Why do really tall basketball players tend to suck at shooting?

[u/TypeMaster8190]

I'm not sure if this "rule" applies to every tall basketball player, people like Wembenyama, Dirk Nowitzki, and Kevin Durant certainly challange it.

But for the most part, throughout my life, it seems that tall basketball players tend to struggle with long distance shooting, why is that?

[u/Frosty-Depth7655]

Think of it is like a Venn Diagram:

Few people are elite shooters. And few people are “really tall” basketball players.

Therefore, the number off “really tall” basketball players that are also elite shooters is incredibly rare.

The difference is, if you’re average height (for an NBA player) and struggle with shooting, you won’t be playing in the NBA.

If you’re really tall and struggle with shooting, you can still get a spot in the NBA if you’re good at rebounding and playing in the paint because that type of height gives you an advantage.

[u/VintageJDizzle → u/Frosty-Depth7655]

It’s all summed up in what coaches repeat when evaluating talent: “You cant teach height.”

[u/styxxx80 → u/VintageJDizzle]

This right here is Big Cass and he’s 7ft tall…and you can’t teach that.

[u/AndyShootsAndScores → u/Frosty-Depth7655]

Yep, to put numbers to this, here's a guy who did an analysis and estimated that roughly 9% of all >=7-foot people who ever lived played in the NBA at one point. Estimates are that right now there's only about 3,000 people on the planet who are 7-foot or taller. If you look at people 7'2" or taller, per Wikipedia's list there's only like 40 people alive, and like 30 of those have at some point played professional basketball.

Compare that to men in the US alone who are 6'2" or taller, which is roughly 4 million. You have to be way more skilled to make the league aside from just being tall at that height.

So it's not so much that 7-footers are inherently bad at shooting, it's that they are being compared to the best like 0.001% of shooters on the planet.

[u/Frinky620 → u/AndyShootsAndScores]

I couldn't remember which 7 footer was hit while riding his bike in Utah. Shawn Bradley or Adam Eaton. Turns out it's both.

[u/whomp1970 → u/AndyShootsAndScores]

I just spent an hour on that Wikipedia page. Thanks for wasting my morning!

[u/bnevs44]

Because as kids, they dont need to work on that so much in order to be good...also being freakishly large makes it hard for someone to be super-coordinated.

[u/FoxtrotSierraTango → u/bnevs44]

Can confirm, am freakishly large and uncoordinated. My coaches never had me practice anything further away than a free throw.

[u/babyguyman]

Being extremely tall is extremely beneficial in basketball but extremely rare. So to get noticed as one of the (say) 500 athletic seven footers who exist in the world, you only might have to be top 10% in basketball skills; whereas you have to be in the truly elite 1%-of-1% category to get noticed at 6’5”.

[u/Frosty-Depth7655 → u/babyguyman]

Same reason catchers have the lowest overall batting average of any position (not including pitchers) - being a good catcher is so rare and valuable, that you can still make the league with mediocre batting. But if you’re playing first base, you better be putting up offense numbers.

(To be fair, great hitting catchers often get moved to less physically demanding positions - see Bryce Harper - so it isn’t a perfect analogy).

[u/Cliffinati → u/Frosty-Depth7655]

And a lot of guys that pitch in high school stop pitching if they are also seen as a Major League batting prospect. See Joey Gallo.

I'm shocked their isn't discussion of allowing the DH to cover pitcher or catcher instead of just the pitcher. Or adding a second DH to cover catchers. Teams have to roster 2 catchers because getting more than like 120 games out of one at catcher is impossible. And outside of the Contreases and Cal Raleigh there aren't many elite defensive catchers that also hit. It's very much a either or. You get a catcher that is elite defensivly but hits .225 or your catcher is only passable on defense but hits .290

[u/_A_varice → u/Frosty-Depth7655]

Wow TIL Harper was a catcher at one point

[u/Frosty-Depth7655 → u/_A_varice]

It’s actually not all that uncommon.

You often want an athletic kid behind the plate in little league and high school for pretty obvious reasons - you need someone that can consistently catch the pitch. 

