Dwight is a poor example and you can improve FT's. Just look at at our very own Hakeem Olajuwon. In college and his rookie season, he was a pathetic FT shooter.
If you want to become a great playmaker you have to have adequate handles. Even for your position. But in playmaking come two other significant factors. first and the most important is vision. You can't teach vision. Vision is imagining the next move how the play will develop, the positions of your teammates etc etc. You can't teach that. That's why I don't expect i.e from guys like Kyrie or Knight who have bad vision to turn into good playmakers. Their brain doesn't see even if their eyes do. They lack the imagination. They don't have it. Secondly is the slowing down of the game. This usually happens in the second to fourth year. So if someone has the vision and he just requires the game to slow down or some imrpovment of handles I think he can become a little better playmaker. But glimmers, most of these guys who become pros are working at their handles since they first started playing bball. It's perhaps the most basic and fundamental skill. You have guys who work everyday on their handles since they were like 4 and when you watch in tv, they can't seem to being able to dribble. Competition ofcourse is vital here. I'm sure a nbaer center who has bad handles if you left him in a gym against regular people he would do amazing things, crossovers etc But we are talking about nba level handles. The competition is a given here. Your handles have to be able to hold up against other nbaers. I don't think that handles improve or deteriorate depending on if you are the focal point of the team. I see roleplayers who have bad handles whether they play next to superstars or if by neccesity they have to take on the burden of the offence. The one guy who has shown serious improvement in his handles I can only think of atm, is Derozan. Who else? Who went from bad to good?
steph wasn't known to be a good ball handler and now he's known to be on of the best. btw alot of these "pros" put an emphasis on ball handling to become a strength so it's truly not being worked on. These days ball handling is a skill that can definitely be heavily improved on and a lot of players are now taking advantage of it through individual work
I just went to his draft profile and they repeatedly say that he has good handles. OFC not as phenomenal as now, but they were good from the start. Spoiler
to become one of the best is pretty impressive. but then again he has acknowledged this was an area he focused on improving in his career.
Height. jk...I voted ball handling, my own personal weakness. I have a good jumper, can play solid defense, can make nimble cuts and passes..but my Achilles' Heel is bringing the ball up the court confidently. I think it's almost a psychological thing when it comes to ball-handling
Passing/Playmaking which I relate to Bball IQ. Has there ever been a great passing/playmaker that was considered to have low Bball IQ? I think it's just one of those skills that you either have it or you don't.
^ using a Rockets example: Trevor Ariza. I don't think any amount of practice will change the fact that he is just awkward when it comes to handles.
Ball handling is definitely something that can be improved based on the amount of time and work you put in it. I'm not sure how often you play or what not but with improvement comes confidence. There's alot of ball handling development resources online. It's a good start if you want to work on it
absolutely. It's amazing. Even if he had a good base to build from with his handles, his improvement is phenomenal. yeah. He's a long time vet but his handles look not to be improved. I don't think that he's not a hard worker and he didn't spend time working everyday on his handles that was a glaring weakness from the start of his carreer.
How am I the only one who selected "finish at the rim"? Who has ever made a substantial improvement in that area? I'm asking because I honestly don't know an example. From what I've seen, either you can finish (Harden) or you can't (Rubio), and that doesn't ever change.
I would say rebounding. Off the top, I can't think of a player who has made significant gains in this area year over year. Though there are probably examples I'm not thinking of. I think you either have a nose for the ball or you don't. A player can get more disciplined about boxing out, but that doesn't always translate directly to more rebounds for them (it might open up more rebounds for your teammates). Rebounding also depends on vertical and timing, which I believe are pretty difficult to improve on. Especially since you almost always have to compete for the board. Lastly, improving strength might help as well, but in today's run-n-gun nba it seems as though slim, mobile bigs are the way to go.
well a young player (as in first three four years in the league) can get better at finishing. Because he will get stronger,maybe improve his body control get more experienced. But after that, I can't think of anyone who later in his carreer, as in after his rookie contract, got better at finishing.
I think you underestimate the effect of a long armed active defender vs a passive one. They track your natural dribbling cadence and try to time it so they poke the ball lose when it leaves your hands. Dribbling is one thing, but dribbling when a fast, long defender is watching your every move trying to disrupt your motion - that's another type of ballhandling and in that case, yes it absolutely matters how engaged, quick, and long your defender is. You can't honestly believe that there is no difference in how effective Wiggins is as a ball handler against James Harden vs Trevor Ariza for instance. What your talking about is ball skills and I agree that most NBAers should have a minimum of ball skills but I'm talking about how we perceive bad ball handling on the NBA level is based on how often they lose the ball or are forced to pick up the dribble and I'm telling you that quality of defender plays a huge role in that so yes, when Wiggins is his team's best player, he gets to dribble against all the sharks while Zach Levine gets to dribble against the 2nd or 3rd best defender on the court.
See my sig. Intelligence is the one thing that cannot be improved. Course vision is another thing that is pretty much in-born. Ball-handling is usually developed early and is seldom improved after you get to the pro level. Rebounding is a combination of effort, techniques, physical abilities, and an innate "nose" for the ball. Effort and techniques (and physical strength to a certain extent) can be improved. The "nose" cannot. Defense is somewhat similar to rebounding. One skill we have seen many NBA players improve through their careers is shooting.
Thomas Robinson Jason Terry There have been plenty of guys that improve at finishing at the rim, but it is usually smaller guys just learning what plays they can't do in the NBA.
