sorry, just now saw this. what i mean is that, 99% of the time, when a kid is 13 and that tall, he's very gangly and uncoordinated. out of those kids, the ones that play basketball just naturally start playing inside because of their advantage over the other kids. so in response to the article, who gives a bleep about all the post moves they listed. the reason this kid should be intriguing is that based on the video, it appears he can dribble the ball like a guard. he was showing some nice crossover moves. for a 13 year old that is 5'7 or whatever, not a big deal, but this is a 6'6 13 year old doing that stuff. if he continues growing as expected, he's going to be extremely, extremely versatile. for a talented guy - big man moves can be developed in a week. i'm serious. look at any of these pg's in the NBA - i guarantee you they all can do jump hooks and all that other stuff 10x better than the bigs. it's because they are so coordinated and skilled from a young age. (they don't do it obviously because of the size.) it just seems futile for most bigs to be able to learn post moves because for the most part, they are usually oafs who haven't been playing their whole lives. these guards HAVE. so the point is that this kid already has that. he can dribble and will have post moves. the story here is that he can dribble. terrible article. /rant
I'm not in any position of knowledge to refute this, but this statement just seem so wrong. IMHO NBA big man moves seem to be the hardest skills to learn, that's why low post guys are a dying breed because no one wants to invest time anymore on working on scoring with your back to the basket. The NBA has a lot of coordinated, fairly athletic big men, with DH being a prime example. If Big men moves were so easy to learn, how come it took him only this year to show glimpses of post work? Hell, Kareem's been working with Bynum for several years now and he's still kinda' raw.
You must be about 6 feet tall, or less. Every bit of that is just false, false, false, false... You are basically saying that guards are more skilled than bigs, which is just false. I don't know what else to say. It is remarkable that someone could say that a guard can shoot a better jump hook than a big that has worked on that exact shot his ENTIRE life... Do you really think that Steve Nash and Jason Kidd can shoot better jump hooks on eachother than Al Jefferson can on someone else his size? Tim Duncan? Kevin Garnett? Yao Ming? Can TJ Ford or Derrick Rose or Chris Paul do a better drop-step than Shaq? A "simple drop-step" cannot be learned in a week, It takes hours and hours to master. Most guards do not have it in their arsenal, because it is impractical. Take the hook for instance. Kareem worked his entire life to master the hook, and NO guard that ever played had a nicer hook than Kareem. It was beautiful. Magic (A guard) tried to incorporate it into his game, but it was just not that effective despite his similar height advantage. Kobe might be the most dynamic guard the NBA has ever seen, and he sought out the greatest big man of all time, to learn his big man moves. And make no mistake, those ARE big man moves. All in back to the basket, low block situations. Like the guard game, the post game has layers upon layers of intricasies. Most guards do not grasp these. It is either shoot a 3, or drive to the hoop and get fouled. VERY few guards have an effective post game. One good example of a player that does is Sam Cassell, Far and few between.
The reason they seem to be so difficult to learn is simply because most of these big guys are so unskilled and uncoordinated to begin with. Please don't mistake athleticism for skill/coordination. You have to realize that for guys that big, it is very difficult to gain skills and coordination. It's nothing intrinsic to the skill itself - it's the players. Most of these guards, due to being normal sized and playing ball since they were 5 years old, are already at such a high level of skill and coordination, that they either already can do post moves or could easily pick it up. You never see it because there is no use for a point guard to be posting people up. But when you do see guys like Andre Miller posting Aaron Brooks up, you see a level of fluidity that is much greater than most big men. Look at that Steve Francis video from some summer game where he is posting guys up and doing fadeaways. You have to realize that NBA guards possess an extremely high skill level. Post moves can easily be garnered for them due to what they already can do.
This is a strawman argument. You just listed the premiere bigs in the league to argue your point. My point is in general - NBA guards are much more skilled than NBA bigs. You can't use the cream of the crop to refute that point. Guards don't do it because its not practical for them. Why would a 6'3 guard spend time working on post moves? Again, you're using the most extreme outlier in NBA history - Hakeem Olajuwan. The point is in general. Most of these bigs are extremely unskilled and uncoordinated. That's the reason most bigs don't have post games. Its nothing intrinsic to the post game itself that is keeping these players at a level of suck. Generally speaking, NBA guards are much, much, much more skilled than bigs.