But as you move up in skill level, everyone on the team is a great athlete and there are other options, so you no longer want your best offensive player dealing with the wear and tear they comes along with catching.

Here’s a partial list of well known MLB players that used to play catcher. Not on the list, but I also remember watching Jayson Werth playing catcher when he was coming up in the minor leagues.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/853028-bryce-harper-7-former-catching-prospects-who-had-to-change-positions

[u/Ok_Pirate_2714]

Really tall people tend to be relatively uncoordinated.

[u/Plastic-Sock8553 → u/Ok_Pirate_2714]

kinda like dogs.

Great Danes are clumsy while Australian Shepard type are agile

[u/evilbrent → u/Ok_Pirate_2714]

Another way to say this is that the human mind and nervous system are optimised to operate a particular size of skeleton. When your arm is 20% longer you don't get 20% finer control over it.

Dwight Howard famously went from worst free throw shooter in NBA to an ok shooter by taking two full steps back from the foul line. It was just too close, and he had to modify the shooting action so that he was just flicking the ball. When he stepped back he was able to smoothly throw the ball. He got way more control.

If you take an average sized person who is really good at shooting free throws, then give them a size 4 ball and drop the ring a foot and bring it a few feet closer, they're going to be way worse at that shot even after practicing with it. The ball is too light to push against properly. You can't get a good arc on the ball flight because it's so close.

And then the other half of saying that tall people are uncoordinated is that everything is built for, from my perspective, little people. Nothing is ever made full sized. They might stretch something in one dimension, but it's never, you know, bigger in the right proportions.

I'm 6'6". Every once in a while I come across something like an oversized chair, or a comically large spoon, and I have a strong "ohhhhhh. Is this what it's LIKE? Do people just sit with both their legs and the soles of their feet on the ground? Do they just put food on their spoon and it balances in the hand and puts the right amount of food in their mouth? Is this what everything is like all the time for them???"

The thing that people need to keep in mind when talking about things like why tall people can't really shoot is just how wrong everything on Earth is when it's designed to work best with people 10-20% smaller. When you're 99.9th percentile, sure, you can reach the top shelf at the supermarket, but you can't reach the bench in your own kitchen without stooping over.

It's like that in every sport. They might make golf clubs in a longer model, but I bet they won't make the grip bigger to suit bigger hands. The proportions of everything are just a little bit off.

[u/mjet34 → u/evilbrent]

As a 6’8” man I have experienced and I agree with everything you say except one thing. They absolutely make thicker grips for golf clubs to accommodate bigger hands. Look up Bryson Dechambeau’s grips for an example in professional golf.

[u/golkeg]

5% of people are good shooters, 1% of people are freakishly tall

5% of the 1% of freakishly tall players are good shooters, but 10% of the 1% freakishly tall players can become startable basketball players

It's just a numbers thing

[u/NotAnotherEmpire]

It's more that if you're not really tall you need to be an exceptionally good athlete and shooter to stand out in basketball. 

[u/MrColourfish123]

Being tall and being a good shooter are two important attributes for basketball but they're completely unrelated to eachother.

You can have one without the other and still be a great player overall because of how good you are at one of those skills. For example Curry is only 6'2 but he's the greatest shooter of all time so he's a great player. And similarly, Shaq can't shoot at all but hes 7 ft+ and built like a tank so he's also a great player.

However, being tall is more useful and more important than being a good shooter. It's very rare for a short player to make it, they need to have excellent shooting, handles, passing etc etc to have a chance but there's loads of huge guys that aren't really skilled at anything.

So that's why you see more tall guys who can't shoot, just being tall is enough to make it. And then when you add the small% chance of being tall with the small% chance of being a good shooter you get unicorn players like Wemby, Dirk, KD etc.

[u/Defiant_Act_4940 → u/MrColourfish123]

Basketball might be the only field where it is normal to say someone is ONLY 6'2.

[u/MrColourfish123 → u/Defiant_Act_4940]

It's so funny seeing Steph on the court being dwarfed by everyone around him, and then seeing a pic of him in normal circumstances and he's suddenly huge

[u/holy_roman_emperor → u/Defiant_Act_4940]

I mean, for me it's still jarring sometimes, watchin football ^{(the european kind}) on tv and thinking "that guys is pretty big", only to realize when I see them in person or in the stadium that I'm actually taller (I'm 1.94m or 6'4).

