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I can't remember a time in UD's career in which I've had less confidence in him than this season. I cringe every time he pulls up for a jumper or puts the ball on the floor because I'm almost certain a miss is coming. He's had more than enough time post-injury to re-acclimate to game speed, what's going on?

2006 finals UD is rolling over in his grave

I really have no answer for this, that jump shot used to be pure money. I think eventually it'll come back, besides that Utah game, in the 4th quarter he's been pretty good for us with that shot.

His offensive game as a whole is atrocious right now. It's not just his jumper. He is up there with the worst of them in terms of getting his shot blocked. Last year he got his shot blocked on 3.5% of shots. This year it's 11.4%. That is a shocking regression.

It's obviously a mental thing.

All that being said, I still have faith.

I don't remember the last time where I felt like it's another Joel out there.

I think it all has to do with his injury, and then he cut his hair

I believe in UD though, I mean it keeps coming up about his shooting and he knows. He should eventually do something about it. Plenty of time left before the playoffs.

Oh yeah and I don't know if he still has a cracked rib...

And it's not just his jumper, I mean he gets stripped or block EVERY TIME he goes to the rim. EVERY TIME. I don't know if there's some scouting rebort that says "When Haslem goes to rim, prone to losing/getting blocked".

If I'm Spo, I tell Haslem to take a leave of absence and say yo, dude, go get some rest and practice your jumper. Don't come back until you're wetting 50 baseline jumpers in a row (and your cornrows are back, too).

Would suck for us in the meantime, but LeBron can play some 4 and maybe JJ can get some minutes...and *gulp* Juwan Howard, too. Gonna need Haslem in the playoffs.

This IsMy House wrote:I really have no answer for this, that jump shot used to be pure money. I think eventually it'll come back, besides that Utah game, in the 4th quarter he's been pretty good for us with that shot.

Seriously.. There wasn't many shots I preferred over his corner jumper or elbow jumper... This season he's had a few games he broke out of the slump, but over all just awful

I do like what he said yesterday. He's not here to score(of course we want him hitting his J)but said his job is to rebound, play D, etc. That being said, I do feel his shot will eventually come bsck.

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/miamih ... slems-shot

Month old article that is still valid because he still cannot shoot. Brief summary...

- Some guy who worked as a trainer with him says he is not following through on his shot.

- Spo thinks his shots getting blocked is a timing issue.

Over the past two game he has played 48 minutes and grabbed SIX rebounds. That's horrible. Joel could do that in his sleep. Harris could do that in his sleep.

He was shooting poorly even before the rib injury so I don't think its that.

More importantly is that while his shot is off he should not be taking so many shots.

Why was he even in at the end of the Utah game? Lebron made the right play in passing to the open guy but Haslem should have been on the bench in a last shot situation. He can't create a shot and he sucks at shooting.

Why was he even out there?

Go with Chalmers/Wade/Lebron/Battier/Miller if you need a last second shot.

I'm not sure if it's mechanics or something but it is frightening to see when he has the ball on his hands. I immediately want to change the channel.

coolstorybro wrote:http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/miamiheat/post/_/id/11880/what-happened-to-udonis-haslems-shot

Month old article that is still valid because he still cannot shoot. Brief summary...

- Some guy who worked as a trainer with him says he is not following through on his shot.

- Spo thinks his shots getting blocked is a timing issue.

Over the past two game he has played 48 minutes and grabbed SIX rebounds. That's horrible. Joel could do that in his sleep. Harris could do that in his sleep.

The last two games were against some of the biggest front courts in the league though, so thats not saying much if he only had 6 rebounds. Hard to bang around and get rebounds of Pau and Bynum.

GreenHat wrote:He was shooting poorly even before the rib injury so I don't think its that.

More importantly is that while his shot is off he should not be taking so many shots.

Why was he even in at the end of the Utah game? Lebron made the right play in passing to the open guy but Haslem should have been on the bench in a last shot situation. He can't create a shot and he sucks at shooting.

