Motor Keeps Going: The Michael Kidd-Gilchrist Thread III

[yosemiteben]

You should never ever try to remake a shot form at this stage of someones career, it's too much psychologically, we would've been better just having him gain more confidence by encouraging him to shoot and by having more reps shooting in practice, encouragement does wonders for ones confidence...

More repetitions in practice with his shot will make it improve, not a 3 year program where you reteach form.

So you think having MKG work with Price to fix his shot was a mistake? Do you think the improvement in both his form and percentages was just a fluke or unrelated to the insane program he was going through with Price?

[HornetJail]

Simmons Part III Trade Value Column

UPDATE: Matthews was earmarked for an $80 million to $90 million market max payday before that unfortunate Achilles injury. What a bummer. If you gave me a do-over, I’d stick Matthews on the Trade Value DL, move Oladipo into this group and give Oladipo’s old spot to Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. Why? Because MKG is destroying people on defense, to the point that he boasted, “I want to be the best defender ever” last week — and nobody laughed. Kawhi and MKG are in the Finals in any “Which Guy Would You NOT Want Guarding You If You Had To Score A Basket To Save Your Own Life?” contest.

http://grantland.com/features/2015-nba- ... countdown/

MKG starting to gain attention. Looks like Grantland is driving the bandwagon.

Hey look, there's a guy that is playing for Charlotte and the media isn't sh*tting on him! Wow!

[ball teacher]

You should never ever try to remake a shot form at this stage of someones career, it's too much psychologically, we would've been better just having him gain more confidence by encouraging him to shoot and by having more reps shooting in practice, encouragement does wonders for ones confidence...

More repetitions in practice with his shot will make it improve, not a 3 year program where you reteach form.

So you think having MKG work with Price to fix his shot was a mistake? Do you think the improvement in both his form and percentages was just a fluke or unrelated to the insane program he was going through with Price?

Yes, it was a huge mistake. How many other players have you ever heard of having to learn how to shoot all over again with a 3 year program? MKG's shot wasnt as ugly in college as it was last year, he regressed just to get to this point and he still isnt a sharp shooter and I wont expect him to be by next season either. Had we have him shoot like 500-1000 jumpers a day and had we gave him encouraging support to shoot when open he'd have been at this point or better in year 2. I personally dont care what his shot form looks like as long as he makes the shot. And MKG has never been bad fg percentage wise, he just lacked range and consistency which is what you get in practice.

[HornetJail]

You should never ever try to remake a shot form at this stage of someones career, it's too much psychologically, we would've been better just having him gain more confidence by encouraging him to shoot and by having more reps shooting in practice, encouragement does wonders for ones confidence...

More repetitions in practice with his shot will make it improve, not a 3 year program where you reteach form.

So you think having MKG work with Price to fix his shot was a mistake? Do you think the improvement in both his form and percentages was just a fluke or unrelated to the insane program he was going through with Price?

Yes, it was a huge mistake. How many other players have you ever heard of having to learn how to shoot all over again with a 3 year program? MKG's shot wasnt as ugly in college as it was last year, he regressed just to get to this point and he still isnt a sharp shooter and I wont expect him to be by next season either. Had we have him shoot like 500-1000 jumpers a day and had we gave him encouraging support to shoot when open he'd have been at this point or better in year 2. I personally dont care what his shot form looks like as long as he makes the shot. And MKG has never been bad fg percentage wise, he just lacked range and consistency which is what you get in practice.

The only mistake was not hiring Price to help MKG with tearing it down and fixing it the second he came into the league. Are you trying to say that Price's work with him this summer was a mistake?

[ball teacher]

So you think having MKG work with Price to fix his shot was a mistake? Do you think the improvement in both his form and percentages was just a fluke or unrelated to the insane program he was going through with Price?

