That all elite athletes train this way. There is no value in any elite athlete playing pickup against randoms beyond high school when you might be able to find some decent players to challenge you. So all the brehs saying Kuminga needs to run pickup in the park are out to lunch. Guys who are “soft” in the NBA or “robotic” or have “no bag” would look like the best player you’ve seen in your life against regular brehs.
Plus pickup with randoms is where you pick up bad habits that show up against real hoopers.
If elite athletes are playing pickup it needs to be against other top athletes.
There was a point where I was good enough at basketball (I’m trash now) where playing pickup was useless to me. I could stop anybody on D and beat triple teams from random brehs. Once you get that good it’s just wasted time to play pickup. You don’t get better, you get worse. And it’s boring.
And I wasn't even a super serious athlete. I was just decent as far as real hoopers go. But when you’re exposed to real hoopers — college level players and pros — you realize there’s a huge chasm between guys who run in the park and guys who take it seriously.