Howard: "talked to Hakeem Olajuwon, he inspired me"

It was basically in response to you calling Barkley a Joke on teaching Howard..

Charles was a helluva POST Player and some of these guys should feel honored with Charles teaching them anyting..

As tinman stated CB would run circles around these guys in his prime..... Unfortunately most people remember Barkley when he was a Rocket and was on the down hill of his career and not when he was with the sixers and just a Freakin Monster on the Boards and in the blocks.

 

Charles was good as a Rocket too.

 

Most of the posts about Barkley in this thread was a bit of poking fun at his offer to teach Dwight, before a couple of you went off tangent on how he's being underestimated as a player.

Dwight would be better served going to Hakeem just as Shaq did after Shaq got his ass whopped by the Dream in the finals. Pick up a few (counter) moves to complement his brute force in the post. Also, gain some focus on playing the center position with the will to dominate EVERY game.

 

Yeah he was... Not taking anything away from that... But man watching him and Hakeem when they were younger was priceless...

They both changed their positions and how it was played...

T_Man

 

Canadiandude, no disrespect but what makes you think that Barkley can't teach him how to play the low post position? From your statement you make it sounds as if Barkley knows nothing about playing on the blocks.

So from your statement a player should be taught by another player who's similar to his style. If that's true then Yao should have been taught by Kareem and not Ewing.

 

Now, juxtaposing what you said earlier:

[/QUOTE=T_Man]He ran the court like a 3, could shoot like a 2, post up like a 4, run the fast break like a 1 and play D like a 5.....[/Quote]

Hence my remark about the relevance of Barkley's overall game in regards to teaching Howard on the post. Barkley's work ethic has been made fun of by his peers, and no matter, Dwight has better options as far as seeking a Post Moves 101 professor.

 

Lol! Patrick Ewing shadowed by Hakeem yet again.

 

Well, if I was Howard, I'd seek the best help possible. Barkley just is not any where near the top of that list. Hakeem obviously knows the nuances of playing the post better than Charles. I know Charles was one helluva player... his basketball IQ far underestimated. But combine his laziness and penchant for obsolete post tactics, Howard is better served to go to the master of post moves, which are relevant to the rules that are now in place. Hence Kobe seeks out the Dream, along with several others.

 

Hence my remark about the relevance of Barkley's overall game in regards to teaching Howard on the post. Barkley's work ethic has been made fun of by his peers, and no matter, Dwight has better options as far as seeking a Post Moves 101 professor.[/QUOTE]

But this isn't about his work ethic... be that what it may...

It's about him having the knowledge and know how to teach Dwight on how to play the low post. Barkley was taught by the same teacher as Hakeem... Moses Malone and they went to the same Big Man school Pete Newell...

So his work ethnic has nothing to do with this... The knowledge and experience that Barkley has is priceless, the same goes for Hakeem. Barkley may not have been 7'0, but he played as if he were 8'0.. He went up agains some of the best low post guys in the league and held his own at 6'4.

So again, I don't get why Barkley can't teach Dwight or why it would be a joke?

 

The same reason why Barkley kissed an ass.

 

Under the guidance of Chewing, to put it kindly, Howard is playing robotic on offense. Don't get me wrong tho, Howard's defense under Ewing has gone through the roof.

 

If you aren't inspired by hakeem, then you have no soul.
Good for dwight.

 

Nice...

Again, you try to have a nice decent mature converstion with out any disrespect and then BAM!!!!

So i will say that was a very good and intelligent answer.......

 

As i stated before, everything starts with the jump hook. Howard will never be a dancer like garnett,dream,or mchale on the blocks and he doesnt have to be. Left and right jump hooks and pick and pop 14ft er would put him on another level in todays game. He would avg 27 ppg just by adding those 2 elements.

 

No players post moves work perfectly for another guy. Everyone has their own particular style.

The Key to effective post play is to have at least one polished move supplemented by at least one polished countermove. Dream is an aberration in that he had every move...but guys can still be extremely effective with only one real go to move and one good countermove. It's all about getting to YOUR spots on the floor, and using leverae to create openings.

