Devin Merker: How I Made the Leap to Becoming an All County High School Basketball Player

Devin Merker playing as a freshman for Pascack Valley High School.

As a skinny, 6 foot freshman playing in his first varsity basketball game against older, more physical players, Pascack Valley High School shooting guard Devin Merker felt overmatched and overwhelmed. “My first game was against Ramapo, and I ended up scoring one point,” Devin said. “I looked like a deer in headlights.” 

The overwhelmed feeling didn’t last long.

Devin steadily improved each season, as he took on more responsibilities for the team. In his senior year, Devin surpassed the 1,000 point milestone and was selected First Team All-Bergen County. As a senior, he even had a 36 point outing against West Milford in a state playoff game, despite playing only about half the game in a blowout win.

Devin explained the three main reasons why he was able to take such a huge leap as a high school basketball player.

Getting Stronger

Devin said that the biggest reason why he was able to improve in high school was by putting on weight and getting stronger. As a freshman, Devin recalled “playing against seniors who were three to four years older. I got pushed around, especially when I had to guard bigger guys.”

Between his sophomore and junior seasons, Devin gained 15 pounds - going from 170 to 185 - and said that the impact was immediately noticeable. “When I was getting backed down, I wasn’t budging. And when I was backing people down, they were moving more,” he said.

By getting stronger, Devin was able to drive and finish against physical defenders.

Devin didn’t have a specific nutrition plan for gaining weight but pretty much ate anything and everything to counteract all the energy he was expending on the basketball court. “I was actively trying to eat more,” he said, including lots of protein shakes and his go-to-meal of chicken and rice.

At the same time, he started strength training 2 - 3 days per week with his trainer Juwan “JuJu” Griffith. His workouts consisted of standard barbell lifts such as squats and bench presses, done in an explosive yet controlled way. The goal wasn’t to max out but to perform about 5 explosive reps per set. In addition, Devin went to Retro Fitness with his friends and brother to lift weights. 

The results began to show.

“If you’re physically able to compete with guys that are older than you and bigger than you,” Devin observed, “everything else will come along if you’re a skilled player.”

Devin’s only regret was that he didn’t start strength training earlier. He believes that going into freshman year would’ve been the optimal time. “If you’re trying to be a varsity athlete, you need to be physically prepared and that’s the best time to do it,” he said.

Basketball Training

Devin doesn’t come from a basketball family and didn’t rely on basketball trainers, like so many youngsters today. Instead, he derived inspiration by watching a lot of NBA games and trying to emulate his favorite players such as Kevin Durant. His overall philosophy was to keep the game simple.

For example, one of Devin’s biggest strengths is his shooting ability. “I’m a 6’3” not very athletic guy so shooting has to be my calling card,” Devin said.

During his freshman year, Devin noticed that he had a “disgusting” thumb flick on his jump shot, which caused his shot to fall short. So he tried to correct this deficiency by doing form shooting around the hoop, getting tons of reps with his thumb off the ball until it became muscle memory. He also practiced on the shooting gun, getting up 400 - 500 shots in an hour. 

Devin shooting with more consistency after eliminating his thumb flick. Photo provided by Devin Merker.

Also, for Devin’s freshman and sophomore years, there were a bunch of seniors on the team and he was the third option at best. “All I did was sit in the corner and hit some 3s,” he said.  But after the upperclassmen on the team graduated and Devin became the primary scoring option, he realized that he needed to work more on shooting off the dribble and getting to the rim.

Devin didn’t practice fancy dribble moves, the kind you see in Instagram highlight videos. His goal was simply to master the one dribble pull-up jumper. He noted that “if you have that move down pat, then everything else comes based off that because you can add counters. Once the defender sits on the one dribble pull up, then you can hesi and get to the rim.”

Devin also practiced different combo moves into a pull-up, such as dribbling through the legs into a shot, using Kevin Durant as inspiration.

When Devin mentioned KD, it made me think about a move that I had seen Devin execute numerous times throughout high school that reminded me so much of KD: a two foot jump stop in the paint, followed by a turnaround jumper over a helpless defender. Devin confirmed that this was one of his signature moves. 

He said that the move is “all about patience. With that move, unless there’s a really tall defender, it’s impossible to block.” Devin emphasized that the ability to play off two feet is super important in high school. 

Devin executing a two foot jump stop in the lane.

Once Devin felt that he got a move down in an empty gym, he wasn’t afraid to try it out against elite competition. Devin would rep out his moves during practices and games while playing for the NJ Beasts, a top AAU team. “AAU is important but it’s not the end of the world if you mess up,” Devin said. 

Mental Approach

When Devin was a freshman, another challenge he faced was learning a playbook that consisted of more than 40 plays, all of which had to be executed to perfection. “It took about my entire freshman year to learn all the plays that Coach Coleman had,” Devin said. “Each practice was a mental battle because we’d go through all the plays, and if you didn’t know them, get off the court.”

Devin would go over the plays in his own head at home and try to explain them to family members. He knew that the coach could call out any play during a game at any time, so he had to be prepared. 

High school was also when Devin said he developed a love for film study. “From my freshman year, I was obsessed with film,” he said. “Any time off in school I had, if I finished my work or was bored in class, instead of watching a Netflix show, I’d just watch film.”

Devin said that you have to be honest when analyzing yourself on film. Devin would watch film with the aim of finding where he messed up, from taking a bad shot to botching a play, so he could do better the next time.

As Devin prepares to join the Middlebury College basketball team in the fall, he said that he’s back to square one: getting stronger so that he can compete against grown men. He also wants to work on becoming a knock down shooter since that will be his role in college.

I asked Devin for any final words of wisdom for younger hoopers.

“Work on improving your weaknesses but also really perfect your strengths,” he said. “Play to your style. That’s how you become the best version of yourself.”