Draft Express: Al-Farouq Aminu working with old friend Dave Hopla on his jumper

It sounds like Hopla is making some progress with Aminu here. Nice report from Draft Express.

about 2 years ago Mike Prada 22 comments 0 recs |

Comments

Aminu has the most upside of anyone in the draft except Wall…. (and maybe Cousins, if he gets his head on straight; but that’s a BIG if….)

The only really glaring hole in his game was his shooting…. or as I said in my draft profile – his complete lack of a jump shot….

“Someone needs to completely deconstruct his shot and have him start over with more fundamentally sound mechanics.”

It sounds like Dave Hopla (the genius shooting coach that the Wizards, in their infinite stupidity, let go two seasons ago) – It sounds like Dave has completely reconstructed Aminu’s shot. As I mentioned in my draft profile, Aminu had poor mechanics, with his elbow to the side and his ball hand off-center…. Now, it sounds like Hopla has him keeping his elbow in – with impressive results.

If Aminu can continue to improve his jumper and ball handling, I’d move him up to 3rd on my draft board… ESPECIALLY since I think his best position will be Small Forward, a need for the Wizards.

Bullets Forever - where "Dagger ! " happens......

by Rook6980 on May 16, 2010 1:07 PM EDT reply actions

Was a really impressive workout both for Aminu and Hopla in my opinion. I was surprised how much different a player can look after just three days working with someone. I got to have some great discussions with Hopla about philosophies of adjusting a player’s shot, while also seeing the philosophies in action. I’m not surprised the guy routinely makes over 95% of his threes in an open gym, as he clearly is excellent at what he does.

by JoeTreutlein on May 16, 2010 1:36 PM EDT reply actions

I can't believe the Wizards let Hopla go...

and it’s even more unbelievable that no other NBA club has snatched him up….

He made a huge difference in the Wizards shooting (especially Free Throw shooting) for a number of players; including Arenas, Haywood, Stevenson and Butler….

Hopefully Ted Leonsis will look at not only improving the team’s analytics and scouting, but also the area of player development…

Love to see Hopla back with the Wiz as an assistant Coach.

Bullets Forever - where "Dagger ! " happens......

by Rook6980 on May 16, 2010 2:48 PM EDT up reply actions

Hopla was a shooting consultant with the Raptors last season, which I believe was part time. He also was offered a job by another team, and you can probably figure out which one it was.

by JoeTreutlein on May 16, 2010 2:59 PM EDT up reply actions

I dunno – I’m always skeptical when I read a that some sort of guru has made the subject “into a new player,” after a couple of days or weeks working with him. I mean, he’s obviously been playing ball for years, and he DID have a coaching staff at Wake. It’s not like those coaches don’t know what they are doing, or couldn’t have made similar suggestions. They probably did. I believe it’s hard to make a change that drastic, that quickly, and make it stick.

by Tbonebullets on May 16, 2010 2:49 PM EDT reply actions

NCAA teams/players are severely limited in the amount of time they’re allowed to be in the gym, and that’s by NCAA rules. Further, NCAA coaches have a primary goal, and that is winning as many games as possible. In most instances, this means teaching systems/plays drastically, drastically outweighs the importance of individual skill development. Further, to assume “all these guys are coaches, so they’re all qualified to teach players these simple things” is pretty ridiculous, and that can be said about efficient practices in virtually any industry, not just sports, and not just basketball.

David Lee spent four years at Florida and couldn’t shoot a lick when he entered the NBA. Now, five years into his career, he’s one of the best spot-up 20 foot shooters of any big men in the entire league. These things happen, and it’s based on a combination of the environment you put a player into, the quality of player development staff you have, who the player seeks out help from in the offseason, how much responsibility your own player development staff is given, the player’s ability to grasp new skills and learn new concepts, and most importantly, the player’s attitude about wanting to improve and knowing he can improve.

As for Aminu specifically in this instance, it is probably foolish to read too much into what I saw there, and I made repeated references to that throughout the analysis, but regardless, it’s still a good thing to see, not just from the qualitative standpoint of the mechanical improvements he’s made, but also his receptiveness, desire to learn, and understanding he still has massive improvements he can make. If a team looks at this report, it should be as a little checkpoint of his progress amidst a much larger picture, including but not limited to his performance in college and how he continues to develop between now and the draft, where teams will see him in private workouts later in the process.

by JoeTreutlein on May 16, 2010 3:05 PM EDT up reply actions

Another example of a player developing a skill at the NBA level is Rasheed Wallace. I think he hit one three pointer in his entire college career.

by JoeTreutlein on May 16, 2010 3:06 PM EDT up reply actions

Yeah, OK, I agree that a player can get better after a few YEARS of hard work -

but please don’t diminish the Wake Forest coaching staff like that, it’s not fair to them, as professionals. The NCAA major programs are not some kind of summer soccer league . If it were easy for professional ballers to change their shots, then what do you say about Shawn Marion, as a counter example. A few weeks’ work must be taken in context, is all I’m saying – and the context is, “don’t be a rube” if you are a GM evaluating talent.

by Tbonebullets on May 16, 2010 3:12 PM EDT up reply actions

Shawn Marion became a competent shooter on the NBA level

That’s an odd counterexample.

BF on Twitter I BF on Facebook.
You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on May 16, 2010 4:13 PM EDT up reply actions

..Marion has one of the ugliest shots in the NBA, was the point

…plus, he gets blocked too often, because of his low “shotput” trajectory – so I think it’s a relevant counterexample when the topic of discussion is whether a player can correct his shot to become a better than “competent” shooter.

by Tbonebullets on May 16, 2010 4:34 PM EDT up reply actions

But he has become a competent shooter after being a complete non-shooter in college

Who cares how it looks?

