[tli232]

 I don’t know how NBA people think the Bench Press has ANYTHING to do with actual basketball strength. Bench Press only measures the strength of a guy’s Pectoral muscles, and in the NBA, very few movements require pectorals… unless you’re on the court for the sole purpose of fouling guys (cough, cough, Reggie Evans).

While I agree that the bench press is sometimes a good measure of a player’s overall strength, in Basketball, it’s useless as the the most important muscles for upper body strength are your obliques and Rectus Abdonminus (Abs and sides). 

As well, different players have different workout regimes. Some players (and most civilians) want their chest to look big, so they work on their pecs a lot. I’ve played a lot of basketball in my life, and big pecs mean nothing on the court. 

I think a better measurement should be either a deadlift or a back squat.

 

What do you guys think?

[White ChocolateParticipant]

Yeah, look at Kevin Durant he sucked at the bench press and look where he is now.

[The8thDeadlySinParticipant]

IDK.. The chest muscles do alot more than what you are giving them credit for.. With a strong chest, you, most of the time, have strong arms and a fairly strong back and core.. Because if all you have is chest, you cant hold a bar..Your forearms, back, triceps and a little biceps are also used to hold the bar and keep it steady.. On the decline of the bar, your traps and your triceps tense up and begin to work.. On the incline of the bar, you triceps are working along with your biceps… IMO, it is a good measure of overall, upper-body, strength..

[TRC1991Participant]

i agree, its a nice standard test to basically understand a players strength in the upper body

[tli232]

Wouldn’t it be more important to measure a player’s Lower body and core strength? Since any contact in the upper body is called a foul in today’s NBA. 

[The8thDeadlySinParticipant]

I dont think so… You dont have to have lower body strength, just lower body explosiveness and that is what is measured with the vertical and lane agility test… Now dont get me wrong, strength is important but its not everything… Most players in the NBA have skinny legs.. You can give me examples of player with big legs but there are very few… Upper body strength is important because all of the contact off the ball is all upper body… Pushing, shoving, slapping, pulling… All of that is arms and chest.. That is all stuff you do to get open or keep someone from getting open.. You can also pull down a rebound or finish a layup with upper-body strength.. You can finish a shot with good form or keep a player from stripping the ball with upper-body strength. Like I said, lower body is more about explosion.. Running, getting to full speed quickly, jumping.. All of that requires explosion more so that strength..

If this was football, where you would be carrying people and jumping is more a last resort instead of a necessity, I would agree with you but in basketball, its different.

[midwestbbscoutParticipant]

tell that to charles oakley or kevin willis….t

[Bnix13Participant]

It’s just one more number, if you’re looking at two people in the late first or second round and you’re team needs a stronger/bigger player as a need (backup point guard that can post opposing guards or a big body that won’t be pushed around in the post). If you have two players skills graded as equal and everything but Bench press is similar you take the stronger player if it’s 2 vs 20 but these are only tools.

The draft measurements only show so much but they do show something.

[cumoneileen8Participant]

Bench is more triceps than chest first of all…but as to the point of what exercise would be a better measure, I like the Idea of the Clean, or Clean and Jerk. It involves full body strength and is also very difficult to do in high reps so it could also be a good measure of how in shape the bigger guys are.

[midwestbbscoutParticipant]

clean would be like a lift that uses muscles that are used in boxing out and bodying up players in general…..

[llperez]

cumoneileen, bench press, while it defenitely works your triceps, it is most defenitely primarily a chest exercise.

As for the importance of the bench press, not much if you are a wing player. But the bench press is a common way of testing someones overall upper body strength. If a big man can lift 185 at least a handful of times, there are some defenite strenght issues.

[HotSnotParticipant]

This thread was obviously started by someone who has not had the good fortune to play high level basketball.

If you take 2 guys of relatively equal talent (height doesnt matter too much on a good box out) and put them under the rim for a rebound drill… the guy who routinely does bench press or atleast pushups gets the rebound the majority of the time. When your forced to man up against someone under the hoop, the physically weaker player becomes rather ineffective unless the ball falls into his lap. The player with the stronger upper body is able to create more opportunity for himself while going after the ball.

Bench Press is considered to be a full body exercise. The 3 staples of full body exercises are Squats, Deadlifts and Bench Press. There are others such as Olympic Lifts and Pullups etc but those 3 exercises create monsters.

[llperez]

from having played ball, lifting weights defenitely helps. You can keep guys from moving you around and hold box out position and just generally feel better about absorbing contact when you drive to the rim

[midwestbbscoutParticipant]

how many reps did xavier do???? that dude is built like the ultimate warrior….i am telling people who think he is just a spot up shooter are way off base….its probably the weakest part of his game offensively….

[midwestbbscoutParticipant]

u just made me waste like a minute on my phone plan with ur damn spamming…..i am gonna buy one of jerseys and wipe my ass with it….

[stanford hoops]

actually legs are more important in basketball if youre a downlow player in order to hold youre position and not get pushed off the block. but i agree most or all of these test arent important as long as the player can play

[JoeWolf1]

I don’t think squats would be a good strength tester. There are guys in the draft over 7 foot tall and rail thin, putting 300+ pounds on a 7 foot man’s shoulders and making him go down to a 90 degree angle is a good way for someone that tall to get injured. It doesn’t make a ton of difference on the basketball court as to how much you can bench, but a good level of overall strength is that you can bench your own weight. Most people who workout on a regular basis can and most can do more, but calculating how many times a player can do 185 is a way to figure out their strenght level according to their body size without making every player max out. Thats what my hypothesis is as to why they do bench.

[Author]

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