Whose fault is it? The NBA players or their coaches?

Watching the supposedly 16 best teams that are in the NBA playoffs, I wonder how some of them got there when they have such poor basic fundamentals especially when it comes to playing basketball from the shoulders up with high basketball IQ’s’.

Instead, many of the players just use their bodies and athletic skills and not their brains and play the game from the shoulders down. So you can imagine how poor the 14 non playoff teams are in fundamentals in making good fundamental basketball decisions.

Here are 5 common fundamental poor basketball decision IQ fundamental mistakes that I see many NBA players on all teams make over and over again, game after game, nite after nite..

Mistake 1. How many times does a player have to get burned by committing a personal foul when guarding a player with the ball by not staying on their feet on the floor until the player they are guarding has left his feet?

Usually once a player leaves the floor guarding a player with the ball before the player with the ball  leaves the floor the defender in the air is usually useless.

Many times when they buy the fake by the player with the ball it ends up in a shooting foul, an open shot or to an open drive to the hoop.

Correcting Mistake  1: Don’t leave the floor until the player you are guarding with the ball leaves the floor.

Mistake 2.Or how about when defenders guarding the shooter try to block the shot  and get a foul called when if they would have not tried to block the shot until after it left the shooter’s hand then they would not foul the shooter in the act of shooting.

Correcting Mistake 2. Don’t block the ball until it leaves the shooter’s hands.

Mistake 3. Or how about when the player guarding the player with the ball has their left hand up on the right handed shooter, but when the shooter leaves the floor to shoot a perimeter shot when the defender leaves his feet to try to block the shot he changes from his left hand to his right hand so that they shorten the length of the arm their arm trying to block the shot by at least 6 inches and because they are going across their nobody while in the air they are off balance and either can foul the shooter or are to late to even hinder the shooter’s shot, especially on a 3 point shot.

Correcting Mistake  3. Keep the left hand up on the right handed shooter all the time and vice-versa for a left-handed shooter.

Mistake 4. And the cardinal sin for any offensive player is when they leave the floor and then does not shoot the ball. This is as a big cause of turnovers then any one single offensive move.

First, a player should never leave their feet with the ball unless they are going to shoot the ball. Because if they don’t shoot because they don’t have a shot because of the defense they end up passing the ball to a teammate who expects the player in the air with the ball to shoot it is not expecting or has turned to rebound the shot he thinks is going up only not to see the pass because he is not looking for it.

Also, this move leads to many player-control fouls or as I call them player-out-of control fouls.

Correcting Mistake 4. IF YOU LEAVE YOUR FEET WITH THE BALL MAKE SURE YOU SHOOT THE BALL AND MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A HIGH PERCENTAGE IN CONTROL SHOT BEFORE YOU LEAVE YOUR FEET.

Mistake 5. Another big thing that many NBAers do not do is knowing how to block out on the defensive boards. Regardless of where they are on the floor when their opponents take a shot they should not just turn to the hoop, stand and wait to look for the rebound which is what many do on a regular basis which allows their offensive player to get to the offensive boards for a put back or at least another offensive possession.

As soon as an offensive player takes a shot ALL the defensive rebounders should look for their man they are guarding and go towards them to block them out. Find your man as soon as the ball leaves a shooter hands and then block him out when he tries to make a move to the offensive board. DON’T IMMEDIATELY TURN TO THE BASKET AND STAND AND WAIT FOR THE REBOUND. The one time you do not to look or care where the ball is when it is in the air on a field goal attempt.

Correcting Mistake 5. As soon as the ball is released from the shooter’s hand go and find your man and then box him out when he moves to the hoop.

By doing these 5 POOR FUNDAMENTAL LOW BASKETBALL IQ THINGS BY MAKING POOR BASKETBALL DECISIONS  things time after time and over and over again and expecting different results is definitely the definition of “Insanity”, “BASKETBALL INSANITY”.

However, this may not be the players fault if their coaches at the high school, college or even in the NBA level have not taught them not to do these 5 poor fundamental things that lead to poor decision making for their teams.

I blame the coaches more then I would blame the players and look at all the money the coaches are making as coaches or as I call many of these so called coaches that allow and put up with their players making these 5 low IQ poor basketball decisions on a regular game after game basis,, just high priced “SUPERVISORS OF SUBSTITUTIONS”.

Coaches who demand not, GET NOT…..Coaches get what they DEMAND

Good, smart coaches give the wins to the players and take the losses on themselves. If players don;t do what a coach wants them to do (and they don’t use the coaches best friend THE BENCH (as John Wooden always said) , then that Is the coaches fault and if what they want their players to do doesn’t work, it is still the coaches fault.

Next time you watch an NBA playoff game look to see how many times these 5 poor decisions happen because the players don’t make the right basketball high IQ decisions?

Then decide whose fault is it, the players who have been playing basketball for years or the coaches that they had in high school college or currently in the NBA?

An, off course, this is what the high school players, coaches, parents and fans see in these NBA GAMES AND MANY THINK THAT IS HOW THE GAME SHOULD BE PLAYED without proper fundamentals to eliminate these 5 poor player decision making fundamentals. These 5 things are much more mental then they are physical.

But they do  win or lose games depending on whether a team does or does not do them correctly.

The NBA game is highly athletic entertaining game, but really lacks the finesse, high IQ decision making and basic fundamental skills that real basketball purists like to see in the game.

I still believe that some of the NBA championship teams of yesteryear would beat the championship teams of today in the NBA, especially from the Magic Johnson and Larry Bird era as their LAKERS AND CELTICS TEAMS PLAYED THE GAME MORE FROM THE SHOULDERS UP, NOT FROM THE SHOULDERS DOWN.

Magic and Larry were also considered the best players in the NBA during their championship years and they certainly were not very good athletes, but the were great basketball players playing basketball.