Chris Paul was sooo good that game. It's sad how short his time was here. And I fully agree with you. In a playoff game, you ideally want a closer who is comfortable shooting from the mid-range. The most feared/effective closers in recent memory excelled from this area -- Jordan, Kobe, Durant, Kawhi. LeBron didn't quite excel in mid-range, but he's a different beast.
The writing is already on the wall - how ironic. This is a sh'tty team constructed considering how to fit Harden's style. Of course the other half is just what Calvin said already on TV, he quit and waiting for a trade.
I'm not making an argument against MDAs offenses. I'm just saying that basketball isn't played on paper. If Lebron says midrange shots are valuable and if NBA defenders say it's harder to defend guys that don't have a variety of ways to score it's hard to argue that because they are not making an analytical argument. They are making an argument that at the moment they feel it was a good shot to take because of how a defender was playing them.
Why would they cover that area of the court if the dude's who are taking the shots are ass at it??? Do you know how the Jazz beat OKC that one year, they let him shoot a bunch of those middies. They let him have all of em. Lebron cut out a bunch of his mid rangers last year. Like a lot. If the argument is for mid range to close tight games, than I dont have a problem with it. But just know that the numbers dont say not to take mid range in the clutch.
I think that's the issue, it's not shown on stats so people just dismiss it. People really just dismissed what Iguodala has said about it and that man made his career on being an amazing perimeter defender and always been a super-intelligent guy that embraces analytics but the moment he suggests that guys are harder to guard if they have more to their game than 3s or layups people don't want to hear it. Like he has no idea what he's talking about and then throw %s at you when he's not talking about that. He just means in the moment, when you squared up against your man...it's harder to guard if you don't know what he's going to do. Is he going to drive and put up a floater? Is he going to step back? You don't know. That's not to say Giannis or Harden need a mid range game. I mean dudes like Giannis don't have many moves, he can spam the same thing and still drop 30, so can Harden some nights...but would their game benefit adding midrange? Absolutely. The more areas of the game you can get better at...the better. Whether it is shooting, low post game, triple threat, whatever the case. That's what made guys like Kobe and Jordan so dangerous, they did it all on the offensive end.
And using Chris Paul as an example is using quite literally one of the best mid range players to every play the game ever. I Dont even know how mid range even got part of htis discussion as if that would make us a better team right now. Chris Paul was allowed to take them here because he was good at them.
We need a guy like CP3 or Draymond who is smart enough to call out defensive assignments on the go. It's a huge underrated part of their games, they can see the play coming before it happens. I don't think I've ever seen Harden directing our defense (he does it on offense though). We also have no paint presence on defense. I think Wood needs to play the 4 spot and we need to get a defensive minded center but Wood's 3 pt % has been so dismal this year I just don't see it happening this season. Wood would be a pretty good help defender in the paint since he can block a lot of shots. It's too bad we don't have a Marc Gasol coming off the bench, Boogie's a good passer but his offensive and defensive games are extremely limited at this stage of his career.
You're listing guys that are elite at shooting midrange. Of course elite midrange shooters should shoot them. If Harden was as good as these guys at making midrange shots then of course he should, and would, be taking them. He's just not very good at it.
Which is a shame since opposing defenses know he only drives to get to the rim and never stops and pops. He added a floater but haven’t seen it too much anymore.
So if Harden needed a 3 to win, are you suggesting Harden should have taken a mid range shot instead? That sounds ass backwards and nonsensical.
so all the players should do only the things they are elite at? thats clearly not how things work you must take the midrange a shot youre not elite at to improve or sustain a good % on your 3s and layups because your layups and 3s will suffer because of the predictability midrange is also necessary for various psychological and physiological reasons and how human nervous system is built and how it works...not going into details here but this is huuuuuge... analytics not taking into account psychology and nervous system is dumbalytics we won a playoff series because pj tucker took a floater and perhaps he should of bricked a 3 instead? perhaps harden should of stopped shootin 3s in playoffs alltogether because hes not very good at it? TAKE THAT FOR DATA
So basically with a new coach and a bunch of new players that haven't even played, much less practiced together much with a disgruntled superstar who plays like deputy dog they are about the same as the genius dantoni, Harden super saiyan offense that had been in place for a few years? Sounds like Silas is doing a bang up job. Stick to your guns coach. If that sob James won't buy in ship his ass off and let's keep building.
Yes analytics show mid range is not efficient and that post ups usually end up as fade away mid range shots; but I’m ok with Harden, Wood, Tate and Cousins shooting them. Wall / EG not so much.
That may be true. But I didn't say that this is how Harden should play. He is what he is at this point in his career. Just observing this is something elite closers in the playoffs tend to be very good at.
we're 14th in offense this year vs 6th last year, and that's without the albatross known as russell westbrook around our necks (we were #2, #1, and #2 before him).
Shhhhh Facts hurts their feelings. That 16th ranked offense (and dropping) will magically become championship caliber in the playoffs because regular season wins mean little. Amirite @durvasa ?
i don't recall kobe and durant closing out a bunch of series when they weren't on the most talented team in the league. i do recall them blowing 3-1 leads. and losing on a team with 4 hall-of-famers (kobe). and somehow almost losing on a team with 4 hall-of-famers (durant). and mj and kobe played when basically the whole league took mid-range jumpers, so they weren't outliers in their method. besides, i don't know why people think harden would be so amazing at mid-range. most of the guys you listed have an elite combination of height and athleticism. and cp3 is all-time at agility to basically move wherever he feels like. even harden at his best uses his strength to bump people off and hopefully get a little clearance for his shot. frankly it's amazing that he shoots as well as he does given that most of his jumpers are heavily contested. people seem to think if you take a mid-range shot that the defender just evaporates into thin air and lets you have it. like lu dort was pressing up on harden 25 feet from the basket, but if he thought harden would take a mid-range shot instead of a layup he would have backed off and given harden room on his 3's for no apparent reason? like i don't see the logic. he basically sold out to stop the 3 and every time harden got past him we got an easy shot or open 3. i don't know why stopping from 17 feet with dort chasing would somehow be an easy shot or why dort would have done something different. also, i don't know why people are bringing up lebron. defenses have been begging him to shoot mid-range jumpers for 18 straight years. literally no one has guarded him differently because they thought he was going to take a mid-range shot because it was their dream that he would. the 2011 mavs and 2013 spurs entire defense was built on the premise that lebron taking any jumper, even a 3, was a good idea, no matter how open, no matter how many he made. just like no one cares when giannis hits a 3, they still back off and play the drive.