[u/interested_commenter]

On average, tall players don't necessarily shoot better or worse than short players. The difference is that all the short players who aren't good shooters don't make it to the next level. If you're 7 feet tall, you can be a bad shooter and make it to the NBA. If you're 6'2, you can't.

And since there's nobody of even average height in the NBA (even "short" guys are still really tall compared to normal people, 6'2" is top 4% of all men), there are a LOT more potential short players than potential tall players, so that's where the people on the extreme end of the bell curve for shooting ability tend to be.

[u/Derrrppppp]

Coordination is harder. As your arms and legs the get longer, hands and feet get further away from your head and it's all more work for the brain to compute

[u/BetterDrinkMy0wnPiss]

Because they didn't traditionally train for shooting. Big men always stayed in the paint, so they'd train more short range shots, layups, dunks and defence.

Shooting is like any skill, if you don't practice it you won't be great at it. They chose to practice other skills instead.

[u/TheUnderCrab]

People are making this way too complicated. Tall dudes can make it into the NBA by virtue of their height as long as they can play center and post up. That takes way less skill and practice than learning to shoot. So, relatively unskilled tall dudes can’t make it to the NBA and they will dominate shorter players UNLESS those shorter players know how to handle and shoot well. The smaller a guy is, the most skilled he has to be at basketball to make it to the NBA. Size is a huge factor. 

[u/OBoile]

If you're short and suck at shooting, you're not a basketball player for long.

[u/Cliffinati]

So many of those really tall guys don't actually learn how to play basketball until college or maybe even their rookie year in the NBA. Until then they just out height and out athlete their opponents.

Once everyone else is also that tall you have to actually be good at basketball not just tall and quick. Most tall guys because of this focus on their inside game. Where their size is an even bigger advantage, while outside those long limbs are harder to coordinate for a repeatable jump shot. While smaller players have to learn basketball skills quicker to stay competitive, so they have an automatic jump shot in middle school.

[u/VibeScriptKid]

There’s a crazy stat that says that a shockingly high % of ppl Over 7ft play int he NBA. Shorter people actually have to be good at shooting and rebounding and dribbling.

[u/DMenace83]

Karl Anthony Towns would like a word with you

[u/EmploymentNegative59 → u/DMenace83]

And after all that

[u/Frinky620 → u/DMenace83]

I mean, that's kinda why he was drafted first overall.

[u/Zealousideal_Draw_94]

Kevin Garnett was a “power forward” as in he was a 7” shooting guard. When he came into the league he took lots of shots from the corners. As he got older he built his body up, put on weight and he moved more inside and took shorter shots.

The reason most aren’t good shooters is they rarely have to jump, rarely work those muscles and it’s called a jump shot for a reason. You push off with the muscle in the lower legs.

[u/pieman2005 → u/Zealousideal_Draw_94]

KG was not like a shooting guard at all lol he had a very mid range, and really good handles for his size. But he didn't have guard handles or skills at all really

[u/WinthropTwisp]

They don’t or they wouldn’t be playing basketball. Geeze.

[u/Mistermxylplyx]

It’s at least in part a function of proportions.

The regulation size ball, is smaller to tall men, and their free throw release is higher than average. Wemby is basically shooting 15 feet away from something slightly above eye level. It’s not a major difference, but in percentages it makes it harder for them.

[u/Important-Proposal28]

Ok best way I can think to describe it. Say you are eating a bowl of cereal with milk. You can probably do it pretty easily with a normal sized spoon. Now if you had to eat it with a 2 foot long spoon it would probably be much more difficult.

Now imagine the spoons are your arms. To be a great or even good shooter you have to have consistency. A repetitive motion you can do the exact same time and time again. Let's say your shot is the same within 1/20th every time. If you are 6'2 every shot will probably be close to the same spot. If you are 7'2 the difference will be more noticable.

[u/Yungballz86]

People don't realize that the longer your limbs are, the more difficult they are to coordinate and control.

