Can You Teach It?
I've learned over the years as a coach that there are some things that are easier to recruit than to teach. Certain parts of the game just come to players naturally. That's not to say you can't make them better in these areas. You can always work on improving skill. But there are certain elements of the game that seem to come naturally or guys just have trouble picking them up.
Finishing at the rim
I've found it's very hard to make someone a good finisher. Guys who can put the ball in the basket are naturals. They have the ability to get the ball from their hands to the bottom of the net quickly and easily. I've coached some great finishers - Ryan Gomes, Herbert Hill at Providence College - and they just had this instinctive ability. It wasn't something we trained them to do.
On the other side, guys who struggle to finish have a hard time getting better at it. Making a lay-up with a little bit of pressure always seems to be a struggle. These guys constantly frustrate you as a coach, no matter how much you work on it with them. There are drills that you can do and you'd like to think they'll show some improvement. But in my experience that improvement is marginal. Guys that struggle to finish always seem to do so - almost like it's part of their DNA.
Feeding the post
Maybe we all just need to work on passing skills more than we do, but it seems like feeding the post is hard for a lot of guards. It requires timing, touch and feel, plus a willingness to take a risk. It's usually not a dime that you are going to get an assist for, it's just making sure you can get it to the post player without turning it over. Nothing seems to frustrate guards more than trying to throw it inside and having the defender fight around the big and steal the ball.
A big part of being a good passer in general is just feel for the game and the timing of when to deliver the ball. Throw in the physical nature of post play, with two guys banging around back and forth, and it's easy for the passer to become a little more tentative. But guards who are natural passers have no issues feeding the post. They know how to ball fake, and they understand the balance and movement of the big - which direction he is heading, and where to get him the ball. I'm not sure those are things you can teach that effectively.
Obviously passing the ball and feeding the post are skills you can work on. I'm just not sure you can really improve somebody's ability to feed the post.
Rebounding out of your area
Rebounding is a lot about emphasis, toughness and technique, and you can certainly teach people to be better rebounders. But guys who chase the ball down, who rebound out of their area, are pretty special.
You can hold your players accountable for blocking out and reward the guys who are the best rebounders, and you can teach it and work on it every day. But there are some guys with a knack for the ball who are naturally greedy when the ball goes up and have a great feel for where a rebound is coming off. They combine that with great effort and toughness to become big time rebounders.
When you find a ball seeker, someone who can just go get it, that is pretty special. You can teach the technique and emphasize the importance of it, but certain guys just have an ability to go find the ball.