Minnesota Sports Forum

I'll have to watch the replay on Thursday. But from what I've seen in the box score and highlights I was fairly impressed. And I've never liked the Shabazz pick.

The difference between the highlights from today and his play in the summer league is huge. He looked extremely slow, clueless and overmatched every minute he was on the court in summer league play. In contrast, he looked aggressive, skilled and pretty athletic today in his D-League debut. And I'd say the competition he faced today was better than the competition he faced last summer.

So for me, today's performance by Shabazz was encouraging. Now let's see how he does in his next few D-League games. What I saw in those highlights was certainly more NBA caliber than anything we've seen thus far from Hummel.

Volans19 wrote:Shabazz Highlights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4xCiuFeIBM&feature=c4-overview&list=UUpGimyrbwRtrcJ-CIiRDXbA

Thanks for the post.....it look like the guy knows how to score.

http://www.1500espn.com/sportswire/Harper_What_must_Shabazz_Muhammad_learn_in_DLeague_to_help_Wolves010814

I feel like you can sum up that extremely lengthy and in-depth analysis of shabazz's d-league debut as follows: he's a basketball moron.

Bringing your defender into the lane when someone else is already driving to the hoop? Horrendous spacing on the fast break? These are the sorts of mistakes you might see in junior high.

No wonder adelman didn't play him. If the guy doesn't have the acumen or even the common sense to naturally space the floor with his positioning, he doesn't belong on an nba court.

Seriously, how does someone get all the way to the pros without instinctively knowing this stuff? It's mind-boggling.

Marc Spears article on Shabazz's transition to the d-league

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/shabazz-muhammad-trying-to-make-best-of-d-league-demotion-025238085.html

horatio81 wrote:I feel like you can sum up that extremely lengthy and in-depth analysis of shabazz's d-league debut as follows: he's a basketball moron.

Bringing your defender into the lane when someone else is already driving to the hoop? Horrendous spacing on the fast break? These are the sorts of mistakes you might see in junior high.

No wonder adelman didn't play him. If the guy doesn't have the acumen or even the common sense to naturally space the floor with his positioning, he doesn't belong on an nba court.

Seriously, how does someone get all the way to the pros without instinctively knowing this stuff? It's mind-boggling.

Heh, great questions. In soccer, there are four established pillars of development:

Technique = individual skills such as passing, dribbling and shooting.
Tactical = situational awareness on the field, where to move, how to react, etc.
Physical = speed, strength, durability, agility
Mental = attitude, desire, work ethic

These are well established areas of focus within the youth soccer culture globally that helps aid the long-term development of players and teams (especially at some of the European powerhouses, where kids are practically born into a club system of player development).

Why basketball doesn't have a similar approach is beyond me and I think it's especially a problem in the U.S. In particular, technique and tactical understanding are often neglected. Instead, we have kids with superior physical and mental qualities - much of which is inherited - that are thrown into the world of AAU, where playing tons of games in a wide-open, loosely ref'ed environment is the norm. The ratio of practices to games is way out of whack compared to youth soccer, with much more emphasis on winning as many tournaments as possible and a lot less emphasis on technical and tactical skill development.

I suspect some of Shabazz's tactical problems (he's got technical ones too...) arise from the player development system he grew up in. Now not all AAU coaches or programs are like this, and some of the kids coming up do indeed get mentored early and often on the technical/tactical aspects of playing the game. It's not the norm though.

Q12543 wrote:

Heh, great questions. In soccer, there are four established pillars of development:

Technique = individual skills such as passing, dribbling and shooting.
Tactical = situational awareness on the field, where to move, how to react, etc.
Physical = speed, strength, durability, agility
Mental = attitude, desire, work ethic

These are well established areas of focus within the youth soccer culture globally that helps aid the long-term development of players and teams (especially at some of the European powerhouses, where kids are practically born into a club system of player development).

