For almost every country in the world, that would be a great positive headline. It would be very popular. In this country, the home of basketball, it’s a humble statement. We are supposed to beat the rest of the world with our great athletes and coaches. Professional basketball players are the best athletes in the world. The men probably average 6’8″ and weigh 240 pounds. They can run like the wind, leap tall buildings with a single leap, etc., etc., you know the litany. But can they shoot? Can they defend the Pick & Do? Roll?
I watched a couple of games and saw what I always see in the shooting arena. The players on the team are doing what the coaches have taught them from a young age… twisting their wrists, shooting at the top of the jump, maybe even reaching for the cookie jar. They’re squaring off, too, especially at the free throw line.
Of those techniques, turning the wrist is probably the biggest problem. Did you notice LeBron James trying to make outside shots and flicking his wrist and sometimes “cutting his arms”? He was trying to figure out how many of his incredible muscles to use. He sometimes he can do it, but it’s hard to do it consistently and he didn’t shoot well in this series. Shooting the ball from 3-point dirt, especially, is a big assumption. And of course, when you start to fail, your mind goes crazy and makes it worse.
A PUSHING ACTION IS MORE RELIABLE
Based on my own experience and research, I feel that a relaxed wrist and hand pushing motion is the most predictable and reliable. If it’s done at the same speed each time, then it becomes repeatable and then you just vary the arc to control the distance. As I’ve said time and time again, this is how Chris Mullin, Jeff Hornacek and Steve Kerr shot. The few great shooters do/did this. Diana Taurasi, my vote for the greatest shooter in WNBA history, shoots like this now. If she can see a slow-motion replay of her shots, she’ll see that her hand bounces off the follow-through, which means her wrist is relaxed. If it was tight, the hand would be stiff and tight, it wouldn’t bounce.
Carmelo Anthony was the best shooter on the USA team. He saved the match against Italy. If he hadn’t scored 29 points in the second half, we would have lost that game as well. But he couldn’t save us against Greece. He is also moving his wrist. But probably not as much as LeBron, and his high level of focus and confidence make him one of the few “good, sometimes great” shooters.
THE THREE!
It’s pretty inept to shoot 10 of 40 3-pointers, like they did vs. Germany. And 9 for 28 vs. Greece in defeat. It’s the same, the movements of the release of the wrist strap and the flip. And this is from the international 3-point line, ~20′ 3 1/2″. This is over 3 feet closer than the NBA 3-point arc, 23′ 9″.
15 FOR 30 FREE THROWS… NO SHAQ!
And the Free Kicks! How players, who have played so much basketball with as much sporting talent as they have, can shoot 15 out of 30, like they did against Argentina? How about going 20 of 34 against Greece, missing 14 free throws and losing by six points? And Shaq and Ben aren’t even on the team!
In my opinion, it’s due to the wrist-flip stuff. The muscles of the wrist, hand, and fingers are small muscles, called “fast twitch” muscles. They are not as reliable under pressure. A consistent push and release motion, as I teach, would serve all of these guys well, whether it’s for a jump shot or a free kick.
I’m not talking about the lift, the top of the jump, the fade from side to side, the kind of take these guys can pull off, sometimes. With those shots you have to use your wrist and hand because there is little, if any, power left in the legs to drive the shot. And it takes a Kobe Bryant or Tracy McGrady-type super athlete to hit that shot consistently (and they’re still prone to periods of underachievement because it’s so hard). I mean, rather, the open shot from outside or the set piece and the free kick that we mortals need to perfect.
We need a different way to train shooting! My Swish Method is here to help all these great players shoot better. He can’t help with the Pick & Roll defense. I leave that to other coaches, but shooting is a subject I know.
