The idea that every NBA player who puts in enough time will be at least an average shooter is weird to me. It's just basically illogical. If it were true, around 85 percent or so NBA players would be at least average shooters, but they aren't. So far, the indicators for Castle's shooting are not great. I know, I know, he has this dog in him and this great mentality and yada yada yada, but has he displayed any kind of shooting touch?
I'm not sure forcing him into being the lead guard/main creator is the best thing for his development right now.
Because 85% of the NBA players are not willing to do the job to get there. It is like any job, you have some people who just do their job and those who work more and excel. Adding the fact that most of them are young millionaires with a lot of temptation around them, it is easy to see most of them not putting the work in. Kobe training consisted in making 1000 shots a day, not taken, made. I bet that most NBA players are probably doing one or two tenth of that. Of course, the mechanic has to be good, that's why having a good shooting coach is important. And at the end, you are right, some players won't develop no matter what they do; let's hope for us that Castle is not in that category
I agree with what both you guys have said. It can be a combination of both, but as someone who can shoot the ball, I truly do believe you need to have some touch. I had poor form the first time I ever shot the ball, and still had bad form while I was learning to shoot, but I had good feel/touch for shooting and shots were still going in, so it became easier and easier once I developed better form. I don't know what it feels like for someone shooting the ball that doesn't have a feel for it. It must feel weird. It feels natural and pure to me.
You're dead right about Kobe too. He took a ton of shots during practice and that was made shots, not attempted shots. He really worked his ass off to get the skills he had. Players these days probably do work hard. I'd say in previous eras you might have had guys that didn't practice their shooting as much or overall worked as hard (case in point, on the 2008 US Olympic team or 2006 World Championships - Stars like Lebron, Wade thought they were working hard, but after seeing Kobe work, they realized they're not working hard enough), but I'd say there is still others that work just as hard even now, some of the previous eras, I'd guess not. Still, even now, not everyone puts in the exact same amount of time and work on improving. And sometimes, it doesn't matter how hard you work on it and try, some players just can't be good/great shooters. For example, I don't believe Jeremy is lazy or anything and that hurts to see him struggling as I'm sure he's tried hard to improve and that he's worked his ass off to become a good shooter, but it just hasn't happened for him so far.
And as someone else said, shooting in a game is completely different. The pressure, the close outs, having to adjust your shot on the fly, then there is also the mental game of being left wide open and putting pressure on yourself to hit that wide open shot. It ain't easy if you're thinking about all those things and you can get in your own head. The trick is to not think about it at all, for it to be automatic, have zero conscience when shooting it. Trust all the reps you put in when training/practicing and have it be automatic in games. Some people can just adjust on the fly in games too, but that's just their personal body control and feel for shooting/instinct taking over, just automatically happening.
Steph can't shoot for shit. If he doesn't start turning this around soon and start hitting some shots, his confidence is going to slide from the looks of it.
