Antoine's moves

[Alexander Wang <awang@MIT.EDU>]

It seems that with Antoine, there's always two extreme positions, with
unnecessary insults hurled across the middle ground where the truth
probably is. I don't think it's ever productive to call the other side
"stupid" or "ridiculous" or "clueless" and it drags the whole list down, as
I've learned this through my own unfortunate participation. 

My opinion: Antoine's a decent low post player, but he only dominates
weaker defenders. It's true that he frequently gets away with hooking the
defender. I don't know why this is a problem; he should be doing what the
refs will let him get away with if it helps him. That's smart basketball.
It's similar to the way many top guards get away with "dribbling" in a way
that would be whistled carrying in college. I mean, you can complain about
how ugly Shaq's game can be, but he'd be pretty dumb by not using his
strength because he wants to be a "pretty" player.

And it's not like defenders don't get away with some fouls against Antoine
also. Does anyone actually believe that Walker is being favored by the
refs? If so, he should probably be congratulated for his effective whining.
I doubt that's the case.

But Antoine has trouble against the better defenders -- guys who are both
long and strong. He has a separate problem of driving into multiple
defenders from the perimeter. That's more of a mental issue. The low post
problems - getting blocked or otherwise struggling against certain
defenders - come from his lack of vertical athleticism, in my opinion.
Antoine relies on quickness, trickiness, and using his body (including his
off arm) to beat his opponent to a spot. He doesn't rely on elevation,
because he's not that long and he doesn't jump well. I think that's why a
pump fake won't really help him. A lot of times, the defender gets a block
without even jumping, just by getting to the spot. If Antoine's pump faking
and the defender's not biting -- and he shouldn't -- then he loses that
element of surprise, the trap converges, and we have another turnover. What
would really make him a much better player is to develop some more lift.
Then pump faking could actually help.

Still, Antoine's enough of a low post threat to draw frequent double teams,
even though the opposing coach knows that he passes well out of it. If he
ever develops that athleticism, watch out, because the other parts of his
game are really coming together.

Alex