Source/ESPN
Author/Kirk Goldsberry
Translator/kewell
If the difference between NBA super giant and other professional basketball players lies in their ability to create scores by themselves. These top players have the ability to take advantage of even the narrowest space and the smallest space, and their scoring methods often make the defense despair.
Among them, there are three most frustrating things for defenders - all without assistance, and the ball is invincible when it reaches the right person - step back, single shot dunk and distance Dry extraction Three points. When top players want to score, they often rely on these three axes, but the opponents have no choice. To some extent, they are the perfect representatives of modern basketball. But at the same time, they also have deep roots in the history of basketball development.
The following is the evolution of the three most difficult scoring methods in the NBA.
Step backward
Let's start with the symbolic action of the league's three scoring kings. Since many years ago, James- Harden He is using his amazing ability to create three point chances. He uses endless dribbling to find opportunities, swing his body, and make a threat with dribbling breakthrough. Once he found that the defender was close to the wrong distance of even a hair, he would lean back, collect the ball and fire.
The data are staggering. In the past six seasons, Harden has made a total of 1988 three-point retreats. No other player in the league can exceed 800 goals.
Although the current Harden is a master of this emerging technology, he is by no means the first jumper who knows how to create space for himself. For decades, the league's best scorers can do it. Veteran icons such as Pete Malawicz and Larry Bird have proved that jumpers can also become top scorers, but a legend has taken this to another level. Even though Michael Jordan never dropped three points after shooting, his key contribution to this action is still indelible.
When Jordan made his debut, his height and strength were still popular in the league. When he retired, he proved that great jumpers can also win scoring titles and championships. And he created shooting space for himself by unbelievable dry pulling and backward leaning.
In these moves, Jordan will completely control the situation. The defenders are at his mercy. You can try to guess when and where MJ will shoot and lean back, but you still can't prevent him. He only needed a few inches of space, and everything was over.
In the 1990s, people didn't talk about efficiency, but when we looked at Jordan's mid-range data in today's scale, his performance was still terrible. In the 1996-97 season, his shooting and efficiency in the middle distance were the first in the league.
Ten years later, Dirk Nowitzki went further, adding new elements to the backward. He combined his huge size, extremely high shooting points and master like footsteps to create shooting skills that are difficult to defend.
He led the team to the 2011 championship with such a shot:
Then came Harden and Stephen- Curie They all contributed extraordinary performances in the same way. They expanded the revolution of jump shot without assistance beyond the three-point line, and changed basketball itself forever in this process.
After entering the 2010s, most of the NBA's three points came from assists, and they were generally shot upon receiving the ball. This is largely because it is difficult to throw a 1.4 pound ball at a distance of 24 feet if you do not stand firmly and find proper balance and takeoff preparation. Outside the three-point line, it's hard for you to lean back (at least for now). To score at this distance requires too much strength, skill and flexibility.
As a result, Harden and Curry, who are still trying to find space and score by themselves, adjusted this action. They face straight ahead and fall back by dribbling. Their ability to control the ball is extremely excellent, but also the threat to the basket, can tear the opponent's defense. But because they face the basket directly, they can keep shooting efficiency from a long distance. When they stand firm with their excellent feet, they can become three-point shooters from dribblers in a flash.
When the defenders realized their purpose, it was too late.
By the time Luca Doncic entered the league, this move had become a trend. Compared with the relatively simple backward step, the performance we see now is as follows:
Harden and Donkey make the move look easy, but it's not. Only six players averaged more than one three-point shot at the back step. Only a few people can drive it.
Dunk without assistance
Although the history of the NBA in the past ten years is the history of three-point revolution, the game can still be decided under the basket. Most of the most important super giants can still create scoring opportunities in the restricted area, and show their strength, size and speed wantonly by dunking.
Three points have reshaped the look and feel and rhythm of professional basketball, but the ability of someone to put the ball straight into the basket has become a luxury in the tense playoffs.
The rule of the interior is as long as the history of the NBA itself. Many of the first super giants (George McCann, Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell) opened the way for today's super giant with dunks and layups without assistance. However, Shaquille O'Neill is the pioneering interior ruler in the 21st century. He is one of the greatest centers in history and probably the player with the greatest physical deterrent.
Shaquille O'Neal led the Lakers to win three consecutive championships with repeated dunks. If the opponent is not double teamed, he can complete this kind of smash dunk:
LeBron James, the most famous basketball player on the earth for at least ten years, is also an omnipotent threat on the court. Even at the age of 36, when he started from the outside to take out Shaq's moves, the probability was still invincible. Let LeBron pass the first defender, and it may not matter who will assist in defense. He has already done it.
You can also see LeBron's influence on the two most dominant stars.
Part of the reason why Brother Alphabet has become an MVP player in the past two years is that his skills are a combination of half Shaq and half LeBron. With his rise, he has taken the title of the king of the restricted area from LeBron. In the past three seasons, his score in the restricted area is the first in the league, and his main scoring method is dunking without assistance.
If he had been born 30 years earlier, Brother Alphabet would have been a long man with the main means of carrying baskets. But times have changed. Now, Brother Alphabet still destroys the defense by the face basket, integrating LeBron's field vision and dribbling skills, plus O'Neal's powerful end:
But Brother Alphabet's rule over the restricted area may be short-lived. The pelican has already had a challenger, and this action is his special feature:
Zion Williamson, 21, now has an average of 20 points in the restricted area, becoming the latest self-service dunk machine. Like LeBron, he has a natural grasp of the game. Like Shaquille O'Neal, his combination of size and strength is unfair to his opponent. This combination allows him to take the basket from the outside in a unique way, and violent dunks become the material of the whole network.
Shoot three points with ultra far ball
Like the three-point backward step, the three-point super distance shooting is also one of the fastest growing shooting methods in the NBA. The habit of shooting position of the best shooter today would have been considered crazy ten years ago.
Curry has made such moves normal, but some of his predecessors are also good at it. One example: Gilbert Arenas, probably the boldest jumper of his time, showed the world that it is not impossible to shoot at a distance of 30 feet. In his career, Arenas shot many top shots as if they were far from outer space.
But the best moment of the league's ultra far three-point movement still appeared in Oklahoma City that Saturday. In the most important game of the 2015-16 season, Curry surprised our chin with a 37 foot long buzzer.
Curry will be one of the most influential players in history because he has proved that a person can play efficiently from 30 feet away. Since the 2013-14 season, he has shot 193 times in this distance, with a 37.6% shooting rate, which is ridiculous. In NFL terms, among these successful passes 10 yards away, Curry is the quarterback with the highest accuracy in the league.
But he is not alone. When it comes to the ultra far three points, don't miss Mian- Lillard , he once ended two series with legendary super far three points. Lillard is not as accurate as Curry, but he is not far behind. And no one - including Curry - threw more than Billy Rader. Since the 2013-14 season, he has scored 140 3-pointers from 30 feet away.
Curry and Lillard started the ultra far revolution. Trey Young grew up only a few miles away from the place where Curry threw the ball to Thunder. It seems that he can take this revolution further. This season, his number of shots from 30 feet away is the first in the league, and his shooting rate is also higher than that of Curry and Lillard.
If the successors of Curry and Lillard can make such figures, imagine what the people after Yang will be like.
One of the greatest charms of professional basketball is that it has been evolving. The most influential players in the world can always find new ways to create shots in dazzling ways. Now there is another generation of future super giant taking notes.
