There’s the way he calls for the rock down low. Rather than the typical showing of the palm to the entry-passer, Burns cups his hand and gives the ‘come here’ motion, wiggling his fingers as if he was a schoolteacher inviting a student to a quiet discussion at the front of the classroom. When the hand goes up, you imagine his defender letting out the same chagrined sigh a student would. Here we go again.

But this is where the fun begins, for the rest of us.

It starts with Burns’ 6’9-and-275-pound frame, which has been covered mostly as a circus-like oddity, less so for the way he uses it to excel on the court. Burns is stronger than every individual defender he’s faced during NC State’s eight-game winning streak to the Sweet 16, including UNC’s Armando Bacot. In the ACC Championship Game, the Tar Heels largely defended Burns straight up, allowing the big man to patiently bulldoze his way to 20 points:

This is no slight to Bacot, but rather a lesson to the rest of NC State’s opponents. If even the 6’11” 24-year-old can’t bother Burns, you better come up with a different defensive strategy. And no, half-hearted help defense isn’t going to cut it either: Burns is unfairly hand-eye coordinated for someone of his size.

Prolonging the dribble is a skill associated with elite guard-play, but Burns can maintain a live dribble no matter how physical his defender gets, no matter how many digs come from the perimeter. Thus, his post-up opportunities can cover 20 feet or last for ten seconds if you’re not careful:

But Burns hasn’t just displayed incredible strength, coordination, and touch during March. He has the finer points of post-up basketball down, and while the ‘chess-match’ analogy is incredibly overused, it comes to mind when watching Burns treat help defenders defenders like pawns.

If the path to a bucket isn’t to his liking, Burns is eager to throw the ball back out and re-post. On the following play against Texas Tech, the big man twice looks toward the middle, sees too much traffic, and kicks it out before ultimately finishing with a sweeping hook. Burns isn’t solely doing this to re-establish position — though he does that too — but to clear extra defenders out of the way. Look at #2 in white evacuate the area that Burns will steam through after the second pass.

His teammates deserve their share of credit too, doing all they can to revive the art of entry-passing. But of course they’re eager to throw it down to the big fella, who predictably combines his physical traits and court-mapping ability to create opportunities for others.

Burns has posted at least four assists in five of his last nine games, and the crown jewel of his passing performances came against Oakland in the round of 32. No zone defense is particularly amenable to post play, and especially not Oakland’s zone, a funky 1-3-1/matchup hybrid. Help defenders can attack post-ups from all sorts of angles, and while the Golden Grizzlies tried to do so against Burns, they were rarely successful.

On this play, he heads middle to test the waters, but it’s just a test, so he keeps his dribble alive at the sight of two defenders. This allows him to spin back baseline, attracting another wave of help, which leaves teammate Mohamed Diarra open under the basket:

NC State Head Coach Kevin Keatts posted Burns in the middle of the floor against Oakland, and what a luxury it was. Not only was there the typical help defender at the top of the key, but one in the strong-side corner as well. Burns was operating in a hail-storm, and it hardly phased him; his highlight of the game came here, when both of those helpers converged to create a triple-team. They would have been successful against any other player:

To review: Leaving Burns on an island is untenable; he’ll overwhelm his individual defender, and he’ll shoo away lackluster digs. He also has the smarts to bend help defense to his whim whether he wants to score the rock or dish it off. And even if you do bring the blitz, even it gets home on time, good luck ripping the ball away from DJ Burns.

There is one move that encapsulates the DJ Burns Experience, and I hope you didn’t think I was going to forget it. It’s the spin move, the spin that likely birthed his ‘Smooth Operator’ nickname, simultaneously graceful and violent, but poetic all the same.

When Burns feels a defender’s forearm on his back, it’s just a matter of time before he flips the equation. In the blink of an eye, Burns is digging his elbow into the back of the defender.

This is everything we’ve grown to love about his game. Burns uses the move to both get by his defender and escape help defense. And while it’s one thing to use a spin move in the post, it’s another to do so with a live dribble. Not just any live dribble either, but one that almost puts a dent in the hardwood; he spins so violently, it’s surprising he can even control the ball again, but there’s that hand-eye coordination.

There’s a lot to love about DJ Burns. Plenty of basketball players are big, but not many combine size and strength with all the skills and smarts he possesses. Of course, all that talent hasn’t just made Burns a fan favorite during NC State’s eight-game winning streak.

It’s made him impossible to guard.

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