Noah's shooting form always looked weird to me... It's as if he never had a basketball coach (even growing up) to show him at least the most basic way of shooting the ball. I have stumbled upon this video recently: <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/-KWGig7IiXw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> There are some slow-mo shots of form in the video and the way he releases the ball... it's spinning sideways! It also looks like he's making a volleyball pass: Obviously this doesn't stop him from being one of the top centers in the league, but when you think about who he might be if someone actually showed him a proper shooting form when he was still young... Feels like a missed opportunity. If he actually had a decent jumper coupled with his great passing, would he be the best center in the league right now?
I have a theory that perfecting jumpshots can get in the way of your athleticism...the reason being that a jumpshot is a very unilateral movement. The more you perfect that movement, the less symmetrical your overall movement will be. It could be one reason why most shooters aren't great athletes and vice versa. It doesn't apply to all cases, like Ray Allen, but that guy was/is anal about his work out routine. That may be why he's able to have the shooting and the athleticism (or had). So perhaps Noah is one of those guys who's only going to have one or the other. He could change it up and probably have both for some time, but he'd potentially risk injury eventually, once his movements start shifting more to one side. I think this might be what happened to Rose.
I've always wondered how players get through elemantary school, middle school, high school and college shooting like that When I first started playing basketball in the 6th grade, the coach started to correct everyone's form. How did Noah's coach in the first parts of his career let him keep doing the set shot