Why was he even out there?

Go with Chalmers/Wade/Lebron/Battier/Miller if you need a last second shot.

In Utah we couldn't rebound for crap and UD is our bench rebounder besides Bosh, and there's no Bosh... so he had to be there. The thing is, the last two games UD hasn't had very good rebounding games, and they are against good frontcourts :\

UD is part of that "Big 5" ending line up. With Bosh/LBJ/Wade/Miller/UD. However, it has hit a wall with UD not having a reliable shot, and Miller passing out shots while overhelping like hell and giving up wide open 3's....

On a good day, that's Bosh where UD is, not Haslem. UD is there for rebounding though, and defense (though he has been ineffective as a presence.. just rebounding), Miller too and a hopeful 3. But nowadays... I like Battier in place of one of them. Might have to be Miller.

Like for instance, in Game 4 I think it was of the Finals, LBJ passes to Bosh and it's the game winner. Haslem screened for him. That's how it would go, but Bosh wasn't there so Haslem takes the shot. It IS his money shot though. ah well.

Cornrows

It's all mental.

MartyConlonJr wrote:Cornrows

Yep, he lost all his his strength like Samson.

He will break out of it. It's a mental slump. Haslem, like Wade, will always get the benefit of the doubt for me.

because Bosh wake up

DefenseWins wrote:

GreenHat wrote:He was shooting poorly even before the rib injury so I don't think its that.

More importantly is that while his shot is off he should not be taking so many shots.

Why was he even in at the end of the Utah game? Lebron made the right play in passing to the open guy but Haslem should have been on the bench in a last shot situation. He can't create a shot and he sucks at shooting.

Why was he even out there?

Go with Chalmers/Wade/Lebron/Battier/Miller if you need a last second shot.

In Utah we couldn't rebound for crap and UD is our bench rebounder besides Bosh, and there's no Bosh... so he had to be there. The thing is, the last two games UD hasn't had very good rebounding games, and they are against good frontcourts :\

UD is part of that "Big 5" ending line up. With Bosh/LBJ/Wade/Miller/UD. However, it has hit a wall with UD not having a reliable shot, and Miller passing out shots while overhelping like hell and giving up wide open 3's....

On a good day, that's Bosh where UD is, not Haslem. UD is there for rebounding though, and defense (though he has been ineffective as a presence.. just rebounding), Miller too and a hopeful 3. But nowadays... I like Battier in place of one of them. Might have to be Miller.

Like for instance, in Game 4 I think it was of the Finals, LBJ passes to Bosh and it's the game winner. Haslem screened for him. That's how it would go, but Bosh wasn't there so Haslem takes the shot. It IS his money shot though. ah well.

No I was talking about the last four seconds

We called a timeout to setup the last shot. Haslem should NOT be out there with four seconds left because he can't create a shot and he can't shoot.

For that last shot it should have been Lebron/Wade/Chalmers/Miller/Battier. Its four seconds, you don't worry about a rebound (and Haslem isn't that good at offensive rebounds anyway)

If he's not on the floor then there is no way the last shot falls to him.

I was talking about that last shot not the whole game. Obviously Haslem has to play with Bosh out. He just shouldn't be in on the last shot.

I think it's mental. I think initialy it started because he wasn't in shape yet after coming back from the foot injury. I don't think he's getting the lift he had before his injury, and that's affecting his mechanics. Plus didn't he have a cracked rib for awhile? So I think health, slightly out of shape--contributed to starting the slump, messed up his shot mechanics, and now with no practices to work it out, he's stuck in a slump that is mostly mental now.

I think he'll probably be like this for the rest of the year. He should be fine next year though. Fortunately he gives us enough other things that it's not a big big deal. But when Bosh is out, it's a lot more glaring.

wouldnt be at all suprised if he was lights out in the playoffs
frankly i'd rather him be horrid during the season and get hot in the playoffs