The Wilt Chamberlain Offensive Scouting Report Project Thread:

[CavaliersFTW]

here's that finished left block scoring

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrevhQnhUPI

[fpliii]

here's that finished left block scoring

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrevhQnhUPI

[Psileas]

The basket at 8:41 had always been one of my favorite ones. Off balance, fade-away, using glass, all at once, at 290 lbs. Without having seen and studied any big man before him perform this. Yeah, definitely unskilled...

[turnaroundJ]

I'm sorry but I've noticed that he's fond of taking this dumb finger roll facing backwards even if he's not that close to the basket. Terrible and inefficient shot.

[longhornfan1234]

here's that finished left block scoring

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrevhQnhUPI

That turnaround j.

[CavaliersFTW]

I'm sorry but I've noticed that he's fond of taking this dumb finger roll facing backwards even if he's not that close to the basket. Terrible and inefficient shot.

Looks like he drains it repeatedly over Bill Russell and Kareem Abdul Jabbar among anyone else he's shooting it over, but what does Wilt know he only owns all the NBA's volume and field goal percentage records right? I noticed 2 things with that shot:

*It is an opportunity for him to impose his physicality and intimidate, as he turns in he is often right on top of the player defending him even using his left hand to sweep or lean on the opponent if he gets away with it

*He's turning in deep, and the release is soft, which puts him in great offensive rebound position to follow his own shot if he feels a bad release, this is demonstrated in that section when he does just that against Bill Russell

Seems like an awesome shot to me

[turnaroundJ]

Looks like he drains it repeatedly over Bill Russell and Kareem Abdul Jabbar among anyone else he's shooting it over, but what does Wilt know he only owns all the NBA's volume and field goal percentage records right? I noticed 2 things with that shot:

*It is an opportunity for him to impose his physicality and intimidate, as he turns in he is often right on top of the player defending him even using his left hand to sweep or lean on the opponent if he gets away with it

*He's turning in deep, and the release is soft, which puts him in great offensive rebound position to follow his own shot if he feels a bad release, this is demonstrated in that section when he does just that against Bill Russell

Seems like an awesome shot to me

I'm sure he's made a load of those but it IS a highlight vid, so you'd expect not to see misses.

The leaning makes him release it off-balanced, though it does seem like his way to get closer. The arc is also quite flat. He isn't exactly laying it down from above.

I'm talking about the ones he attempts from 5+ feet away, facing the opposite basket. A possible reason for shooting it would be to make getting tip-ins or putbacks easier, but I don't see why he wouldn't just shoot some sort of a hook shot in those situations in stead of leaning in for some flip shot.

[CavaliersFTW]

I'm sure he's made a load of those but it IS a highlight vid, so you'd expect not to see misses.

The leaning makes him release it off-balanced, though it does seem like his way to get closer. The arc is also quite flat. He isn't exactly laying it down from above.

I'm talking about the ones he attempts from 5+ feet away, facing the opposite basket. A possible reason for shooting it would be to make getting tip-ins or putbacks easier, but I don't see why he wouldn't just shoot some sort of a hook shot in those situations in stead of leaning in for some flip shot.

Not quite, this is a project that shows every made bucket captured on film. And only about 2% of his career field goals exists on films. The footage is not selective as to which clips are shown. If he makes a particular shot a lot, it means he was taking that shot a lot. If he took the shot a lot, do you doubt that his mind was incapable of figuring out which shots worked for him and which shots didn't? Particularly seeing as how, as pointed out, he owns the leagues scoring and accuracy records?

[Psileas]

And only about 2% of his career field goals exists on films.?

That's a better phrasing that the "2% of his career exists" that I've also read, which is simply not true (it's obviously lower - we're talking about 47859+7559 career minutes + the free throws).

[Psileas]

It would also be interesting to count his dunks and estimate how many he had in his career (after breaking them down into specific eras, since he didn't dunk as often during his whole career) and where he'd rank all-time. He might not catch Shaq, who has more than 4,000 career dunks and is almost certainly the all-time leader, but he may have more than anyone else, with Kareem being the only other strong challenger (since the early 90's, Robinson was #2 behind Shaq, and he had less than 2,000).

[CavaliersFTW]

It would also be interesting to count his dunks and estimate how many he had in his career (after breaking them down into specific eras, since he didn't dunk as often during his whole career) and where he'd rank all-time. He might not catch Shaq, who has more than 4,000 career dunks and is almost certainly the all-time leader, but he may have more than anyone else, with Kareem being the only other strong challenger (since the early 90's, Robinson was #2 behind Shaq, and he had less than 2,000).

In the post he used the highest percentage 'finesse' finishes relative to any other potential methods of getting free to score, such as what you see in this left block footage I provided. But virtually all of his backdoor, pick and roll, and give and go plays resulted in a dunk, not to mention a very significant portion of his offensive rebounds. Interestingly, a lot of his lobs however, were soft lay ins, this is somewhat of a contrast to what we see today when players convert on lobs. But lobs aren't really a common play anyways. Not relative to the rest of the ways he put the ball in the hoop at least. All in all yeah, Wilt racked up a lot of dunks. If he was deep he was unstoppable just like Shaq.

[fpliii]

In the post he used the highest percentage 'finesse' finishes relative to any other potential methods of getting free to score, such as what you see in this left block footage I provided. But virtually all of his backdoor, pick and roll, and give and go plays resulted in a dunk, not to mention a very significant portion of his offensive rebounds. Interestingly, a lot of his lobs however, were soft lay ins, this is somewhat of a contrast to what we see today when players convert on lobs. But lobs aren't really a common play anyways. Not relative to the rest of the ways he put the ball in the hoop at least. All in all yeah, Wilt racked up a lot of dunks. If he was deep he was unstoppable just like Shaq.

You mentioned before that there were some slight differences between his left and right block scoring. Just wondering, with regards to his fadeaway in particular, was he more likely to use the glass on one side than the other?

[CavaliersFTW]

You mentioned before that there were some slight differences between his left and right block scoring. Just wondering, with regards to his fadeaway in particular, was he more likely to use the glass on one side than the other?

Go and watch my 1960's scoring video I made and you can see for yourself, he doesn't take that shot in his Laker years (or rather, let's say very rarely, it's not on the limited amount of film, not even an attempt) anyways. When he's in the right block and turns to fade he always rotates to HIS right which means he's actually shooting from near the high post. As such, I don't think he's at any advantagious angle to really be using glass, he's essentially facing the backboard straight on.

[fpliii]

Go and watch my 1960's scoring video I made and you can see for yourself, he doesn't take that shot in his Laker years (at least not on film) anyways. When he's in the right block and turns to fade he always rotates to HIS right which means he's actually shooting from near the high post. As such, I don't think he's at any advantagious angle to really be using glass, he's essentially facing the backboard straight on.

Good stuff. I'll rewatch when I get home.

[trueDS]

I'm sure he's made a load of those but it IS a highlight vid, so you'd expect not to see misses.

Exactly. Such highlights could show us some tendencies, but not much besides that. Without misses we really don't know how efficient player was in particular types of plays. Hey, even Shaq had a few seasons when he made 70 midrange jumpers each year and we could made exactly the same highlights video without misses and he would look good from midrange. But that would be just delusion, as is also in Wilt's case.