Which basketball skill is hardest to acquire?

It requires footwork and muscle memory that is very difficult and time consuming to acquire. The rest requires much of the same, but I find that while the post is where you optimally want to score a majority of your points, as it is the area closest to the basket and where most players tend to shoot the highest percentage, the amount of players who have developed post games is abysmal. I think the number of players that have a lack of a post game far outweighs almost any other weakness of players in this league.

Everything else requires a lot of practice and muscle memory, but the post game requires that extra footwork, time and patience that few ever really master. As someone who loves to play basketball, I think this is most definitely the most difficult thing to learn and perfect. Almost everything in basketball can be taught and worked upon, but it seems that the post game is one of the more elusive traits that many basketball players have yet to master. Truly, it does depend a lot on physical and mental capabilities, because certain players will have an easier time doing one thing as opposed to another, but I think that the amount of players who do not have developed post games is enormous at this current point in time, and I think it is a lost art.

 Hands down it has 2 be court vision/ Playmaking, i think its truly something u cant develope. Either u have it or you dont. Guys like Magic Johnson and Jason Kidd were born to be great passers/playmakers, they always see every play  a frame or 2 ahead of everybody else.

Rebounding is a close second imo. Rebounding battles aren’t one by the most athletic players (See Dennis Rodman/Kevin Love) but i think its a mixture attitude and basketball IQ you have to have to want every single board and willingness to rebound outside your area. Also to know how to position yourself to know where the ball is going to be.

Im gonna go with Play-making ability, everything else on this list can be easily improved by just adding it or mixing it into your workout schedule.

Ball-handling- can easily combine it into your warmups,and shooting drills

Post-game- add it to your shooting drills

Shooting- you shoot about a million shots a year during practice,training camp,warm-ups and games. Plus this should always be in your workout schedule.

FT- can be easily added to warmups,in-between drills, and end of drills to help focus on it

Rebounding- All about desire,boxing out, and hustle

Play-making ability– This is one of those things where you need to learn how to slow things down, and react rather then plan  ahead what your doing. This usually improves with experience in the league but some players just never get it and few actually master it. So This gets my vote

I wanted to mark a snide comment about Free Throws and how it never developed in Shaq… But I guess he never bothered to practise either… I’m going to go with play making then. But I also feel play making is as intangible as your listed "basketball IQ/court awareness."

I will also say playmaking. You need a bball IQ to make plays and you either have that or you dont. Its really hard to improve your bball IQ

I’d say Playmaking in the half court mostly, in transition your athleticism and the numbers game helps you a lot.

Footwork of course if thats considered a skill.

Shooting you can learn look at David Lee his midrange game improved a ton since his first few years.

Rebounding is a lot about hustle and wanting it not just height look at Barkley.  Also Rodman studied a lot and he wasn’t that tall for a PF.

Free throws is the easiest to improve on.  A lot of it is mental and practice of course.

 Playmaking and coordination.

 athleticism. not everybody is born with it. you can improve every skill mentioned above if you work at it long enough. with athleticism you either have it or you don’t. you can try to improve it by working out and doing other things but it doesn’t always work for everybody.

Some players have natural playmaking ability, but it’s not that hard to attain either. You can watch film and become better at seeing the floor.

For example, look at Dirk in the Finals. He’s not a naturally gifted playmaker, but he picked the Heat’s D apart because he was prepared, watched film and has learned exactly how the defense plays him.

I think we need a better list, because ALL of these things can be improved by hard work, focus and dedication.

Height.

I think I’ll go back to Free Throws. I think it is one of the hardest skills to acquire. Just skimming through some players, their FT% never strays too far from what it was before. Look at Dwight Howard for example, he constantly tells the public that he’s putting in work on his FT% and that he wants to hit 75%. Yet he’s been hitting 59% for the last 4 years. Sure you will see someone improve greatly once in awhile. But just through playing Fantasy Basketball for all these years, you get a general idea who’s good at FT% and who’s not. And the end average/result doesn’t usually fluctuate too far from what it was before.

Another skill I’m thinking of is blocking. Think of players who you know could block shots but could never average 1 per game. Udonis Haslem, Zach Randolph, Reggi Evans, or even Kevin Love. All capable but they probably just don’t have the knack  for it.

