[Podcast P] Paul George: “I think fans don’t really understand how tough it is on a nightly basis to play both ends to prepare to play both ends. It exerts a lot out of you. People always ‘oh you don’t shoot well, your percentage’. A lot of times I be tired when I’m on offense. My legs are dead”
by YoungSidd
8 Comments
Saw this post on r/NBA and was curious what people thought in regards to this Raptors team.
It’s no secret that our defensive schemes are incredibly demanding on the players, it makes you wonder if that’s one of the reasons for our poor shooting.
hell yea dude, when i used to work construction id be more tired at the end of the shift than at the start
It’s not just the physical exhaustion it’s the mental stress and exhaustion. Any sport I play I do way better in the morning on a weekend than a weekday evening after working all day.
A split second loss of focus or distraction can lead to slight changes in mechanics, just enough to flip a bucket to a miss.
There is a very small margin between average, terrible and elite at the NBA level, and same for a lot of other pro sports.
I suspect these guys shoot way better in practice than in games.
Some relevant 3pt shooting stats for the Raptors:
1Q: 37.1%, 16th best, on 16th most attempts
2Q: 31.9%, 29th best, on 19th most attempts
3Q: 33.1%, 28th best, on 17th most attempts
4Q: 32.2%, 25th best, on 28th most attempts
OT: 21.1%, 23rd best (only 5 OT games played)
Damn that’s crazy, remind me how much you get paid to be in perfect shape to play a sport that requires you to be able to play hard on both ends?
Is this in response to Scottie? He said this exact thing during his presser. That he needs to work on his conditioning because trying to play at a high level defensively is very taxing.
On top of that the entire team is also playing league high minutes AND Nurse’s defense scheme is about being aggressive and using up energy.
Fred hero balled countless time in that game going against a bigger defender. Instead of having Fred on laviene they should have had Scottie
You can tell who never played basketball in their lives. If you actually put effort in defensively it’s much more taxing than offense. It’s not about getting paid to do it or not, that’s ignorance. You can only condition your body so much. Not everyone’s LeBron.
The solution is either us playing a less aggressive style, or getting more depth. The title team in 2019 was 2 deep at every position. There’s a reason (outside of Kawhi) that it worked so well.