Yes, it was a huge mistake. How many other players have you ever heard of having to learn how to shoot all over again with a 3 year program? MKG's shot wasnt as ugly in college as it was last year, he regressed just to get to this point and he still isnt a sharp shooter and I wont expect him to be by next season either. Had we have him shoot like 500-1000 jumpers a day and had we gave him encouraging support to shoot when open he'd have been at this point or better in year 2. I personally dont care what his shot form looks like as long as he makes the shot. And MKG has never been bad fg percentage wise, he just lacked range and consistency which is what you get in practice.

The only mistake was not hiring Price to help MKG with tearing it down and fixing it the second he came into the league. Are you trying to say that Price's work with him this summer was a mistake?

Positive reinforcement and practice is what he needed, not a college career long journey to get perfect jump shot form.

[fatlever]

MKG shoots most of his shots from 2 distances on the floor, 0-5 feet and 15-19 feet.

For the season

0 - 5 feet, 237 shots @ 52.3%
15 - 19 feet, 123 shots @ 39.0%

Last 5 games

0 - 5 feet, 26 shots @ 57.7%
15 - 19 feet, 18 shots @ 22.2%

Last 10 games

0 - 5 feet, 46 shots @ 58.7%
15 - 19 feet, 31 shots @ 25.8%

He's clearly hit a bit of a slump from that 15 - 19 foot range since the all-star break. Seems some of his bad habits are slowly creeping back in to his shooting motion.

[ball teacher]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0U9qRFbldw[/youtube]

go to :37 seconds of this vid and watch till the end, you'll see confidence, range, no hesitation in taking the shot, active movement in the shots, and most importantly he's making the shots. Do you think that he really needed this long drawn out process after seeing that? All he needed was encouragement, and to spend hours taking those exact same shots and he'd have been getting 15 ppg last year.

Some guys say they want him to shoot three's at some point, well some of those were 3pt shots he hit in the practice, which again, is all he needed, more practice, not to be told you cant shoot and we have to change your whole form, and that we cant play you late cause we don't trust your offensive abilities. I'm not budging on that opinion.

[yosemiteben]

When MKG started working with Price he was 19 years old. I don't buy that he was too far along in his career to work on his mechanics.

[JDR720]

better form will help him get his shot off better/faster and with more consistency.

look at this pic


he probably cant even see the rim well, his hand is placed weird which will cause the ball to spin weird and its release point makes it easy to block if the defender is close to him.

and now this

much better hand placement, better release point and he can see the rim. still not perfect but its big upgrade, which is why he is shooting 9% higher on jumpers this season.

he is just 21, which is a college senior or junior he is still very young.

[ball teacher]

better form will help him get his shot off better/faster and with more consistency.

look at this pic


he probably cant even see the rim well, his hand is placed weird which will cause the ball to spin weird and its release point makes it easy to block if the defender is close to him.

and now this

much better hand placement, better release point and he can see the rim. still not perfect but its big upgrade, which is why he is shooting 9% higher on jumpers this season.

he is just 21, which is a college senior or junior he is still very young.

I agree that better form will get the shot off faster, initially the little hitch and lack of range was MKG's only real flaw on offense. However after we decided to break his form down which Price said would take a few seasons to correct, MKG had to take a step back in his game in order to hopefully correct the shot, and he's till not a finished product. The pic you posted of the broke jump shot, I believe was from last year, if so, we caused him to shoot like that, and this summer were supposed to work on another aspect of the shot. I think all we needed was maybe a tweek here or there and a whole lotta practice, not a multi year process to teach him how to shoot a smoother shot. That was my argument anyway.

[yosemiteben]

MKG was the number two pick and at 19 had broken mechanics in his jump shot and had terrible percentages. Saying just have him practice more because he's too far along to fix it is just not a convincing argument to me.

[ball teacher]

MKG was the number two pick and at 19 had no broken mechanics in his jump shot and had terrible percentages. Saying just have him practice more because he's too far along to fix it is just not a convincing argument to me.

