For me, it’s Dame Lillard’s shooting.
I recently saw a post of Twitter asking who is the best shooter of all time not including and Steph, and just as I suspected I saw a bunch of people saying Dame.
I routinely see him put in the same category with guys like Steph, Klay, Ray Allen, Reggie Miller etc and it just blows me mind that people put him at the level.
Dame is a good shooter. An above average shooter. He is not a great shooter, nevermind an elite shooter.
He is 226th all time in 3 point percentage at .3707%
The league average is usually around 36%. So he is a slightly above average three point shooter.
I will give him credit as he is good at creating his shots and hitting difficult or deep ones, but why is it that people think he is elite?
Is it because he is known for taking deep 3s? Is it because he hit a couple of clutch threes in the playoffs?
I recently asked and someone said it’s because he won multiple 3 point contests. To me, that’s like saying Ichiro is one of the greatest power hitters of all time because he hit home runs at will in batting practice. It literally doesn’t mean anything in the context of real NBA games.
It has to be the long shots right? Because I’ve also seen people say Trae is an elite shooter but he is a below average shooter so it’s got to be the depth?
What aspect of a players game do y’all think is the most overrated???
Gobert defense. Elite defending bigs should be able to defend outside the paint at least at a mediocre level. The Admiral, Ben, AD, Wemby, Greek Freak, etc. all have the footwork to not be considered a liability on the perimeter. In the most recent playoffs, everyone watched Gobert get targeted as a mismatch. Getting fried by Luka is inevitable but looking that stupid during it is a personal issue. Gobert is great in rotations and obviously impacts the front-court but we’ve given him too much credit when there are plenty of better defenders in the league. I think that the “best defender on the best defensive team” argument is leaned on a bit too much. I should never be scared to see a 4 TIME DPOY in any matchup.
Gobert doesn’t pass most people’s eye test because the best way to play him is to put him in the worst possible situation (typically 1v2 defending the pick and roll) and not send any help and benefit elsewhere. His teams have been at or near the bottom of the league in percent of opponent spot up attempts for the entirety of his prime, but that doesn’t really jump off the screen as Rudy’s doing even though it 100% is.