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This morning I drove to a playground to shoot around a little bit. Because I'm really, really, ridiculously out of shape, I need to find ways to be active and become less out of shape, and since basketball is generally something I like doing I figured I'd try that.
But I'm terrible at basketball. It's been that way most of my life, except for about a two-year stretch in high school where I played more often, was less overweight than I am now, and had a basketball net of my own to play on. I had a few basketball skills that I kind of excelled at, mainly mid-range shooting and passing from the high post. I was taller than most, so I kind of molded my game off of Brad Miller's, sans headband and cornrows. I still wasn't great, but I was passable.
This morning, I went to shoot around with a couple of things in mind: to get the "jump" back in my jumper (which has devolved into a set shot) and to raise the ball further over my head when shooting (to give myself less of a chance to have my shot blocked). Previously, the only thing I was actually good at was free throw shooting because jumping and contesting didn't matter. But that skill is useless during anything that's not a game of knockout.
I feel like this morning's session went well. I did get a lot of shots up and missed a lot of them. However, I did feel comfortable eventually with my remade shooting motion. I imagine it looks a lot like a right-handed Tayshaun Prince's, since I can't keep my elbow straight in front of me and up above my head from what I think is a lingering elbow injury. Still, it felt good to know I was getting better.
However, it doesn't matter how good I get at that shooting motion until I address the major problem of being out of shape, which would be the main reason for my sucking at basketball until I fix that problem. Change the problem from "being out of shape" to "lacking some necessary basketball skill currently", and you have the issues with everyone left on the draft board. Fun times!
But hey, Rudy Gobert's arms are still very long! Dennis Schroeder is still German! And Sergey Karasev can still shoot! You can vote for any of them below!
1. Nerlens Noel (47%)
2. Ben McLemore (49%)
3. Otto Porter (42%)
4. Victor Oladipo (59%)
5. Anthony Bennett (48%)
6. Trey Burke (46%)
7. Alex Len (45%)
8. C.J. McCollum (38%)
9/10. Cody Zeller/Shabazz Muhammad (30%)
11. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (31%)
12. Michael Carter-Williams (27%)
13. Steven Adams (25%)