Dion Waiters

[TyGuy]

Boy does that kid get a lot of air under his shot. That arc is sky high. Body isn't squared up. Fades back a bit on the jump and his feet go forward for no clear reason. Still, I guess it looks good when it goes in.

Most great shooters aren't squaring their feet/shoulders when they shoot a jumper from the field. They typically have their feet turned a little so their shooting shoulder and elbow are aligned at the rim and the other shoulder is off to the side(this is why Reggie miller shot with his elbow out. A lot Of great shooters also lean backwards when they shoot (fade I guess) I believe the reason for this is it actually helps them get a little extra arc on their shot.. If you watch lebron shoot he is pretty much always leaning backwards from three, irving, smith and love do this as well. If you shoot perfectly straight up and down it feels a little awkward and tense in your shoulders and neck. Look at mediocre to bad long distance shooters like rose and Westbrook. They both jump ridiculously high on their shot and they are too straight. In westbrooks case he also squares his shoulders instead of being turned when he shoots. When you are square I think it kind of forces you to have your elbow more out to get it more aligned with the hoop.

A lot of times you cant get your feet into the correct position when pulling up for a jump shot. Coming off a curl to the right or shooting off the dribble going right is an example. What happens is EVERY single time they will turn in mid air as they are shooting so that they end up with their right shoulder pointed to the rim and their left turned.

I wish LeBron would actually turn his feet at the line actually instead of squaring his feet. Check out this clip right here. He loves this right corner threes because his feet are naturally turned. Listen to Austin say that he is squared to the target (he isn't). Notice how he also leans backwards.

I think this misconception about having your feet perfectly square came from the era of the two handed set shot. It made sense to shoot the ball with your shoulders squared because you are shooting with two hands. Somehow that carried over to the one handed jump (which took some time for it to become mainstream)

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ES4B8FaMsE

and now reggie who was a very good shooter obviously

Noah is squared, and it sucks.

 

[AuxiliaryPie]

"Kevin Durant's Dark Night of the Soul" via Reddit http://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/30yow8/kevin_durants_dark_night_of_the_soul_comic/

 

[Spencer Hawes]

It's called the sweep and sway with a dip. Noah is not a good example of a square shooter. He's an anomoly and his mechanics are in line with an old school chest shot. Steve Kerr, one of the greatest 3 point shooters of all-time is a square shooter. Larry Bird had an ugly hitch to his shot and Reggie Miller's hands come together after the follow through. But both compensated with a crazy amount of practice. It's like this. If you have perfect form, it will take you less shots in practice to be a great shooter than someone that has imperfect form. The sweep and sway is a tremendous technique to teach youths how to shoot. Look it up on Youtube.

 

[SteelSmack]

Dion with another solid game last night. 6 out of 7 shooting 40% or higher and the one game he didn't, he only took 4 shots.

The trend continues, Dion in the starting lineup late in the season looks like a good NBA player.

 

[David.]

40% is a low bar, especially considering he does fuck all outside of shooting

 

[SteelSmack]

40% is a low bar, especially considering he does fuck all outside of shooting

I used 40% because someone else used 40% to demonstrate his ineptitude earlier in the season (when he plateaued 40% once in something like 10 games). I agree shooting 40% isn't a great feat, but if that's your "bad" game, you're doing OK. He's shot 49% over the last 7 games, which is pretty darn solid.

 

[Douglar]

Most great shooters aren't squaring their feet/shoulders when they shoot a jumper from the field. They typically have their feet turned a little so their shooting shoulder and elbow are aligned at the rim and the other shoulder is off to the side(this is why Reggie miller shot with his elbow out.

Nice research on your post, but that doesn't make Dion's shot from that video any better. Too much arc. Off balance. Unnecessary fade because he didn't need to create additional space. It's the kind of shot that defenses want him to take.

 

[TyGuy]

Nice research on your post, but that doesn't make Dion's shot from that video any better. Too much arc. Off balance. Unnecessary fade because he didn't need to create additional space. It's the kind of shot that defenses want him to take.

