The mid-range jumper has never been a strength of D-Mo, nor a shot he'd really ever seek. Not in Italy. Not in Poland. Not with the Lithuanian national team. He's always been post 1st, three-pointers 2nd. No reason to believe that will change at the age of 24 -- especially not on this team. And that's fine, really. You need to be crazy good at making mid-range Js for them to be worth it, particularly when you don't excel attacking the basket out of face-ups settings, which D-Mo, like the vast majority of 7-footers, does not. Obviously there are areas he can still improve. Establishing post position and holding guys off when fronted. Getting more consistent from 3. Not over-committing when tagging/help-and-recovering. Being consistent with his close-out technique, etc... Mid-range and fade-away jumpers? Nah.
It's weird to expect him to add a reliable jumper when he's a below 70% FT shooter. Guys like Nowitzki, Aldridge are great FT shooters and thus have great midrange Js.
huh? that would be a valid statement if demo was 34. how old do you think hakeem was when he made the unbeetobol fadeaway, an automatic shot? late 20s. and what do you mean not on this team? (insert tropic thunder pic) morley never discouraged yao and scolandry from using midrange arsenal.
So because Hakeem did it it's reasonable to expect from D-Mo? Using an All-time great, an outlier, as an example makes my point and I'm sorry if you can't see the difference between Hakeem and D-Mo. Low post-game aside, totally different players. Yao and Scolandry were YEARS ago and they already had established mid-range touch/face-up games.
all i'm saying is that it's not out of the realm for a 24 to improve his shooting from 8-14ft. chuck hayes improved his shooting. it can be done.
hahaha! It's funny how these international players come with very different schooling. The long sweeping hook is definitely a Lithuanian specialty, Sabonis was a master of it. meanwhile when Yao came over, he had been specifically taught not to hook, he had no hook whatsoever... Dmo has good hands and soft release, he can become a good shooter. It is just that the Rockets never emphasize shooting at practice and don't have a shooting coach. It seems like the philosophy is the jump shot comes and goes, don't worry about it... They need to put emphasis on shooting in practice.
And Yao developed one of the deadliest drop step Baby hooks the games ever seen with either hand. Him and Shaq prob had the most unstoppable baby hooks ever.
And, while he's a monster in the post .....DMo continues to shoot the rock from downtown like he's capable of now. It's on.....
I too was surprised that McHale went away from him.All he had to do was continue the same game plan that worked in the last game.
