Many of the elite players in the game today are coming to work with Hakeem (Kobe, James, Howard, Carmelo, etc) to develop their respective games. I sure hope that Asik, DMo, and Robinson (and other Rockets) start working with him this summer as well. I know McHale is a Hall of Fame PF, but I sure hope he wouldn't have a problem with his players working with Hakeem. In fact they should be working with both of them (along with CDawson). I would love to hear McHale's response if someone in the media asked him if he would encourage his players (especially the big men) to work with Olajuwon this summer.
Thread title is misleading. Should read something like "Rockets big men should work with Hakeem". Instead, it reads as if they already are.
I would love it if all three worked with the Rocket's bigs so that each guy can get personalized attention.
If Donatas Motiejunas is going to be healthy this summer, he's gonna play for the Lithuania's national team (his own words) so I doubt he's gonna work with Hakeem if he even got the chance to. Might sound like bs to you guys, like missing a chance to work with the legend, just for playing in the national team, but playing for team Lithuania is one of the greatest honors a Lithuanian can have. So I'm just throwing that out there. And it's not like Dmo really needs to learn a few more post moves, he's already quite good.
We have Kevin McHale here. As awesome as Hakeem was, it's not worth it for our big men to pay $50k/week to get lessons that McHale/Dawson can teach them. Omer is not going to be pulling any dream shakes any time soon and Donatas already has great footwork and I'm sure McHale will teach him some tricks.
$50k is low compared to Hakeems value. If he charged what he's worth less people would be able to afford him. Along with be taught by Hakeem himself also comes other advantages... Its (as we know) newsworthy when a player is training with Hakeem thus bringing more media attention to that player. Confidence. A changed mindset on how to approach the game etc. ALL of what the players receive are priceless. Even though we all knew Lebron James would be this great, I feel/know that his training with Hakeem really benefited him.. not just with his physical talents, but mentally as well. There's a huge difference between teaching someone footwork, hook shots etc. and coaching someone on how to dominate. Change the mind, change the game.
finally someone who gets it. why would these young players barely making millions spend 50k a week when their head coach is kevin mchale, probably the only player who you can say is arguably greater/the same post move greatness as hakeem?
I think someone comparable to our big men is Javale McGee, did it really help him out at all? It doesn't seem like it to me. I certainly don't feel that Hakeem can provide anymore knowledge then our coach can. Look at KG, his pet project, he turned out great. I think our big men will be fine without Hakeem's tutoring.
Hakeem is my favorite nba player but this is nothing more than a money making scheme by hakeem. none of these big men being taught by hakeem will ever replicate hakeem's post move greatness and agility because of one missing ingredient: THEY DIDNT PLAY SOCCER LIKE HAKEEM. That's why hakeem is hakeem. Look at dwight howard, amare stoudamire, josh smith, javale mcgee, all Dream Disciples and none have really improved on their post game. I didnt put kobe and lebron because they are not really big men and were already highly skilled to begin with.