The problem with that shot wasn't the fade (sweep and sway if you will) it was that he did a step back when he had enough space for a regular pull up jumper.

 

[Douglar]

I agree. You don't need to step back or shoot the high arc when the defender is sagging back. Adding touch of extra hang time to the shot only makes the shot range & balance issues even more of a challenge. Sometimes i wonder what Dion would be like if he made things easy on himself .... But that's not Dion's way, now is it?

 

[Simon]

Is it me, or does it look like Dion gained a little weight? He looks a little chubby.

 

[brownsbuck6]

First time I've watched the Thunder in a bit, Dion looks totally useless out there. I wonder if he still feels that he like.. 'actually gets the ball' over there. Westbrook all but ignores him.

 

[Kizzle]

Maybe it's because I had my homer glasses on but Waiters style of play is simply not built for 5v5 team ball. The sole decider of if he's going to have a good or bad game is if he's hitting his shots. Dude can't defend either , he just looks bad . When he's not on your team you can clearly tell that he's impacting their offense negatively.

Why couldn't I see this in Cleveland damn.

 

[Tornicade]

The only problem with that lineup right now is Kyle singler.outside of Ibaka, Durant and to a limited extent Roberson being injured of course. Still Lamb or Jones might be a better option than starting singler who had already lost the starting small forward position to shooting guard Dion Waiters before Roberson was hurt.


While it looked like the Rockets were going to thrash the Thunder the energy of Dion Waiters spurred the Thunder to pull within 5 points prior to James Harden hitting a pull up dagger 3 to push the lead back to 8 for the half.

For his part other than Waiters it felt like without Westbrook this game would have been over by the end of the first quarter.

http://spacecityscoop.com/2015/04/0...sell-westbrook-deliver-memorable-easter-game/

 

[Spencer Hawes]

The only problem with that lineup right now is Kyle singler.outside of Ibaka, Durant and to a limited extent Roberson being injured of course. Still Lamb or Jones might be a better option than starting singler who had already lost the starting small forward position to shooting guard Dion Waiters before Roberson was hurt.


While it looked like the Rockets were going to thrash the Thunder the energy of Dion Waiters spurred the Thunder to pull within 5 points prior to James Harden hitting a pull up dagger 3 to push the lead back to 8 for the half.

For his part other than Waiters it felt like without Westbrook this game would have been over by the end of the first quarter.

http://spacecityscoop.com/2015/04/0...sell-westbrook-deliver-memorable-easter-game/

"The energy of Dion Waiters" lol. I mean, this guy is suppose to be a superstar according to you. Somebody that we should rebuild around and give Kyrie the boot right? I mean, from a franchise building block to "energy" now? What's next, all-star towel waiver and motivational sideline but slapper?

 

[Tornicade]

"The energy of Dion Waiters" lol. I mean, this guy is suppose to be a superstar according to you. Somebody that we should rebuild around and give Kyrie the boot right? I mean, from a franchise building block to "energy" now? What's next, all-star towel waiver and motivational sideline but slapper?

you dont have any sense of context do you and you tend to take things a little bit to literally.

Theres was small segment of time when people were frustrated with Kyries team play and attitude.

now a reasonable person would of interpreted that i posted that article to point out that some game analyst had a different take on the game the prior poster was commenting on.

Now i cant speak for other posters but i can speak for myself. the only time I ever said anything about trading kyrie Irving was when his contract was up and there was speculation he wouldnt sign a full deal and I stated if he didnt sign for along term deal they should move him and find players who wanted to be here. I still feel that way. fortunately Kyrie did sign a full contract and the situation never came to fruition.

Ive been pretty consistent in maintaining Waiters had all star level talent but iv never placed him as a tier 1 level talent. ever. The majority of my post on Dion in the past was maintaining he was a starter and should start and if they did so they would have quite a a back court.

projecting Dion as a top 5 shooting guard in a league that doesnt boast that much tier 1 level talent is a reasonable projection.

Is dion there now.. certainly not but he still has that potential and theres been a few hiccups along the way.