But that’s just my opinion.

The four players you picked saying these are players you expect to block shots but they don’t are players I don’t really expect to block shots. Those four guys all play under the rim and are shorter than the average pf and/or thicker builds. These guys are also not known for taking over games with their athleticism and most blocks that happen in games come a lot from athleticism and natural height. Yes, you have to have a knack for shot blocking with good timing and knowing when to leave your feet but that comes from knowledge from playing a lot of ball.

playmaking /courtvision…. basically it’s not separable from basketball IQ. Some players have a gift for anticipation, others don’t… and it’s very hard to improve.

 this is something that you can only get a little better at by knowing the game and knowing who you are playing with, but true court vision and play making is something that can not be gained you have to just have it, you have to be able to anticipate correctly what the defense and your target are going to do, and this is something you are just born with 

 Not everyone can see and anticipate plays happening or players going to cetrain spots. That’s not an acquired skill, you basically either have it or you don’t. Exactly why I don’t understand why NBA teams draft combos and try to "develop" them into PGs and these same guys struggle making plays for others in the half-court. Any of those other things you can improve by constant repetition and work, but your overall feel for the game isn’t really gonna change through practice.

Shooting touch

I think that quick first step is probably the hardest to develop if you don’t have it already. That ability to drive to the bucket past a defender with ease is something that a lot of players struggle with, even if they have a very controlled handle.

Purdue boy took my stupid humor comment…

ball handling, post game, shooting (midrange or 3-point), free throw shooting, rebounding, play-making (court vision). all these skills can be trained as an individual depending on the dedication of the player to master that skill except the playmaking skill.  I remember in the anklebreaker volume 1 kidd said "some times my team mates ask me how did you find me?"  You cannot spend extra 1 or 2 hours on the gym just to train playmaking skill but on the other skills that was mentioned obviously you can.

I’m with Mikeyv, Post game by far. It takes just so much more. Basic moves, counters, footwork, patience, and like he said muscle memory. I’ve spent countless hours upon hours trying ro learn the post and even while I’ve developed it better, I still have a somewhat  mechanical post game.  

Learning to play without the ball ,is something only a few care to learn to do..There are guys that are superstars that become confused about where they should be or what they should do ..When they dont have the ball in their hands….

 I never really had an isue playing off ball,…IMO, as long as you have a good jumper or a money shot and good stamina you can manage. When I first got really into playing basketball I was almost exclusively an off-ball player. Thanks to my willingness to never stop moving and keeping on running backand forth on the baseline weaving throughout players and good passing(above average court-vision) and a money bank shot I was able to adequately perform. It’s just a matter of recognizng the offensive teammate or ewhat the defender is going to do. Cutting off of players and such never seemed difficult to me It’s partly why I’ve always wondered why it’s so troubling for some players to perform with the ball out of their hands.

You can get away with not knowing how to handle the ball or make plays,if you’re a 6’8 or over and you have a dominant post game..With great footwork ,rebounding skills,setting good picks and block shots..Moses Malone wasn’t a good passer or ball handler,but he had a nice mid-range game and was a good free throw shooter..

Shaq never shot outside of 10 feet, but he was dominant in the post and was a very good passer out of the double team…..A guy like Joakim Noah isnt a great post player,he’s a poor outside shooter,but he can make plays,have decent court vision and he can handle the ball…

What i’m saying is there aren’t many players with complete games…

You can get away with not knowing how to handle the ball or make plays,if you’re a 6’8 or over and you have a dominant post game..With great footwork ,rebounding skills,setting good picks and block shots..Moses Malone wasn’t a good passer or ball handler,but he had a nice mid-range game and was a good free throw shooter..

Shaq never shot outside of 10 feet, but he was dominant in the post and was a very good passer out of the double team…..A guy like Joakim Noah isnt a great post player,he’s a poor outside shooter,but he can make plays,have decent court vision and he can handle the ball…

What i’m saying is there aren’t many players with complete games…

Playmaking effectively tied in with basketball IQ and reading the game is perhaps hard to teach and might be something that players are either born with or have to learn through experience. You can practice shooting, free throws etc but the split second decison over where the pass has to go to cannot really be taught. Players develop and improve it and get better court vision but a lot comes down to natural ability.