mook
The 2018-19 season was the best I've seen
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If you look at Pace over the past decade, it's gone up by 3 shots per game to 93.9 (or 3.3% increase). If you look at 3PA, it's gone up by 7 per game to 22.4 (a 43% increase). So pace has increased a little, three point shooting a lot. These two stats (plus my own eyeballs) seem to suggest that more teams are going small to shoot more perimeter shots, not necessarily to get faster. Coaches trade off some rebounding, interior defense and interior scoring so they can get in on that sweet, sweet threeball action (and defend it better on the other end).
But what if your 7'1 center hits threes like a really good guard?
I'm a big fan of lefties in any sport, because they have a weird unnatural advantage. They see right handers every night, so it's no big adjustment for them to go up against another right hander. But a right hander facing a southpaw is uncomfortable. How do you practice against it? You're used to going one way, and the lefty goes the opposite. You have to forget so much of what you know to deal with just this one guy.
For all practical purposes, Meyers is a really extreme southpaw in the modern NBA. He's not a complete anomaly in NBA history, of course. There are a small handful of guys his size in NBA history with his range. But how many of those guys were going up against 6'7 power forwards like we're seeing more and more in the league?
Leonard may not ever be the best player on our team. It's always going to be Lillard's team. Vonleh may have the most true superstar potential. But there are half dozen point guards in the league who have a similar game to Lillard. If Vonleh reaches his potential, he'll be in the mold of several power forwards.
But Leonard is going to be that one guy every night the other team really has to think about. There's no real template for guarding him, no practice dummy who does quite what he does. You can't just "go small," because that's what we see every night, much like all the other right handers. Because we're big, yes, we'll give up more threes than a lot of teams. Seven footers aren't the best at runouts. But I have faith that over 82 games our defensive schemes will factor that in, exposing us less to that problem as experience develops. And the remaining problems will be mitigated by our sizable rebounding and interior defense and scoring advantages.
Dirk Nowitzki is the guy I keep thinking of when I see Meyers out there hitting threes. Dirk was a much more natural scorer by his age, but Meyers has proven more able to parlay his size into defense and rebounding. It's a pretty unfair comparison in many ways--Leonard was buried behind Aldridge last year while Dirk expanded from 16ppg to 17ppg to 23ppg to 25ppg over four months that season.
I don't think Leonard is necessarily destined to be as good as Dirk. Right now he's still not as refined as Dirk was pretty much entering the league. But Dirk, like Leonard, isn't just a fantastic asset to have on your team because of the talent--it's that his talent is so different from everybody else.
Oh, and guess who was the offensive coach on the team where Dirk won his ring?
But what if your 7'1 center hits threes like a really good guard?
I'm a big fan of lefties in any sport, because they have a weird unnatural advantage. They see right handers every night, so it's no big adjustment for them to go up against another right hander. But a right hander facing a southpaw is uncomfortable. How do you practice against it? You're used to going one way, and the lefty goes the opposite. You have to forget so much of what you know to deal with just this one guy.
For all practical purposes, Meyers is a really extreme southpaw in the modern NBA. He's not a complete anomaly in NBA history, of course. There are a small handful of guys his size in NBA history with his range. But how many of those guys were going up against 6'7 power forwards like we're seeing more and more in the league?
Leonard may not ever be the best player on our team. It's always going to be Lillard's team. Vonleh may have the most true superstar potential. But there are half dozen point guards in the league who have a similar game to Lillard. If Vonleh reaches his potential, he'll be in the mold of several power forwards.
But Leonard is going to be that one guy every night the other team really has to think about. There's no real template for guarding him, no practice dummy who does quite what he does. You can't just "go small," because that's what we see every night, much like all the other right handers. Because we're big, yes, we'll give up more threes than a lot of teams. Seven footers aren't the best at runouts. But I have faith that over 82 games our defensive schemes will factor that in, exposing us less to that problem as experience develops. And the remaining problems will be mitigated by our sizable rebounding and interior defense and scoring advantages.
Dirk Nowitzki is the guy I keep thinking of when I see Meyers out there hitting threes. Dirk was a much more natural scorer by his age, but Meyers has proven more able to parlay his size into defense and rebounding. It's a pretty unfair comparison in many ways--Leonard was buried behind Aldridge last year while Dirk expanded from 16ppg to 17ppg to 23ppg to 25ppg over four months that season.
I don't think Leonard is necessarily destined to be as good as Dirk. Right now he's still not as refined as Dirk was pretty much entering the league. But Dirk, like Leonard, isn't just a fantastic asset to have on your team because of the talent--it's that his talent is so different from everybody else.
Oh, and guess who was the offensive coach on the team where Dirk won his ring?
