PJax was right: Abdul-Rauf like Curry

[superduper]

The amount of people that just cant understand the 3point shot was literally seen as the worst and most inefficient shot in basketball up until like 5 years ago and are dumbfounded as to why players of past generations didn't shoot more 3s and werent better at them

Can't make this kind of stupidity up tbh...

[DoctorP]

LMAO this was during the shortened 3pt line.

Before the shortened line, he only shot 1.7 attempts per game on 32% efficiency.

Basically the guy can't really shoot from the real NBA 3 point distance.

If you call that "like Curry", then damn we got low standards to be like Curry.

Holy shhhh I didn't realize that was the shortened line. Those are all mid-range shots today....


But that said, look at the quick release, look at the pick and roll attack. Stylistically there are huge similarities here. This is as close as it gets to seeing what Curry would look like in the 90s era.


Now yeah you put actual Curry in there playing today's style and it would be bananas

[DoctorP]

You don't see how they are stylistically similar? Just imagine the line isn't there. We're talking a distance of a couple feet here.

Yeah I feel u dude

[DocSlam]

You don't see how they are stylistically similar? Just imagine the line isn't there. We're talking a distance of a couple feet here.

We saw him play. We KNOW how great he was. Abdul-Rauf was a more traditional (passing) PG than Curry . But he could score when he wanted to score.

[Kblaze8855]

Holy shhhh I didn't realize that was the shortened line. Those are all mid-range shots today....

Difference wasn

[paksat]

thats kinda...really really dumb.



did they even math bro?

lol reminds me of a time where I shot a 20 footer with the back end of my foot on the 3 point line

one of the guys on the other team looked at me funny and said "man that was a deep 2"

All I said was, "was it an open shot?"

[tontoz]

The amount of people that just cant understand the 3point shot was literally seen as the worst and most inefficient shot in basketball up until like 5 years ago and are dumbfounded as to why players of past generations didn't shoot more 3s and werent better at them

Can't make this kind of stupidity up tbh...

Nonsense. Mark Price took 5 threes a game shooting 40.6% in 1990. Reggie did the same.

Era is not an excuse for poor shooting. A guy shooting 35% for his career from 3 is not "like Curry".

Price was the closest thing to Curry in that era but nobody has really ever been "like Curry".

[Kblaze8855]

thats kinda...really really dumb.



did they even math bro?

They basketballed.


For 100 years it wouldnt occur to someone to miss more shots for the greater good longterm and spacing. When you caught the ball open....you shot it.


This is a normal game for Chris Mullin......












Lots of long 2s that he would step back to shoot today. Its a difference in approach. Mullin in his 50s was winning shooting games vs Kevin Durant:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyiYuBCLTjc



Notice only the old people in the room picked Mullin to win?


He was an obsessive worker. Lots of players will tell you Millins work ethic showed them what it was to be a pro. Obviously....he would make a lot of threes today.

In his career high ppg year he made 23 threes...he shot 23%. Last year Westbrook shot 29% and made 119. More than Mullin did in any season. Mullin when he transitioned to a role player shot great from 3....but on no volume.

But he was all NBA first team. Guys like Barkley, Pippen, and Nique were behind him on all nba teams largely because of his shooting and basketball IQ. People who watched 50 years of the NBA would tell you...he was the best shooter some of them ever saw...because shooting didnt mean 3 pointers till like 10-15 years ago. 26ppg on 54% shooting.....he was efficient....but guys today wouldnt see it as an optimal way to play. He would be expected to accept more misses to better his teams spacing. Some coach would make him come off the screen at 24 feet instead of 22. And hed adjust. Hed shoot worse from the field...better from 3. Especially considering volume.

The higher volume reduces the impact of the required bad shots and "**** it" heaves on the percentages.

Guys now would be so frustrated watching him play. Hed wet like 9 long 2s in a game and have you pulling your hair out....but he was a shooter. One season he had 3 40 point games...and in none of them did he attempt a 3. He was crafty...could get himself open. Get to the line.

We considered guys like that shooters....but today him...and even guys like Drazen who may have been even better as a pure shooter...they would be looked at as like....attackers.

This is how the one guy Reggie Miller admits was a better shooter than him played.....




























