That may be fair. I might be getting caught up in the hype and the fact that he seems to be killing it when I see him (which isn't often). He's also ridiculously young. How's his defense?
Aside from free-throw rate, there is not a single advanced metric that favored Booker last year. For him to be better all-around, wouldn't have have to be better in something first?
By reputation and stats, terrible. Which, unfortunately, is another reason I think he'll be a McCollum type player. McCollum is probably better than he is defensively, but I expect Booker to improve. He was solid in college, so at least some ability is there, though it's obviously harder in the NBA.
Well, it's not an advanced metric (in fact it's as basic a metric as it gets) but I think any Phoenix fan would point to age. Booker was 20 and CJ was 25. Booker may not be better yet, but the dude proved a lot more than CJ did 2 years later.
I'm sorry--did I miss where you were saying that this would be the year Booker passes CJ's senior year at Lehigh, or that Booker might already be a better all-around player than CJ was when he beat Duke in the NCAA tournament? I foolishly assumed that we were simply talking about both players' ability in 2017.
I can see that he almost had it this year The question I want to know can Lillard finally shoot over 45% from the field
I think that's a very fair point. Lillard does have a little of Curry's "gravity" when it comes to altering offenses, but he's maybe Neptune while Curry is Jupiter launching shots from clear out in Pluto. We've got a nice Eastern European sun, though, who everybody else should play off of no matter how far out they can shoot. It's fashionable to talk about the gravity of 25 foot shooters, but we should play the ball into the middle much more and let CJ and Dame create off that. Too many shots last year came from Dame in the Oort Cloud, and they were ice cold.
He'd have to make a HUGE jump from last year to next year if he were to pass CJ. CJ was close to the 50-40-90 group, Booker isn't close. That isn't to say Devin isn't and won't be a good player. This just sounds like one of the players you pick to follow and romanticize their ability or stats (see: Boban). The most likely way that Devin passes CJ is in league wide fan popularity, which doesnt mean much since most fans are idiots.
Whoa whoa whoa lets not get ahead of ourselves here rook lol But a serious note though, if he just cut out the 3 times per game he throws up a cold 35 footer he could do it. Shot selection is where I think Dame can improve the most. He is never going to be a plus defender, but if Stotts can get him to shoot a smarter and make the right play instead of being the hero this year, he can score the same amount or more without using as much energy on that end.
Yeah, if Nurkic can generate more good shots inside, it'll be a lot less defensible for Lillard to be taking moonshots at a lower efficiency. But I disagree with the implication that a center of gravity near the hoop lessens the need for deep shots. Lillard's gravity is still a weapon and if he can force defenses to guard out to 25 feet, it geometrically increases the amount of floor space the defense has to guard (since it's a two-dimensional space) which opens up more room for everyone, including Nurkic. This year should be fun in seeing how/if Lillard and Nurkic can twist defenses until they break. It's like a poor man's version of Golden State's Curry/Durant proposition, though with a very different form.
Our only hope of trying to compete with GS is that Nurk stretches defenses farther by playing closer to the hoop than Durant. Durant is scary at 15 feet from the rim, but so is Nurkic at 5 feet.
Damn you, you stole my thunder! My bold prediction was going to be that in 2017-18 C.J. McCollum would become the 8th official member of the 50/40/90 club. I had planned to start a thread on this exact topic a could days ago, but got busy and didn't get around to it I have posted it several times, but C.J. has improved ALL of his shooting percentages for four straight seasons. His FG%, 2FG%, 3FG%, FT%, eFG% and TS% have all improved every year he's been in the league. That's damn near impossible to do, but he's done it. What makes that even more impressive is he's done that while his role and number of shot attempts in each area have also increased. Often you will see a player improve his scoring efficiency when he becomes more selective and takes fewer shots. The year C.J. won MIP he went from a back up averaging 6.8 ppg in 15.7 mpg to a starter averaging 20.8 ppg in 34.7 mpg. His increase in scoring wasn't just due to an increase in minutes. His PT rose by a little over 2x (2.2), but his scoring increased by over 3x (3.1). That's a huge jump in scoring efficiency - all while moving from a back up to a starter and No. 2 option. And, his improved shooting percentages last season were even greater than they were the year he won MIP. Because he played comparable minutes and his scoring "only" rose from 20.8 to 23.0 ppg most people don't realize that C.J. actually improved more (in terms of shooting percentages) last year that he did the year before when he won MIP. Just look at his improved FT shooting. In 2014-15, he was a very below average, for a guard, .699 FT shooter. Two years later he led the whole damn league in FT% at .912. I don't ever recall seeing another player who went from being a below 70% FT shooter to later leading the league in FT shooting. This consistent improvement in his shooting is a testament to how hard C.J. works on his game in the off season, and also how smart he is about it. Whatever he's doing, it's providing consistent improvement. So, even robbed of my thunder, I will boldly predict that in 2017-18 C.J. McCollum will become the 8th member of the exclusive 50/40/90 club. I posted the link above, but I'm going to repost it here: 50-40-90 Club This is a great article that shows just how exclusive this club is. There are currently only seven members: Larry Bird (twice), Mark Price, Reggie Miller, Dirk Nowitski (lockout shortened season), Steve Nash (4 times), Kevin Durant and Steph Curry, with Bird and Nash being the only players to accomplish the feat more than once. Curry's 50-40-90 season is especially impressive given the number of 3-pointers he attempted (and made). His 886 3FG attempts is over 500 more than the second most on the list and his 402 3FG made is nearly 5x the official qualifying criterion of 82 made 3FGs. Keep in mid the "50" is overall FG%, not 2FG%. Players who take a lot of 3FGs tend to have a lower FG% because if they are making less 50% of their 3 pointers it drags their overall FG% down below the 50% cutoff line. If C.J. does make the 50-40-90 club he will likely be second only to Curry in terms of made 3FGs. Nash is currently second with 179 made 3FGs. C.J. has made more than that each of the last two seasons (197 and 185). BNM
Nash is particularly impressive with 4 official seasons and 2 near misses, and all in his 30's, no less. Also (obviously) 50/40/90 over those 6 seasons combined (50.9, 44.1, 91.8), with a cumulative TS% of 62.7%. Phenomenal numbers and phenomenal consistency.
