Monday, November 16, 2015

Should development be aligned with today's trends?

Charles Barkley lamented that the 2014-2015 Golden State Warriors would NOT win a NBA Championship due to the team's label as a "jumping shooting team".  Although many felt that he was a prophet for his statement, however turns out that he was wrong.

Charles, a product of "Old School basketball", speaking from his experiences as a Hall of Fame performer where teams were best served by feeding the team's low post scorer where he, due to his skill set, created a double team situation, basically, a 4 on 3 advantage. 

What Charles failed to realize that the Stephen Curry lead Warriors were the very best team at playing today's brand of basketball.  A game based on ball movement, great spacing and the ability to shoot from beyond "the arc".

Many proponents of this style point to analytics (math) to justify their "method to their madness".  In its simplest form- Team A shoots 40% of 10 shots from the field (2 points) netting 8 points whereas Team B shoots 33% of 10 shots from the 3pt area netting almost 10 points. This is no more evident than 2014-2015 Houston Rockets.  {See attached diagram}.




As a byproduct of this style of basketball the mid range game has become non existent.  Sadly, players are less willing to take a shots from 15'-18' away from the basket.  This trend creates a dilemma for skill instructors. Should skill instructors:

• Focus training on increasing a player's shooting range
• Readjust training to ignore the mid range area?

Whatever the decision is regarding the possible shift in training (development) skill instructors like coaches must adapt to the "new" style of basketball.

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