Shooting revolution ended with Curry
Stephen Curry’s ascent to greatness ranked with the most exciting developments in NBA history. No one could recall a shooter quite like him. Many felt this was the beginning of a new era, full of players casually draining shots from 30-35 feet, and some wondered if the rules should be changed to allow a four-point shot.
Turns out the revolution stopped cold with Curry. The league is full of excellent young point guards, but they don’t shoot like Curry. In fact, when it comes to long range, they can’t shoot
Consider the six most highly touted rookies at this position: five selected among the top 10 draft picks and Ben Simmons, drafted by Philadelphia the previous year but sidelined for the season by injury. They all have mind-blowing ability, but they must view Curry as some sort of alien creature.
Simmons doesn’t have kind of shot beyond 10-12 feet. He has tried eight three-pointers and missed them all. Lonzo Ball’s well-documented struggles find him at a dismal 25.7 percent from long range. Sacramento’s De’Aaron Fox, known as a suspect shooter coming out of Kentucky, is 9-for-32 (28.1). The Knicks’ Frank Ntilikina is 8-for-32 (25.0), while Dallas’ Dennis Smith checks in at 31-for-102 (30.0).
The most promising of them all, at least from a pure shooting standpoint, is No. 1 overall pick Markelle Fultz — but he developed a shoulder injury that forced him to change his shot, at least temporarily, and eventually called for several weeks of rest. Last seen, he was shooting left-handed in the 76ers’ practice sessions.
It’s good to know that Curry’s long-range shooting stands unique in the game’s history, like Bill Russell’s shot-blocking, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s skyhook, George Gervin’s finger roll and Rick Barry’s underhanded free throws. Young players dream of deadly accuracy from inside the halfcourt line, but once an actual game starts, they wouldn’t dare be so bold.
Judging by the new crop of point guards, the gap is not closing. It’s as wide as the Grand Canyon.
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In honor of Ball, and the loud commotion surrounding his crazy-looking shot release, we submit a few others in that category over the years: Jamaal Wilkes, Bill Cartwright, Wali Jones, Dick Barnett, Michael Adams, Terry Cummings, Shawn Marion, Lloyd (World) Free and Kevin Martin. None of them felt compelled to change, and Lakers coach Luke Walton had this response to Ball’s critics: “I’d tell them to go study Reggie Miller’s career. It doesn’t look great. It can be an issue, yes. But if the ball goes in the net, which he shot over 40 percent from three in college, he has a track record of being a really good shooter. So for us to try to mess with it would be silly. I’m obviously not calling him Reggie Miller, but (Miller’s) shot probably could have been fixed by a thousand people who wanted to fix it.”
You wonder what Paul George must be thinking as Victor Oladipo makes a run for the Eastern Conference All-Star team. Oladipo was rendered ordinary last season in Oklahoma City, unable to thrive beneath Russell Westbrook’s all-encompassing shadow, but he rediscovered his elite-level game upon the trade to Indiana. Now George is trying to fit into the OKC scheme with Westbrook and Carmelo Anthony, and there are few encouraging signs.
Forget Friday night’s victory over Minnesota, a team so bad defensively that Jimmy Butler went public with his disgust, saying, “We haven’t guarded anybody all year long.” That game was mostly about Thunder center Steven Adams, who didn’t miss a shot (11for-11, 5-for-5 from the line). Going in, OKC was 0-9 in games decided by eight or fewer points. There are occasional hints of screens and meaningful cuts, but the team still leads the NBA in isolation sets.
“Twenty games in, we thought they would figure things out and start making some progress,” longtime standout Grant Hill said on NBA TV. “They’re going the other way. Maybe they ought to start thinking about making a trade.”
It’s not such a radical thought. Tracy McGrady of ESPN went as far as to say, “If those guys haven’t figured it out by the end of December, I would look to move Paul George.” Why give up on the project so soon? Because George, as well as Anthony, can leave as a free agent next summer. The Thunder got nothing in return for losing Kevin Durant, “and they can’t let it happen like it did with KD,” McGrady said.
There is no such confusion in Houston, where the Chris Paul-James Harden tandem has performed spectacularly. Harden is better than ever, a solid candidate to win his first MVP award, and Paul has made a remarkable adjustment. He routinely defers to Harden when the two play together, but when Harden takes a seat, Paul has instantly taken over games with a style that looks pretty familiar (midrange shots, dominating the ball). What everyone wants to see: The two of them out there in a tense fourth quarter against the Warriors in a playoff setting. That’s when the real truth will be told.
There isn’t much left of the grind-it-out Memphis team that won two playoff games from the Warriors during the 2015 title run. Zach Randolph, Tony Allen and Vince Carter have departed. There’s a chance the team will be sold. With little hope for the immediate future, there is trade talk surrounding Mike Conley (out two or three more weeks with a sore Achilles tendon) and Marc Gasol, whose conflict with David Fizdale cost the coach his job last week. Attendance was dismal in Memphis before the team developed into a contender, and a start-from-scratch rebuilding process will not go over well.
Look out, it’s a unicorn stampede! Get out of the way! Judging from the reams of analytical pieces, there must be 50 players in that presumably one-of-a-kind category. On a brighter note, it won’t be long before everyone is a unicorn: backup point guards, grocery cashiers, dishwasher repairmen. See that barbershop quartet, guy on the right? Total unicorn.