Glenn Robinson III’s savvy back cuts are back

We all know Glenn Robinson III can shoot and defend. But an underappreciated part of his game is his ability to cut.

Glenn Robinson III is back. He hasn’t yet been fully unleashed; Nate McMillan has many times explained that the team is going to be cautious and slow with Robinson’s return to action. But we have gotten to see 52 minutes of the young wing, and in that time he has shown us that he can still do everything that makes him so effective.

He’s spacing the floor thanks to his lethal three-point shooting in the two seasons prior to this one. He has been effective guarding opposing wings and even got a steal on his very first possession back on the floor (okay, it was credited to Victor Oladipo, but Robinson was the one who actually stole the ball):

But defense and shooting were the two things we knew Robinson would bring; he’s been good at them for a long time. The worry was and continues to be: how much athleticism and speed did Robinson lose in his four-month absence?

That fear lies mostly in cutting. Robinson was a great cutter last season and finished in the 60.7 percentile on that play type. He would often cook his matchup if he fell asleep, and he would run through the lane with urgency every chance he got in order to make the defense move and react. This season, with a different role and coming off of an injury, there was some trepidation that Robinson would lose that youthful exuberance when cutting.

The early returns suggest that those dismays were for naught. Robinson is cutting on 11.8 percent of his possessions, which is actually an increase over last season where he only jolted around on 9.8 percent of his trips down to the offensive end.

Robinson himself has only taken one shot off of a cut so far, but he canned it. To be more specific, he slammed it. Remember his captivating give-and-go with Myles Turner against Dallas?

What a handsome possession. That was a perfect give-and-go between Turner and GR3, but don’t discount the exemplary cut Robinson made. He intentionally faded both slowly and precisely towards the baseline and away from the defenders. This maximized the space Turner had to hit him with the pass, and boom, easy dunk.

Speaking of flawless possessions involving a Glenn Robinson cut:

My goodness, that play design. Ideally what happens is Robinson was to receive a dribble handoff from Sabonis, and then Joe Young would curl around a flare screen from Thaddeus Young and be open for a three on the right wing, where Robinson would set him up with the pass.

But GR3 saw a better idea, and he took the opening. With his opponent, Taurean Prince, overplaying to stop the handoff, he jab steps toward the play before back-cutting along the baseline. Sabonis nails him with the pass, and with Robinson cutting right toward an open rim, the defense is forced to rotate and converge under the hoop. This frees up Thad, and GR3 finds him for the simple-as-you-like deuce.

And then, again, in the same game, he caught another Atlanta Hawk with his pants down! This time, Tyler Dorsey got burned:

Unfortunately, this time Robinson dribbled the ball off his foot out of bounds. But as soon as he saw Dorsey cheating to stop the DHO, he cut behind him and would have had an easy assist to Lance Stephenson in the weakside corner if the ball didn’t carom out of bounds off his foot.

Next: The Victoregression is real for Victor Oladipo

Robinson has already subsided my personal fears that he would be a less effective cutter post-injury. He is flying into space any chance he can get. It is opening up worlds for the Indiana Pacers’ offense. It is truly a spectacle to watch.