How else do you improve on any skill in life without repetitive practice? How does devotion and hard work with long practice hours make no sense but using a delayed 3 year off season program to completely change a 20 year olds jumper does? 19 years old is young for a NBA player but what 19 year olds learned how to shoot a jumper and become successful in the league? Playing for the first time at 15 or 16 is very late cause these guys usually play at age 10 or earlier. If that's the case with MKG, then you think it'll be easy to change a jumper he's gotten comfortable with for at least 10 years? Did you see the vid I posted earlier? That jumper didn't need a massive overhaul, you can disagree with me and I respect your opinion, but I know that doing what we did to MKG could've ruined him as a player, especially with the lack of minutes he received. Fortunately for us and him, he's a good character guy with a lot of heart and determination. So we'll agree to disagree, you say Price's multi year shot reformation is good, I say practice and positive reinforcement is all that was needed.

[Braggins]

Well lol, this thread went in a shockingly unexpected direction. I will say that I think there is some truth to what ball teacher is saying. Generally, completely overhauling a bad form isn't a good idea, but MKG's form wasn't just bad, it was completely and utterly broken. Yes, it did get worse in his first two seasons here and there may have been some mistakes made in how we handled him that played a part in his shot going from bad to completely broken but, at the point that it became completely broken, there was no other option than to do something to fix it, which in this case meant a complete overhaul due to how badly it was broken. There is no denying though that his work with Price is producing hard results and greatly improving his potential ceiling as a player. Lets just be happy that things are working out for MKG. He is basically the only bright spot in this disaster of a season and is getting national recognition for what he brings on the court. Lets not harp over mistakes of the past and just be happy that he is on the right trajectory as a player.

[ball teacher]

Hey Braggins lol, sorry if I kinda derailed the convo, the guys and I just stated our differing opinions but it's no bad blood or anything. I agree MKG has been a bright spot and even though I think the route we took with him somewhat stunted his development, I do think he'll only improve.

[Braggins]

Hey Braggins lol, sorry if I kinda derailed the convo, the guys and I just stated our differing opinions but it's no bad blood or anything. I agree MKG has been a bright spot and even though I think the route we took with him somewhat stunted his development, I do think he'll only improve.

You didn't derail conversation at all. I was just surprised because it was a break from the circle jerk that is this thread. Not that you were saying anything bad about MKG, but this thread is usually nothing but high fives and fist pumps. Nothing wrong with your post. It was just surprising lol.

[Liver_Pooty]

MKGs shot has overlooked his pathetic ability to handle the ball. His handles are very overrated. I think both Lamar and Fats have touched on this numerous times. His left hand is non existent. And driving coast to coast into 45 defenders doesn't mean you have a good handle.


He needs to work on this as much or more than his shot in the Summer.

[Braggins]

His left is weak and he gets stripped easily when trying to gather himself to go up for a layup/dunk/floater. Otherwise, he is generally under control with the ball though and occasionally shows a nice hesitation and halfway decent crossover. I think he has a decent base to build on with his ball handling but it certainly needs to improve. I'm not expecting him to ever become great with the ball but I think he can develop a halfway respectable dribbling game. The exciting thing about MKG is that thus far he has almost primarily been focused on improving his defense and shooting. Now that he doesn't have to focus so much of his energy on those two things we might see some more improvement in other areas.

[catch20two]

Best perimeter defender in the league. Yea I said it. Inb4 somebody bring up both Bron and Melo dropping 60 on him. It beez like dat.

[Liver_Pooty]

Best perimeter defender in the league. Yea I said it. Inb4 somebody bring up both Bron and Melo dropping 60 on him. It beez like dat.

I've said he is better than Kawhi Leonard.

Im wrong, but this is the only guy on the roster that I firmly believe can take us to the next level eventually.

[catch20two]

Best perimeter defender in the league. Yea I said it. Inb4 somebody bring up both Bron and Melo dropping 60 on him. It beez like dat.

I've said he is better than Kawhi Leonard.

Im wrong, but this is the only guy on the roster that I firmly believe can take us to the next level eventually.

I think he's a better defender than Kawhi. Do we have a better defense than San Antonio? I'm not sure.