass.