Jordan missed 26 game-winning shots at the end of games. Players miss shots; great ones will still take those shots the next time.
Here are the clutch stats for last year from 82games.com. Given this, I'd put the following five on the floor: PG - Lillard Best overall shooter, 2nd is 3P%, 5th in FG%, 6th in FT% SG - Harden 2nd best overall, 1st in 3P%, 8th in FG%, 7th in FT% SF - Durant Stats not the best, but you gotta have 2nd best on planet PF - Davis 4th in FG%, 5th in FT%, don't care about 3P% for bigs C - Cousins 3rd in FG%, 11th in FT% (but still at 80%) Who would you choose? Player Clutch Shooting Percentage Rank Fg% 3p% Ft% Fg% 3p% Ft% Total Lillard 47.3% 44.2% 86% 5 2 6 13 Harden 44.3% 45.8% 84% 8 1 7 16 Thompson 44.4% 39.5% 83% 7 3 9 19 Hayward 46.7% 36.4% 83% 6 6 8 20 Curry 41.1% 28.0% 100% 9 11 1 21 Korver 35.6% 38.9% 100% 15 4 2 21 Irving 37.6% 35.5% 89% 13 7 4 24 Durant 37.9% 38.5% 82% 10 5 10 25 George 37.7% 29.0% 90% 12 10 3 25 Davis 48.2% 0.0% 87% 4 16 5 25 Cousins 52.5% 0.0% 80% 3 15 11 29 Faried 66.7% 0.0% 57% 1 17 16 34 Wall 37.8% 22.2% 75% 11 12 15 38 Drummond 61.5% 0.0% 20% 2 18 18 38 Beal 35.0% 32.3% 77% 16 9 14 39 Parsons 36.0% 35.0% 57% 14 8 17 39 Millsap 34.7% 18.8% 80% 17 13 13 43 DeRozan 34.0% 9.1% 80% 18 14 12 44
Well dame just did his job, the rest is in the coaches hands. If they leave him off the roster then I hope they find themselves in a clutch situation that doesn't come up the way they wanted it to.
After seeing that injury, I don't want Dame to make the team. If he gets a serious injury, I want it to be playing for the Blazers.
With an open shot where the defense collapses on a great player, the Elie/Paxson/Kerr/Horry type is my pick, too. It takes an MVP-level player to get a great shooter an open shot, though.
They need guys kind of like Mr. George this evening who will give up their body on the defensive end. I think Damian would be willing to this which is why I think he will make a spot.
With Durant gone there is no question dame is the most clutch player on the roster. However there is no way he gets the shot due to the coach k bias. Ps: Dame had a buzzer beater at the end of the third quarter of game 4 as well...Parsons probably still has nightmares.
