Arenas, Pierce argue about how useful ‘Dream Shake’ is in today’s NBA

Former NBA All-Star guard Gilbert Arenas and the 2008 NBA Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP) Paul Pierce disagreed over the usefulness of Hakeem Olajuwon’s post moves in today’s league.

Olajuwon, as one of the most dominant centers in league history, has been well-known for his complete offensive skills, especially his post moves, which were called the “Dream Shake” after his nickname “The Dream.” Though Olajuwon retired in 2002, many players, including Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony, went to him to learn his skills.

Olajuwon’s instructions are not free – the latest price, according to Houston Chronicle, is $50,000 a week. Two-time NBA MVP and the 2021 NBA Finals MVP, Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks, plans to join Olajuwon before the 2023-24 season begins.

Arenas is apparently not a believer of Olajuwon’s renowned move. “Nobody wants the Hakeem Olajuwon sky hook,” he said on his Gil’s Arena podcast this week. “… You should be ashamed of yourself, charging these young whippersnappers $50,000. When you came in the league in 1984, you wasn’t even making $50,000 a game. You’re trying to make your month back through the youth!”

“He ain’t been good since the ’90s. That means all the moves from the 2000s, he don’t know. 2010s, he don’t know. 2020s, he don’t know,” Arenas added.

Pierce disagreed with Arenas and, obviously, didn’t care for his remarks on an NBA legend. “You crazy,” Pierce said via Houston Chronicle. “Put some respect on Dream’s name first of all. That move Dream made on the baseline with the one-arm fake layup, they still doing today. Stop it.”

In his prime, Pierce had the best offensive footwork among swingmen and guarded a lot of players with similarly excellent skills, including Bryant, Anthony and Tracy McGrady. His understanding of post moves and their importance should be better than that of Arenas, who built his best performance on pull-up jump shots thanks to his strong upper body.

However, despite the fact that Olajuwon is one of the top three centers in NBA history on the offensive end, that doesn’t mean that his skills apply to everyone, especially big men.

Hakeem is 2.13 meters tall, weighed 115 kilograms early in his career and over 124 kilograms in his 30s, but he is a swingman in a center’s body in nature. That separates him from most of the big men because they can match him in agility and speed. Besides, Olajuwon didn’t show “Dream Shake” to every defender in every game. In fact, most of the defenders he faced were never good enough for him to make too many moves. He usually just shot a turnaround jumper after a jab step or a hook shot after a shoulder shake.

Olajuwon averaged 33 points, 10.3 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1.2 steals and 2.8 blocks per game in the NBA playoffs in 1995 when he won his second title. His usage was 35.9 percent, higher than Bryant, who has been well-known for his offensive load, in any of the Black Mamba’s postseasons. Olajuwon finished 75 percent of his offensive possessions in isolation in the playoffs between 1993 and 1995. He averaged 18.88 points in separation per game during the three seasons between 1993 and 1995, more than James Harden in his back-to-back scoring champion campaigns between 2017 and 2019.

The above comparisons and stats were listed to show how much offensive work Olajuwon had to shoulder, which is why he couldn’t spend every possession showing his magnificent and complicated skills. The foundations of his offensive skills set are his abilities to make jump shots off the dribble anywhere in the middle range and to beat his defender from the 3-point line with speed.

That’s why Bryant learned the most from Olajuwon because both of them have solid skills and a complete shooting range. There has never been another center who shares Olajuwon’s combination of speed, agility, dribble and shooting ability, not to mention that Olajuwon had massive lower body strength. That’s why his instructions could help, like what they did for James after summer 2011, but they can’t turn anyone into the second Olajuwon.