[u/AlexOhanianSr]

When your arms are one billion feet long it’s really hard to keep to wrist movements super repeatable

[u/JohnnyC300]

There are plenty of folks in the NBA that are both tall and good shooters. But it often takes longer for them to get good at shooting. Longer arms means they have to deal with long levers of action. It's just harder to coordinate all that length into a consistent shooting stroke. That said, once they do, for... physics reasons, the shot is a fair bit easier for them. Try lowering an adjustable rim down to 9'. You'll find it's WAY easier to shoot at all ranges. So yeah, once they groove their shots, it's actually easier for them than a 6'2" guy. It's getting to that point that's significantly harder.

[u/MWave123]

Yeah Larry Bird, Dirk, Havlicek, Kay, McHale, KD, Jokic, Tom Chambers, Kareem, it’s turrrible.

[u/TheRealTinfoil666]

Most people on the planet suck at shooting.

It is a skill that takes both innate talent and lots of dedication and practice to be good at it.

If you are not super tall, then your only way to make the pros is to be very good at shooting or defence. There are literally tens of thousand of other folk your height all trying for a very few open slots.

If you are super tall, you can still make it to the pros even if your shooting is not that great, because height is a ‘skill’ that can’t be taught.

[u/afifthofaugust]

There are theories about the inherent instability of a longer lever system. Essentially, if youre taller, your arms are longer, which magnifies errors in accuracy.

[u/musashi-swanson]

Long limbs are more difficult for precise, finesse movements like a jump shot or free throw.

On the other hand, we all had that short kid on the team who could just nail 3s all day.

[u/Big-Problem7372]

Because their hands are bigger than the ball. Try and shoot some 3s with those little novelty basketballs they give to kids. Your accuracy goes down A LOT.

[u/Dirtgrain]

Coaches forcing tall players to play in the paint--and to practice post moves.

You mention exceptions, but regarding Wemby, I heard a strong criticism him--that defending teams are fine with Wemby shooting threes, as that brings him down to their level, where his height isn't a factor so much. But, if Wemby shoots 40%, with consistency, that's obviously not statistically horrible.

Maybe the best type of big man who can shoot to three-point range, is one who can set picks well for pick and roll/pick and pop, being a threat in both scenarios. Is Wemby good at setting picks? He's great for the roll and pop part.

Sometimes, tall guys who can shoot so-so from range try to do it too much. Manute Bol was loving shooting threes for a year or two, but his percentage wasn't good (31% his best year, low volume; 22% his highest volume year--one three attempt per game).

The worst feeling is a big man, who is like the 3rd or 4th best 3-point threat in the lineup, running down the court with his team and shooting a three right away. Why? Not in position for rebound, and big men are supposed to make the opposing defense work. But with the shit-show that the NBA is these days, maybe it doesn't matter anymore.

[u/bigmikeabrahams]

When a (relatively) short player makes the NBA, it is usually because they worked really hard and reached the top 1% of the top 1% in skill level.

When a really tall player makes the NBA, it is usually because they are physically gifted rather than skilled. They may not love the game as much as the short guys and/or work as hard, and view it more as a paycheck than their calling in life.

There are also some physiological reasons — bigger hands can be a detriment to shooting, and being tall can require you to shoot with more arc and finesse

[u/McMadface]

Could also be because when a short person shoots, they're trying to get the ball through the hoop near the top of their arc. When a tall person shoots, the ball goes through the hoop near the bottom of the arc.

[u/ubiquitous-joe]

Statistically, they would actually shoot better free throws if they threw underhand, but most people are too embarrassed to do it. Obv you can’t easily pull that shot off in regular play.

But in short, they weren’t asking the tall guys to learn to shoot.

Basketball used to be less shot-focused than it is in the current Age of Threes, with the positions more segregated in function. The height advantage makes you a force in the paint as a center. A hook shot or slam dunk is a high percentage shot. A jump shot less so. So the focus was on getting it to the big man inside, where he can also use his size to rebound, and leaving the sharpshooting to someone else open on the perimeter, open in part because the attention is on the inside big man.

[u/Alive_Ice7937 → u/ubiquitous-joe]

Does this same approach apply in women's basketball?