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Are we even going to talk about balls?

The Jazz should hire Tom Hanks as a shooting coach. He has years of isolated experience with the Wilson ball.

The old Tf-1000 was awesome. Current versions are not. The Nike ball is ok. The Evolution is a very good ball, but I prefer the Baden Elite Perfection, but have a bunch of each.
 
I switched to Wilson Evolution about 10 years ago because l play in a couple community leagues and that's all they use.

It was a bit of an adjustment but for my money it's the best ball out there.
 
The best basketball I ever had was a Wilson jet. It was always the ball everyone wanted to play with at pickup games.
 
I forget what they are called, but like 10 years ago this ball when a ton of ridges became really popular in gyms I played and I actually really liked it. Feels like no one uses those anymore. I actually love the FIBA ball. A few Europeans play where I'm at and they have those. Most people hate it though, but I think just cuz it looks funny.
 
I started this thread because the Ball changed this year.

I feel like I'm taking crazy pillz right now.

Shooting percentage is DOWN in the NBA. Shooting percentage is DOWN!

But hey, how about **** that happened in 1996? Let's talk about that. Let's talk about what goes on at your local YMCA.

This thread isn't about the NBA, this thread is about you... I guess.

For ****s sake.
 
I'm getting the feeling that we are NOT going to talk about the new NBA ball this season. People would rather reminisce about **** they bought at Target and took to their local gym for a pick-up game in the 90s.

**** me sideways
 
- It sounds like players like the ball, and it doesn't feel different
- Shooting is down across the league
- Maybe even if it feels the same, there are some aerodynamic differences. Potentially there is slightly more or less friction with the air causing the ball to not fall in the same precise spot the shooter is used to (after shooting millions of shots based on feel). Maybe the differences are so slight that it even makes a difference in the air currents from an empty arena to a full arena?
 
SoberasHotRod said:
- It sounds like players like the ball, and it doesn't feel different
- Shooting is down across the league
- Maybe even if it feels the same, there are some aerodynamic differences. Potentially there is slightly more or less friction with the air causing the ball to not fall in the same precise spot the shooter is used to (after shooting millions of shots based on feel). Maybe the differences are so slight that it even makes a difference in the air currents from an empty arena to a full arena?
Click to expand...
Maybe all of this was designed by the NBA to level the playing field for the Lakers (a poor 3pt shooting team), and to ensure the Jazz (a great 3pt shooting team) would never make it to the NBA finals?
 
The ball makes a difference no doubt. There was this one time, at the YMCA, back in the 90's...oh wait...must...resist...urge...to... reminisce.
 
Seriously though, remember the huge uproar over the synthetic ball when they tried to introduce that. The consistency of the tools matters more than many people think, especially for pros. I knew a world-class racquetball player in college. While several of us were gushing over the new cool racquets that we had acquired, he was quietly slaughtering everyone with the racquet he had gotten from his dad that his dad played with. He would re-string it himself. Once he came and didn't have his equipment and he took one of my racquets and suddenly he was closer to human. I actually won a game against him. I've seen similar with basketballs. We always had a hard time as a high school team against certain schools, and I know part of it was a different ball. Remember the whole inflate-gate thing with the Patriots (I think it was the Patriots), who filled the balls to the low end of the spec, or something...eh I don't care about football so I don't remember it all. That kind of stuff can make a big difference especially to a game like basketball where so much of it is done subconsciously and you just expect the ball to work the way it always does.
 
When they introduced the synthetic ball players (I think Steve Nash) complained that the ball was causing cuts on his fingers.

Having owned and played with a number of the Spalding official leather balls, I will say that they take a while to break in, and since these are new, that could be half the problem. Once they are broken in, they are awesome. Spalding also had years to make manufacturing changes to perfect the ball.

When Spalding's synthetic leather manufacturer went out of business, the TF-1000 was never the same. I'd have to imagine going to a different company, in this case Wilson, is going to cause some differences between the two balls, no matter how much they try and replicate the two, whether it is microdifferences in the pebbling, leather, weight, etc. The grooves are different on the Wilson, but it is easier to grip, but this may change shot a bit depending on release. I'm guessing by year end there will be enough broken in balls and players will have adjusted to the differences to get percentages back to normal. I have watched a lot of games this year, and it does appear players are shooting the ball long at a much greater variance in last year. Of course this is anecdotal as I have no data to back this up.

When the NCAA switched to the Solution for the tournament in 2003, it sucked. During the season we played with a series of different balls, as the home team could choose the ball at the time. The solution actually made our percentages rise, but the ball wears out quickly and under the thin synthetic material is a soft rubber carcass. We hated them. Small differences on a ball can make a big difference on the court.
 
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