Best shooter alive going to the basket and pulling up midrange like Demar Derozan and everyone was fine with it.



Its hard to explain how different it really was to people who only see the highlights. It was just not the same game being played far as the principles of a good offense.

Hard to judge any of those guys shooting by their numbers. ITs more an issue of skill and play style.

Which is why Steve Kerr...having played Abdul-Rauf was actually the first person to raise the comparison between he and Steph in public.

He said Rauf, Mark Price, and Steve Nash were the only people hed ever seen close as far as shooting but all of them behind Steph for various reasons. A lot of people who saw them both understand the comparison despite the numbers not making sense to people who werent there.

[Kblaze8855]

Nonsense. Mark Price took 5 threes a game shooting 40.6% in 1990. Reggie did the same.

Era is not an excuse for poor shooting. A guy shooting 35% for his career from 3 is not "like Curry".

Price was the closest thing to Curry in that era but nobody has really ever been "like Curry".

People are obviously talking about style and approach. The general skillset not numbers. This was Kerr well before Phil Jackson said anything about it:


[QUOTE]Statistics say Warriors coach Steve Kerr was a better 3-point shooter in his time than Golden State

[tontoz]

Rauf was certainly quick with good handles but there is no getting around the fact that for his career he averaged 15 ppg with a 50.6% TS.

For his career Steph is averaging 9 more ppg with a TS 12% higher.

Sometimes perception and reality don't match up.

[Kblaze8855]

Sometimes numbers aren’t reality when the basketball players and coaches are evaluating skills. You’re a numbers guy I’ve always thought. Forever talking about TS percentages which is....fine. It just clearly isn’t what the people in question are talking about.

You’re talking about his numbers. They seem to be talking about his game.

Two valid points to make but not the same subject.

I’m sure a scan through basketball reference could tell somebody who is statistically the most similar to Steph Curry. But whoever it is likey won’t play more like he does....than Chris Jackson did. It just isnt the same question is it?

[tontoz]

[QUOTE=Kblaze8855]Sometimes numbers aren

[tontoz]

Rauf was like Jamal Crawford. Great highlights which caused people to overrate them as players.

[Kblaze8855]

Do you think any of the people making the comparison dont realize Rauf wasnt scoring 30 a game? You arent stupid so im sure you know they knew that. I think you have a stats guy approach that just kinda makes you wanna inject it at every chance even when its clear that isnt what anyone means.

Nobody....nooooooooooobody...thought Rauf was getting the same buckets Steph is. One is an MVP and the other was a part time starter. Nobody anywhere was talking about them being on similar levels of production.

Other shooters...nba players...coaches. They are talking about the similarities in play style which obviously are limited partly because nobody ever played like Steph before Steph. Again...its like watching the first step of guys like David Thompson and seeing the Jordanlike qualities.

Nobody is saying this guy IS Jordan.......






But you can see how he moves and why it would get someone thinking it was Jordanesque with the first step and springy explosiveness(ignoring that Jordan was thompsonesque because it was his idol of course).

Rauf was one of the first players you would see play like this:









But he was still an 80s built early 90s guard from a background of midrange play. College only added the 3 pointer in 87. Guys like him didnt come up looking for the line which is why you have plays like this:








Which would get beaten out of him today. Toe on the line 2s are a deadly sin in todays league. Guys then didnt think about where their feet were.

It was just different. Different in ways its hard to pin down with a number. He wasnt taking 8 in rhythm offense designed 3s like he would be today. He could be the exact same player....and shoot better...because hed be asked to do it in offenses that catered to it.

Id bet my life he wouldnt have a single season shooting 31% from 3 today. Same player different approach. None of those people who absolutely know the game...and know shooting....are judging him off these numbers. Dale Ellis had a podcast interview on his time in Denver. Youre old enough to remember Dale I know. One of the only guys from back then shot shot 40% from 3 on good volume. In the interview he said Rauf is not only an all time great shooter but hes the only player he ever played with that he had the same confidence in shooting....that he had in himself.

These other great shooters....they saw it. He was not his numbers. Not that anyone else is either.

[red1]

now that's a man of principle right there.

the NBA can learn a thing or two on integrity from this man of principle.


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