Elite scorers hard to find
Best ones have mix of physical, mental
As the Celtics leave from port and sail into the 2016-17 season, they are wellstocked for the journey.
Most likely, however, they will be turned back in late April or May before reaching their desired destination, for while the crew is able, the club lacks another significant and consistent scorer who can make it a serious threat to the NBA elite in a sevengame series. Management knows it, and Isaiah Thomas even said it out loud.
Danny Ainge thought he had a chance at such a player in July when the Celts made it to crunch time on Kevin Durant, but now he must look elsewhere.
And as he does, it’s important to examine what makes a legitimate, every night, give-me-the-damnball NBA scorer. While the Celtics will scout a player’s size, speed, ballhandling and shot mechanics, the critical element that defines these magnetic talents resides between the ears.
There is a certain mentality — a positive arrogance, if you will — required for all great scorers (see: Bird, Larry). Just look at the physics of a long-range shot — the size of the ball, the distance from the goal and the diameter of the hoop. Supreme belief is mandatory. Doubt equals masonry.
“I don’t know the number, but it’s a lot,” Thomas said when asked to calculate the psychological quotient. “It has a lot to do with the mental side, your confidence in yourself. It’s going out there every night and believing in yourself. I mean, half the battle is putting the work in, but it’s also having the confidence to go do it each and every night.”
Ah, putting the work in. It certainly helps put some heft behind that positive arrogance if it’s based on hours spent honing one’s skills. See again Bird, and today’s greats as well. Steph Curry told us during his last visit to Boston he puts up 250 3’s practice.
“I think a lot of it is mental, kind of just knowing what you can do and perfecting that,” Carmelo Anthony told the Herald last week. “But it’s every day working on the same things, day in and day out. You work on getting to your spots. It’s a repetition thing.”
Brad Stevens agrees verbatim, and beyond.
“I think it’s a repetition thing,” the coach said. “I think it’s a mentality thing. I think it’s a confidence thing. But I think all those things work together, and you build confidence and you build that mentality with the repetition. And some guys can catch and shoot really well on inside passes, but then it’s about adding movement shooting to it, and that’s a whole different ball game.
“Nobody in this league that’s a high achiever doesn’t have an extreme level of grit and perseverance. No one. For shooters, that’s what they’re gritty about. That’s what they persevere toward. And it’s never good enough. I guess if they make 250 out of 250, it’s good enough. But that’s the beautiful part about shooters is they always think they can improve a little bit.”
Still, part of it is almost in the DNA. There are any number of players in the NBA capable of going for 20plus points on a regular basis, but some of them lack the will to do it. To be a countedupon scorer each game is an obligation, and there are those who simply don’t want that responsibility.
“I think that’s the big difference between guys who can score and guys who score consistently,” Anthony said. “To be able to do it . . . night in and night out, that’s tough. I mean, at the end of the day, some people want it and some people don’t. I think that’s the mental part.”
Ainge was one of those scorers in college and had to change his outlook when he came to the NBA and joined Bird and others.
“I think maybe some players don’t have the confidence or belief that they’re as good as they are,” Ainge said of the scorer’s obligation. “It mentally exhausting. It physically exhausting to score.”
Said Thomas, “It’s a big responsibility. There’s only a few that do it, and those are the great ones that consistently every night you’re going to know what you get out of them. And I want my name to be in that category.
“I think a lot of it has to do with confidence because in this league, confidence can waver. You can be high and you can be low, but the best ones are just even-keeled at all times.”
The difficulty can really present itself during congested portions of the schedule. A true scorer doesn’t have the luxury of mailing it in when his club’s game plan presumes he will produce.
“You’ve got to find something within,” Thomas said. “I mean, there’s going to be a lot of games like that in the 82 games where you don’t feel like playing. You don’t feel like going out there. But it’s bigger than you, and if you want to be great, you’ve got to remember those great ones. Even the days they didn’t want to play, they brought it. That’s what I always believe and always have in the back of my head.”
Even when he was struggling to make his way in the NBA after being the last pick in the draft, Thomas was hoping to join that club, to have that responsibility.
“I always wanted it,” he said. “It was something I wanted. I knew if I got the opportunity, I can do it. I’ve been a scorer my whole life. I find different ways to score, and with the game being so long, there’s a lot of opportunity when you’re able to play and play through mistakes.”
For some, that opportunity is the key. But they still have to have the head for it.
“There’s no question,” Stevens said. “No question. It’s hard to be that guy who scores like that every night, but there’s a lot of things that go into it — your teammates around you, how you fit with them, your consistency in your approach, your consistency in your readiness, how much opportunity you get based on the way you play.
“It all adds up. Inevitably there are going to be 20-point-a-game scorers or more (who), if they went to a different system or played with a different group, may not be. . . . Every team’s going to have a leading scorer, but those things might change depending on where you are. But it takes a special player to do it night in, night out.”
An even more special player to do it well enough to elevate a team to success in the process.
“Scoring a lot in the NBA on a winning team is hard,” Ainge said. “I’ve seen some scorers that don’t ever win. To score a lot and win, it takes a lot of skill, it takes a lot of conditioning.
“But you’ve got to have a special feel. That’s why the great scorers are great players, because even in spite of some deficiencies they may have, they still find a way. But I’ve noticed all scorers have great feel for the game.”
As a player, Ainge had that feel. As president of basketball operations, he is now charged with identifying that feel in others, and finding a way to acquire one or more.
‘Scoring a lot in the NBA on a winning team is hard. I’ve seen some scorers that don’t ever win.’ — C’S PRESIDENT OF BASKETBALL OPERATIONS DANNY AINGE