Inside Andrew Bynum

When you are a young player or a coach that deals with young players its important to have an affect on a game. Having an affect isn’t hitting a couple of shots in a row,  having a few dunks on the break, or a catching a lob pass. It doesn’t have to show up in the stat sheet or on the ESPN top 10 plays of the week. To have an affect on the game means to play with energy and passion on both ends of the floor.  Scoring doesn’t necessarily need to the stat to comes to mind. You can be the player who comes up with 9 rebounds 3 blocks and a steal, or be the one who dished out 7 assists had 2 steals and two made three point shots. Heck it doesn’t even have to be a stat stuffing night, you can shut down the other team’s best player and hold them scoreless helping your team edge out a 3 point win. You should never play meaningful minutes on the floor and a common observer didn’t even notice your existence.

We can talk all day about how players are unskilled in this country, I’m not about to go down that road.  What I want to speak on today is how to wake up young players especially post players. There is such a lack of serviceable post players that play the right way. To be a great post player doesn’t mean that you have to score 24 points on the block. Sure that helps, but to truly have value as a post player you need to start by being active. So few post players today run the floor on both ends. They tend to trail the play mostly and taking their time to get over halfcourt unless they have a chance to score on an uncontested layup. Players need to understand that they get so many scoring opportunities by running the floor in transition as well as making hard cuts in the halfcourt as well. If you pay attention to most post players many of the points don’t even occur with touches on the block. Running the floor in transition, putbacks on offensive rebounds, rolling hard on pick and roll, ducking in from the weakside, and cutting to the basket are all ways that big men can score. Before you know it you can already have 12-14 points by just doing these things on a regular basis. You’d be surprised on the amount of points are scored every night doing these things by some of the top post players in the league.

This post will center around Andrew Bynum. Andrew has developed into one of the top Centers in the NBA. The 2012 starting center on the west squad for the all star game has put up 16.4 points 12.5 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game coming into tonight, while playing an average of 35.0 minutes a game. As I stated before I like to take into account how many minutes it takes a post player to get a rebound. You get that number by averaging your minutes by your rebounds. If that number is under 4.0 you are a very active rebounder for a post player. Bynum’s average is a rebound every 2.82 minutes per game. That is outstanding and one of the tops in the league.  He shoots 54.1 % from the field making him one of the more efficient post players in the NBA.

He wasn’t born this way coming into the NBA. Bynum’s body was nowhere near it was right now. His weight was north of 300lbs, and not even close to being in game shape ready to contribute consistently at the NBA level. He learned form a veteran team and coaching staff that being out of shape and low energy wasn’t going to sit well with them and was going to stop his development as a player. Like any driven player Bynum worked harder every off season until he was ready to contribute on an everyday level. He slowly became one of the league’s top centers. Every year he seems to add a little more to his game. What has improved the most for him is his tenacity when it comes to rebounding on both ends of the floor. It seems like Bynum is in every play, and when he gets an offensive rebound he keeps it high and puts it right back up. Players need to watch his tenacity and activity level on both ends of the floor. Every player should watch how on offense the first thing he does is make contact with his opponent and establishes great position on the block. That is his spot and he owns it, he doesn’t let anyone try to push him off his spot that’s his spot an everyone in the arena knows it. When the shot goes up on either end, Bynum is always fixated on where to be for the rebound. Another trick that all post players should get in the habit of doing.

It hurts my eyes to watch talented post players at the high school and college level. So  much potential lost because of bad attitudes and poor work ethics. You need to understand this that if you are 6’10 , fairly active, coordinated, and can move just a little bit you will make money playing basketball. There are so many players that have made a career in the NBA of being serviceable backups that  were average players at best. Here’s a list of some of the active NBA big men and what is estimated that they have made playing basketball.

Guards for the most part are a dime a dozen. Yes there are great ones that are special, but for the most part it is very hard to get to the NBA level as a guard even if you have a lot of talent. The market is so saturated with 6’2 combo guards or 6’5 scorers. What the league needs is talented big men. What Division 1 schools need our serviceable big men. WHAT ANY SCHOOL NEEDS IS SERVICEABLE BIG MEN. Catch my drift.

Remember what I said earlier that you don’t have to be a scorer on the block to be serviceable as a post player. You just have to be active, rebound the ball, and run the floor. Learn how to stay out of foul trouble and move your feet. Another skill set that good post players have is that they can protect the paint. That means they can block shots, or they can move their feet and rotate to take charges and/or help their teammates on defensive rotations. Again all of this is not brain surgery. All it takes is extra effort and the ability to be focused. I’m actually tired of writing about this, but since most bigmen never live up to any expectation I want to continue to spread the word to as many players and coaches as I can.

Not everything in basketball is about making the NBA. I know I mention it a lot, but its fine to just be a good high school or college player. The key is to live up to your potential and don’t waste it. You are young now and have very bright futures ahead of you. Some of you will go on to successful careers in the workforce doing great things. Some of you if you are lucky will go on to play in college, and for a select few will make money playing basketball. But understand this you will get old. Before you know it you’ll be 40years old, don’t be that person that reflects back and says, man I could have done so much more with my ability but chose not to because I was lazy or had a bad attitude. You won’t play this game forever, remember what Charles Barkley says, father time is undefeated. Don’t waste your talent.