Why wouldn't they? Granted, I somewhat agree with your premise. As someone who lacks in the athleticism department, but excels in the co-ordination department, I've had an arsenal of post moves my whole life....and I do think you're right, with coordination, it isn't that hard. Learn to feel the defender on your back, and you almost always have a natural advantage one way or another. Add some athleticism, and it definitely helps. That said, if what you say is true, and given the lack of quality big men in the NBA today, one would think that you would see guards doing it more. A few guards do - Billups, Deron Williams occasionally....but not often. Inverted offenses, when run successfully, can be a struggle for a defensive team to adjust to and stop, so you would think you'd see more of it...
It's not practical for a 6'3 guard for sure. It's a great tool for a 6'5"+ guard. http://bbs.clutchfans.net/forumdisplay.php?f=9&page=2&sort=lastpost&order=&pp=20&daysprune=7
How about TJ Ford an Mo Taylor? Or Steve Blake and Luis Scola? Jameer Nelson and Antawn Jamison? Chris Duhon and Zydrunas Ilgauskas? Mike Bibby and Antonio McDyess? I understand that there are clumsy big men that play basketball, but to actually make it to the greatest league in the world, you have to have more than just size. Sure, I would agree, If an average NBA big was Peter John Ramos or Darko Milicic. I think, generally speaking, bigs are much more skilled on the inside and that guards are much more skilled on the outside. Great players can do both, like Dirk Nowitzki, Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant and Sam Cassell.
I agree with what thecabbage is saying in the sense that big men are generally way less coordinated than guards. Yao is a perfect example, as clumsy and slow as he sometimes looks, he's literally a ballerina compared to all of the other super-tall players to play the game. (Muresean, Bradley, Bol) **And dwight is very fluid... except when he has the ball in his hands. Ball handling skills are VERY hard to learn after you already have become and NBA player whereas a postgame will take a lot of practice, but is doable. (Hakeem, Kobe, MJ, Cassell... these guys added a lot of their postup game well into their career) Of the top of my head I really cant think of any player who added ball handling skills after already being an established NBA player. The best example I can think of is Andre Iguodala but I recall him having some playmaking responsibilities at Arizona before coming to Philly and being more or less a role player during his first two years. The one thing that is tough to gauge by that video is his athleticism, that will have a huge impact on the type of player he can be also.
first of all, even though the kid is considered big for his age, he only has NBA guard size without even factoring his lack of bulk. second, there was nothing in the clip that even showed that he had NBA guard handles or even college guard handles. i saw one crossover dribble and three steps to the basket for a dunk. Ariza can do that. i saw one other two dribble move to get by his man and then three steps while carrying the ball for another dunk. again, Ariza can do that, Battier too once upon a time; does Battier even dunk anymore? i know you are allowed that third step when jumping to the basket, and refs don't care what you do with the ball once you're in the air; palming carrying, holding against the body, whatever. the thing is, even Shaq and Yao have handles. Shaq can crossover, spin, go coast-to-coast; Yao can dribble behind his back while running past traffic. if Yao was a foot shorter, had arms a little longer, hands a little bigger (Yao has small hands for his size), he wouldn't lose the ball as much as he does. that doesn't even factor his greatly increased speed with or without the ball, although he wouldn't be able to dunk the ball. most serious basketball players (bigs included) don't start playing when they're fully grown and "awkward." they play when they're young and develop basketball skills. bigs don't lose their limited handles. they just become less effective; the ball has to bounce further, they have to stoop more to protect the ball, reducing their speed off the dribble which has already become slower due to their size. handling the ball is no longer a strength (if it was) and usually no longer seriously practiced. there are thousands of high school kids over 6' 5" with similar or better handles as Wiggins. most of them don't have his ability to dunk. you can't teach athleticism, although you can develop decent handles over time. for an eight grader, the kid is very impressive; he'll probably make varsity his freshman year (Jordan didn't even make the team his sophomore year).
i was just reading in my anatomy book that kids take steroids as young as 5th grade for sports which is way younger than I would have thought. I wonder if any of these monster sized kids have taken HGH to get bigger during puberty
