Hakeem Olajuwon Discusses Role of Post Game in Modern NBA
In today's NBA, the run-and-gun offense of the undefeated Golden State Warriors is taking over the league.
Sure, not everyone can be as successful as the Warriors, but for years now, teams have been abandoning the traditional post-up game of the past, per Fred Katz of FoxSports.com:
"...small ball continues to become more and more prominent in the NBA as the 23-0 Warriors plow through the league with it. Simultaneously, the bell continues to toll for the passing of the prototypical big man. Post play is dead; long live 3s.
Is that a matter of scheme and best practices, though? Or is it simply a product of the players who make up the industry?
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Per Katz, NBA Hall of Fame center Hakeem Olajuwon doesn't think the post game is completely gone: "People who are saying the post game is dead don’t know anything about basketball."
Olajuwon, who is 10th on the all-time NBA scoring list, went on to say a 6'7" player guarding him is going to cause him to get a layup nearly every time. But there aren't many Olajuwon types playing the game today.
As Katz wrote, today's game is more about denying entry passes inside instead of guarding big men who have the ball with their backs to the basket.
Per RealGM.com, post-up possessions in the NBA are down, with only eight teams finishing more than 10 percent of their possessions with a post-up.
Sacramento Kings head coach George Karl didn't mince words at the end of last season when talking about how the game has changed, per RealGM.com: “The game is getting out of balance. But until we figure out a way to make the post-up more efficient, we’re not going back. You just can’t win throwing the ball into the post 60 times per game.”
Olajuwon thinks he would utilize the pick-and-roll—something John Stockton and Karl Malone used brilliantly to get the Utah Jazz to two NBA Finals in the '90s—against today's defenses, per Katz:
"A whole lot of it is in the pick-and-roll. You want to keep running your offense, so you leave the post quickly and set a pick for your guy. Then you create a mismatch on the other guy. Or you can go back and set a pick on the other post. You don’t get the ball on the set play. You get it on the move. On the offensive end, the first thing you do is run down the middle and set so you can position for the play. So, the set play is a good way to run the game, but if you want to be a great big man, you have to find a way to be more creative. To me, in the pick-and-roll, you have the freedom to be creative.
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Again, it's much easier said than done when today's league focuses on three-pointers—and trying to stop them.
San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich, who has led the team to five championships, said Wednesday he'd rather the three-point shot go away than try to defend it even though it has helped his team, per James Herbert of CBSSports.com:
"I'll never embrace it. I don't think it's basketball. I think it's kind of like a circus sort of thing. Why don't we have a 5-point shot? A 7-point shot? You know, where does it stop, that sort of thing. But that's just me, that's just old-school. To a certain degree, you better embrace it or you're going to lose. And every time we've won a championship, the 3-point shot was a big part of it. Because it is so powerful and you've gotta be able to do it. And nobody does it better than Golden State, and you know where they're at. So it's important. You can't ignore it.
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Olajuwon is one of the game's all-time greats, and his thoughts on the game should be taken seriously. It certainly doesn't seem like he is embracing today's style of play, but he also didn't take his stance as far as Popovich, according to Katz.
"Anybody who has a good post game can cause a lot of trouble because you can’t guard him—even if it’s a guard [posting up]. If a smaller guard is guarding me, my advantage is inside. I’m going to post him. That’s the way the mentality of the post is. When you double-team, that leaves opportunities for wide-open shots or three-point shooters.
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So here's a memo to the rest of the league: Find a guy like Olajuwon, and take the Hall of Famer's advice.
But that's easier said than done.
