Luol Deng's had a lot of criticism shoveled his way by fans and media during his NBA career. He's been called overpaid, clumsy, injury-prone and mentally-soft. Until last season, his almost exclusive reliance on the mid-range jump shot (worst shot in basketball) drove folks crazy. Many still lament the fact that Deng can't "create his own shot." For the most part, Deng has silenced his critics over the past two seasons. He's added the 3-point shot to his offensive arsenal, played in all of the Bulls' games last season and finished 3rd in the NBA in minutes played and this year elected to play through a painful wrist injury in order to help the Bulls chase their title since the dynasty years. A significant part of Deng's renaissance has been fans/media gaining a new appreciation for Deng's terrific play on the defensive end of the floor. He's always been a plus defender, but with the team's surprising success being based largely on defense, Deng's finally getting recognized for it...enough so that he's now featured on national commercials and was selected as a member of the Eastern Conference's All Star team. One past criticism I haven't mentioned yet is that Deng "disappears when the game's on the line." Looking over the "Clutch Time" statistics at 82games.com (4th quarter or overtime, less than 5 minutes left, neither team ahead by more than 5 points), this was a very legit criticism even during Deng's "breakout" 2010-11 season. Last year, Deng only scored 11.7 points per 48 minutes of clutch time and posted an anemic 37.8% eFG%. Looking back over his career, Deng has never hit the 20 points per-48 mark and only once had an eFG% over 50%. This season Deng's taking a run at knocking down this criticism as well...he's been an absolute beast in the clutch. Through 4/1/12, Deng's scored 35.1 points per 48 minutes of "clutch time" with a positively stellar 67.9% eFG%. He put his newfound clutchness on display last night in the Bulls win over the Celts, scoring 18 of his game-high 26 points in the 2nd half with 12 points coming in the 4th quarter. The fans and Media are lovin' Luol now for lots of good reasons. Now we can add clutch scoring to the list.
Thank God you're still with us. Appears Deng's a victim of a) missing those 9 games and b) playing on the team with the highest margin of victory in the league. He's only 44 clutch time minutes and the requisite appears to be 50 to make the list. Alas.
I'm pleased with his numbers, but the Bulls really don't rely on him to have the ball in his hands at the end of quarters. Tho with Rose out, he might see a few more situations where he gets a clutch shot opportunity.
Three types of shots: close (in the paint), 3-point and mid-range. Most NBA defenses are designed to most strongly defend against shots in the paint followed by 3-point shots (particularly corner-3s). By process of elimination... Of course the mid-range jumper not only holds the distinction for being the worst shot, but also the most frequently taken.
Never been a huge fan of clutch stats. It's a noisy statistic, and I think the concept of clutch play is mostly a myth. Most teams would be better off just running their offense to the best of their abilities. I'm not sure what you could conclude from 44 minutes of clutch play this season. I'd guess not much.