Take Shaq--the bulk of his offensive game was either right-handed baby hook or drop step spin. It's only two moves, but because of his power and quickness, possessing those two moves means he could get a quality shot every possession. If you watch Howard play, he doesn't manage to get a quality shot too much of the time.

Scola is another example--he looks, aggressively, for his right handed hook, which is very effective. Because defenders know this, it opens up the scoop-spin and the up and under. Yao is the same way, but he supplements his right handed hook with a left handed hook and turnaround jumper.

So really, regardless of who teaches Dwight, they need to teach him a couple things:

1. Proper form on his hook. It's gross. The elbow is bent. It has no touch. He relies on shooting a running hook and getting the edge on his guy too much, and doesnt have proper form to get a hook up and over. He needs to learn Correct Hook Form . Compare that, to, uh, this (pardon the random chinese commentary..it's the most representative clip i could find in 30 secs)

2. Once the form is proper, he needs to practice shooting hooks with tennis balls, golf balls, medicine balls, etc, just to learn proper touch. He seems to have trouble blending his explosiveness with finesse around the hoop. Working with differently weighted balls, particularly lighter ones, forces you to control your shot with fingers and wrist as opposed to just shot-putting it.

3. He needs to develop a counter move to that hook that is go-to quality, like a baseline spin drop-step. He needs to be able to go from one move to the other fluidly. His current pet move--the running hook--doesn't allow for a countermove because the dribble is already lost. He commits to making just one move and doesn't force the defense to react to him, and because of that, he winds up with bad shots sometimes.

I don't know who should teach him this, but these are pete newell basics. You'll hear carroll dawson say the same things. Honestly, it's frustrating to watch.

 

That's basically the cliffs notes version of the rant i just went on. Exactly correct.

 

Becoming a consistent 3 pt shooter is not on the same skill level as developing a post up game. You can shoot by yourself in an empty gym and just shoot a thousand 3 balls. So while I get the general idea of Robert Horry becoming a more consistent 3 pt shooter over the summer, it's really not in the same ballpark as DH trying to develop a post up game. More skills are involved in a post up game.

I don't know what couple of years you are referring to in Dream's basketball career, but if you are referring to his first couple of years in the NBA, then I'd remind you that Hakeem already had range on his jumper and had a turnaround jumper, just needed more consistency on them. He showed having this when still in college. He wasn't *all* power.

And I disagree with the notion that DH can develop post moves like Hakeem (actually not many can so not really fair to say that). Leeb mentioned Kevin Willis as someone to follow and that's not a bad comparison. I'd say someone like Alonzo Mourning is another player to emulate for DH, Zo had decent post moves and even had a jumper.

I'm sure DH can learn a lot of things from Hakeem if they practiced together, but I'm fairly confident DH will never learn to do the Dreamshake nor develop an up and under move. I'll be very surprised if he ever develops a jumper, much less a turnaround jumper. He's actually quick enough to do the baseline spin move but I wouldn't hold my breath on that becoming a staple of his either. I think he can extend the range on that jumphook and not have to sweep across the lane to get that shot off one day, that's as far as I'll go on my prediction on DH's post game.

 

he should definitely work with him in the offseason, instead of working with Patrick Chewing..

 

Dwight could learn a lot just from Hakeem's footwork. I don't know how many times I've seen Dwight run across the lane and toss up some garbage running flip shot like a little b****. Dwight gets lost in the paint way too often. Dream could teach him a foundation of solid footwork that leads to moves and counter moves that put him into position to score more easily.

 

Don't worry, you did a good job of explaining it . I was watching al jefferson highlights and everything he did was off a jump hook. Now al has more range on his hook, but everything was off the hook. People don't realize how important that hook can be. To really be lethal, its the ability to do it with both hands. Like you said in the post before, the form of it is the basic, then after that its just repitition. Dribble,bump,hook.Dribble,bump,hook. Dribble,dribble,bump,plant,left hook. He needs to put in the work and keep it simple. The spot up jumper is just letting it fly. I remember shawn kemp went from, "he can't hit that", to "you better get up on him!" It didn't take long, but through shooting alot of jumpers he became a money shooter from 15ft.