Why basketball doesn't have a similar approach is beyond me and I think it's especially a problem in the U.S. In particular, technique and tactical understanding are often neglected. Instead, we have kids with superior physical and mental qualities - much of which is inherited - that are thrown into the world of AAU, where playing tons of games in a wide-open, loosely ref'ed environment is the norm. The ratio of practices to games is way out of whack compared to youth soccer, with much more emphasis on winning as many tournaments as possible and a lot less emphasis on technical and tactical skill development.

I suspect some of Shabazz's tactical problems (he's got technical ones too...) arise from the player development system he grew up in. Now not all AAU coaches or programs are like this, and some of the kids coming up do indeed get mentored early and often on the technical/tactical aspects of playing the game. It's not the norm though.

Doesn't this beg the point that these development problems exist in the NBA development league too then? If Shabazz can step into a development game and score 24 yet have it mean nothing positive what the hell is the point of the development league? I feel bad for Shabazz, he is only taking what is given to him and probably always has. If he is not scoring 24 points in a proper way for his career development then there better be someone in Iowa to teach him. Because I don't care what court you are playing on, if you score 24 you have talent (Technique and Physical ability). If the D league is just a bunch of bench warmers playing AAU ball then he shouldn't even be there.

"at every level he's played at"

Didn't read much in this thread. I read that in multiple posts though. The guy played high school ball (some of while lying about his age) and in AAU and one year in college.

It reminds me of Shaq's old quote: "I've won at every level, except college and pro."

Who cares what he did with a stacked deck in high school or AAU ball. As far as offensive rebounding... that's nice. What about passing? Has he improved on the 27 assists he has in his past 43 games?

thedoper wrote:

Q12543 wrote:

Heh, great questions. In soccer, there are four established pillars of development:

Technique = individual skills such as passing, dribbling and shooting.
Tactical = situational awareness on the field, where to move, how to react, etc.
Physical = speed, strength, durability, agility
Mental = attitude, desire, work ethic

These are well established areas of focus within the youth soccer culture globally that helps aid the long-term development of players and teams (especially at some of the European powerhouses, where kids are practically born into a club system of player development).

Why basketball doesn't have a similar approach is beyond me and I think it's especially a problem in the U.S. In particular, technique and tactical understanding are often neglected. Instead, we have kids with superior physical and mental qualities - much of which is inherited - that are thrown into the world of AAU, where playing tons of games in a wide-open, loosely ref'ed environment is the norm. The ratio of practices to games is way out of whack compared to youth soccer, with much more emphasis on winning as many tournaments as possible and a lot less emphasis on technical and tactical skill development.

I suspect some of Shabazz's tactical problems (he's got technical ones too...) arise from the player development system he grew up in. Now not all AAU coaches or programs are like this, and some of the kids coming up do indeed get mentored early and often on the technical/tactical aspects of playing the game. It's not the norm though.

Doesn't this beg the point that these development problems exist in the NBA development league too then? If Shabazz can step into a development game and score 24 yet have it mean nothing positive what the hell is the point of the development league? I feel bad for Shabazz, he is only taking what is given to him and probably always has. If he is not scoring 24 points in a proper way for his career development then there better be someone in Iowa to teach him. Because I don't care what court you are playing on, if you score 24 you have talent (Technique and Physical ability). If the D league is just a bunch of bench warmers playing AAU ball then he shouldn't even be there.

Doper, The D-League's only real purpose (in my opinion) is to give guys playing time against semi-decent competition that otherwise would not see it on their host NBA team. And for those players without a host, it's a chance for them to play domestically and potentially get signed to a 10-day contract. I highly doubt there is a lot of high-touch coaching and development going on, but perhaps I'm wrong. The drafted guys like Shabazz probably get more of that with the NBA team. So no, I don't see the D-League fixing any of Shabazz's tactical or technical struggles. But insofar he's worked on these things at the NBA level via practice and coaching, he can at least try them out in real game action. The D-League is no panacea, but I do think it can help rookies gain confidence and sharpness that they otherwise can't get by sitting at the end of the bench.

Anybody remember when Ndudi Ebi scored 18 points (8 - 14 fg) in his only extended run in the NBA?