Okay this is pure speculation and I expect the down votes, so while I'm going down I decided to add some videos
When I saw this article about Kobe airballing shots, I decided to look into it to see if it was going to point out what I saw. Of course the article says he's missing these shots because he's past his prime, and I'm not doubting that part. But I'm not entirely sure his body has actually given up on him. I think Kobe doesn't trust his body so he's trying something new
I think this because at the beginning of the year I wanted to get better at shooting. I was actually going to post a tip in the appropriate subreddit but decided against it..but what I was going to point out was something I learned from players like KD and to some extent Curry
Now if you look here you'll find a video of Durant doing the short hop into his jumper. If you search it online you'll find all the benefits from it
Here's a video from 2013 from Bballbreakdown about the hop
Here's another video from 2014 about the hop vs 1-2
If you just search short hop shooting or something on YouTube, you'll find a ton of videos on it.
Here's why the short hop is good:
- The short hop gives the player more power on his shot
- The short hop adds to consistency in your shot 3. The short hop helps you shoot faster
Kobe is famously known as a 2 motion shooter - this is from ShotMechanics. If you know about 2 motion shooting then you know it is a much slower shot and for most people there's not as much power since it's not all happening in one motion. This is something Kobe has been aware of and with people like Kevin Durant making the short hop look fantastic out there, it would only make sense that Kobe adds the short hop into his game, right? And if you go to article talking about how Kobe is airballing 3s, you'll see how he's adding the short hop to his game
But the short hop isn't the problem. As noted here by Pro Shot Shooting System Kobe Bryant pretty much added the hop into his game back in 2012. But what's important to note here is how Kobe borrowed the move from Kevin Durant in the first place. This is important to my observation
2012 was also after the Mavs won the title and Dirk received a ton of recognition for his trademark fadeaway. Shooters saw how dominate he was with this move so they decided to add it to their game. If you think of the top players who immediately added it to their game, you see that they were Durant, Kobe, and Melo
Now keep this in mind: Kobe is borrowing and using moves of Dirk, Durant, and all the other legends before...and we can see all of this in the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 season. Kobe is having success with these moves. But then what happens?
In 2013 Kobe goes down with the achilles injury, right? We say he's never going to be the same, and right now it looks that way. The article talking about how he's airballing 3s makes it seem that way as well. But there's something just way different with his shooting now than before...
Since his injury there's been one great shooter who's popped up. We all know who this is. It'sSteph Curry. Now, Kobe is the kind of guy who'll see a great move from a player and just take it because he knows it'll make him better. Kobe took the short hop from Durant and the fadeaway from Jordan and Dirk...and a ton of other moves from other players. So what is it that Curry has that Kobe doesn't?
Curry has a faster release than Kobe. Kobe is a 2 motion shooter while Curry is a well known One motion shooter. His shooting is all one motion.
If you're skimming around then just come to this spot, and then read what you skipped over
I think Kobe is struggling with his shot because he's trying to shoot more like a one motion shooter like Steph Curry. Go to this article on Kobe airballing shot and watch how Kobe is shooting the ball. Compare that to Kobe back before his injury in this video on him shooting nothing but 3s
In the video before his injury you see how Kobe pauses before actually releasing his shot. This is the two motion shooting. But in the article they pulled clips of him not doing it as much. It's hard to explain unless you look at it, but it makes a world of difference. Going from a two motion shot to a one motion shot isn't that bad if you're just at home practicing, because you don't have that many variables to through you off. But pulling that off in game is very difficult because Kobe holding the ball longer in his two motion shooting helps him aim. If you go from a two motion shot to a one motion shot at game speed, that's the equivalent of just chucking the ball up and hoping you make it. That's why Kobe is airballing and missing what were once easy shots.
The key is to look at how Kobe is missing and not just the fact that he's missing and I strongly believe that the how he is missing can be attributed to the fact that he's trying to borrow one motion shooting from Curry. I also don't think it has much to do with his age and legs because Kobe isn't just missing shots because they're short..he's completely missing the rim. Age doesn't do that to you. Not when you practice as much as he does, because if age was an issue, then he'd more than likely come up short more than overthrow the shot. But since one motion shooting can extend your range by giving you more power, it makes sense that he's overthrowing
More miscellaneous proof If you look at the last video in the article talking about him airballing, you see him go for a quick release. Signs of quick releasing in most players is how they don't hold their follow through, but they don't hold their follow through all the time. It's not situational, so it's not like they drop their arms off the dribble. But here, Kobe is a standstill and he's not holding his follow through. In that 3 point shooting compilation I linked in here, you see him holding his follow through way more often than not. So why is he not doing it in 2015?
Also, Kobe, imo, has a low arcing shot. [This was mentioned on this subreddit last] year(https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/2jsr0y/kobes_shot_form/), but this guy is saying it just now looks low. To me it's always looked kind of low. You can't really notice it because of the camera angles and shooting 3s, but when he shoots 2s, it looks really low. It could also be because of the fact that he's a 2-motion shooter which requires you to jump higher to put the ball in...you don't need as much arc for that while shooting wide open shots (especially when you're 6'6"
Also just watch this video in general to see how Kobe has a true two motion shot in 2011 and hereis slow motion on his shot.
tl;dr Kobe is a traditional 2-motion shooter and the reason he's shooting poorly now is because he's trying to "borrow" another great move to his game: 1-motion shooting (from Curry)