BF on Twitter I BF on Facebook.
You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on May 16, 2010 4:52 PM EDT up reply actions

And in the case of Aminu

I think the realistic goal is to make him competent as a shooter, not elite.

BF on Twitter I BF on Facebook.
You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on May 16, 2010 4:53 PM EDT up reply actions

This is the reason we're having this discussion, right?

- we’re speculating that Aminu might be picked at no. 5 or 6 in the lottery; it’s a legitimate question whether a guy who still needs to work on his shot, at one of the easiest positions to fill in the NBA, should be drafted at that spot. Number 12, OK, but 5 or 6??!! Just because Draftexpress or some other self-professed expert website says that he’s now a competent shooter, after few days with a coach, should be questioned and debated. This is a fan site, after all.

by Tbonebullets on May 16, 2010 4:57 PM EDT up reply actions

I’d avoid making strawman arguments if I were you.

by JoeTreutlein on May 16, 2010 5:00 PM EDT up reply actions

You're right, it should be questioned

I’d just be careful what you’re arguing. Joe’s report is a news report, and not meant to be some sort of way of saying “Look, Aminu has a jumper after all!” He has a lot of qualifiers in there about how he’s only passing this along, not saying Hopla has permanently fixed his jumper. I FanShotted it because we’ve all seen the great work Hopla did in 2008 with so many of our guys.

As a guy who writes long stuff sometimes too, I can understand the frustration when you write something with all these qualifiers and then someone responds without noting them. I totally understand your response too – you’re right, there’s reason to be skeptical. But I think Joe would say the same thing.

Beyond that, we’re just discussing. And personally, I felt Shawn Marion wasn’t the best counterexample. I see your point and agree with it on some level, but I feel like there are better counterexamples to prove it. Josh Smith, for one. That’s all.

BF on Twitter I BF on Facebook.
You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on May 16, 2010 5:17 PM EDT up reply actions

Thanks. I agree. Ultimately, me and Tbone probably aren’t even disagreeing about much in regards to Aminu. We both are taking a “wait and see” approach in regards to his jump shot. I never in any way claimed he’s now automatically a competent NBA shooter. I said there are good signs of progress, he’s putting in the work, and he’s at least tentatively made qualitative changes to his mechanics. That’s pretty much it. Reasons to be encouraged, signs of progress, doing the right things, etc. It’s got to hold up over the long haul, and there’s no guarantee of that, but based on what I saw, I’d be encouraged. So ultimately, what he’s questioning and debating was never even purported in the first place (see strawman).

I would say this is more scouting than news, however. Ultimately, it is my subjective analysis more than anything, after all.

by JoeTreutlein on May 16, 2010 5:22 PM EDT up reply actions

Some players don’t want to change their shots. Some players aren’t receptive to learning. Some players don’t have the same learning curves/abilities to pick up new motor skills as other players. I can’t speak to Shawn Marion specifically, but I know it’s the case with some select other NBA players, and I believe some tidbits about Marion’s shot were mentioned in SSOL.

It’s not an insult to the Wake Forest coaching staff what I’m saying. I don’t know anything about the Wake Forest coaching staff. What I do know is Aminu had considerable mechanical problems in his shot in college and NCAA players are drastically limited in the amount of time they can practice and college coaches have a priority of winning, not developing players for the NBA. You can fill in whatever gaps you want there.

Also, it’s worth noting, being a “professional” does not equal being highly qualified. That kind of thinking is detrimental to improvement. You can always do something better than you’re already doing it. It’s defeatist thinking to say “Well, everyone here is a professional, so obviously that’s it” and be done with the analysis.

Is Phil Jackson equal to Isiah Thomas as a coach? How big is that disparity in ability? You think there aren’t similar disparities in quality of player development coaches? This doesn’t even take into account the differences in motivation at the collegiate level for players and the ridiculously limited amount of practice time players are afforded, to go along with the problems of not having money to spend on private coaches in the offseason prior to the pre-draft process.

There are so many factors involved here.

by JoeTreutlein on May 16, 2010 3:19 PM EDT reply actions

Oh and by the way

Changing a mechanical problem in a shot doesn’t take very long at all…. and improved results can be immediate.

That’s not to say that “well, I’ve fixed my mechanics, and I’m shooting better, so now I don’t need to practice it any more”…. Aminu will still need to continue to work on his jumper – but just the fact that his elbow is no longer to the side, but rather he’s now keeping his elbow in should make him a much better shooter – and like I said, results from fixing a mechanical flaw can be immediate.

Bullets Forever - where "Dagger ! " happens......

by Rook6980 on May 16, 2010 3:48 PM EDT up reply actions

I think it’s fair to say looking too much into the improved “results” is not a good idea, and I did in fact say that in my analysis. What I took from the workout, more importantly, were the mechanical differences and the receptiveness to learning. Those are the things that will ultimately matter most in the long run, assuming of course he continues putting in the repetition and someone is there to make sure the qualitative mechanical adjustments stay in place.

Results can always be skewed by small sample size, and maintaining them over a long period of time is not guaranteed. Looking at other qualitative and intangible factors, however, such as mechanical issues and receptiveness to learning, respectively, on the other hand, can be pretty informative, in my opinion.

by JoeTreutlein on May 16, 2010 3:52 PM EDT up reply actions

Absolutely

not disputing that we should still be wary that his shot isn’t “fixed” yet…

However fixing a mechanical flaw in someone’s shot CAN make a difference in performance in a relatively short period. For instance, it didn’t take YEARS for Dave Hopla to fix Brendan Haywood’s flawed Free Throw stroke… Obviously, Haywood put in a lot of work, but the positive change in performance occurred in a relatively short time (months, versus years).

Bullets Forever - where "Dagger ! " happens......

by Rook6980 on May 16, 2010 5:26 PM EDT up reply actions