Of course Hakeem is getting respect from the young players today. Many of them watched him play on TV as children and remember his greatness. Bryant working with him also opened some eyes, proving that you didn't have to be a Big to learn from the Dream. Now maybe I missed it, but I have yet to see mention of Hakeem working with Hill, Thabeet, and Patterson. Have you? If you have, please share.
Hakeem is basically an elite skills coach, there's really no point him working with anyone that isn't a bona fide all star or better talent.
jumper as in post fadeaway? because james already has a better midrange game than Hakeem did (and you'd sure as hell hope so, he's a SF not a C, Hakeem's midrange game was like Melo's post game, not elite compared to other superstars whose positions rely on it, but a ****load better than anyone who would ever match up on him) I think he's quite capable of developing a smooth fadeaway, sure it's never going to be your Michael, Dirk or even Kobe level, but his size/strength strength should probably allow him to shoot it at near to the range Hakeem would have, and as such be as consistent as at least Kobe (no one can teach you Michael or Dirk's 18 foot game)
Anyone read the truehoop article today saying Hakeem being an effective coach is overstated and he gets too much credit...it then goes on to say stats also show that lebron is as good as kobe in the post already according to the numbers....that is just another point on how numbers don't say a whole story and can be misleading because anyone who can watch a game can see the comfort, footwork, and skill of the post game are lacking in bron
Stats definitely don’t always tell the whole story, but in this case the writer is not very smart when it comes to analyzing them. He says Lebron already has a post game based on his efficiency numbers, but completely ignores the stat that shows how little Lebron is playing in the post. Only 8.7% post-up plays is ridiculous for a guy of Lebron’s strength and size. You can tell from the eye test that Lebron has no post game, and that stat only further confirms it.
Lebron is a good post scorer if it is a pure isolation. He just does not do it enough because he is simply not comfortable doing it since he rare plays in there. Thus when teams double him down there, which is basically all the time, he lacks the footwork and consistency, to maneuver around yhe double teams to shoot.
Yeah, I meant fadeaway, since we were talking about post moves. LBJ is certainly a better faceup shooter. Dream's baseline fade was more a finesse move based on balance, which is why I think LBJ should avoid it. He's not a finesse player. The way Dream used the hook was that he jumped and shot before the defense was ready. That's a good type of move for LBJ, since it's more of a speed move. LBJ could also fake the hook but instead take a power dribble right and dunk (not really one of Dream's moves, but it's in LBJ's current arsenal). He could also spin baseline and dunk/lay it in the way Dream often did. Those are both power moves that fit with LBJ's strength advantage.
http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/sports/090926_olajuwon_works_with_grizzlies_thabeet All I got is Thabeet. I wish he would work with Patterson. In my post, I meant that maybe he has, but the media doesn't talk about it cause they're not big name players.
Thanks for coming up with that. I remembered reading about it now, but how about recently? I get your point about the media, but in Houston, whoever Hakeem works with is news. I just don't think that players could "fall through the cracks" if the Dream works with them, simply because they aren't well known.
Shooting can be dramatically improved, handle and footwork are built in early stage and are much harder to improve. It's like saying if Durant can dribble like a PG he's going to be unstoppable. Not gonna happen.
lebron is an incredible athlete, i'm sure he can learn the basics. he has no post game to speak of at this point, all he has to learn is the minimum.
Lebron doesn't have good footwork, but with his strength and size, all he needs to do is master a few post moves (such as the jump hook), and he will be a decent post scorer.
He's fast, strong, and jumps high. But he's not good at doing fake, changing direction,spinning etc. And he's more likely to get a soft double team at post since he's not a center. It's all about how you define minimum. He can improve to a certain degree, that's a given. But if the efficiency isn't anywhere close to face up, what's the point. You may let Bosh or Wade do it instead.
You have to actually want the ball in those situations and want to get to the foul line (or at least not be afraid of it). Simply having post moves isn't going to fix those problems.
