lessthanjake wrote:One_and_Done wrote:I mean, if defenders sag off Magic and dare him to shoot the 3, what exactly is his counter?
His counter is to generate offense the way he typically did—which was directing the offense through the post in the half court and being incredible in transition.
Also, considering that Magic became a pretty decent three-point shooter once he actually started shooting them (35% from three in his last four years in the NBA—the only years he shot them at any volume) and was a great FT shooter, I find it somewhat difficult to believe he wouldn’t be a pretty good three-point shooter in this era.
Overall, I think his offensive game in this era would probably look pretty similar to Jokic’s overall. Working a lot out of the post with incredible passing, great in transition, and with an ability to make threes off of a set shot. Obviously they’d be a bit different. For instance, Jokic is more of a scoring threat in the post, but Magic is even better at running the break. But I think the type of offense they’d run would actually be fairly similar. To me, Jokic is just a bit better because he’s a superior scoring threat (in significant part because of how ridiculous he is with that floater).
Dude would probably shoot seven threes per game at 39% today.
(Most) people who weren't around and playing ball circa the 80's don't understand : it's not that past players couldn't shoot threes, it's that they didn't, simply because it wasn't part of basketball culture. Culture is one of the most powerful forces on earth. It's so powerful that most of us never even notice it - kind of like gravity.
As always, I mean if he had come up in today's environment - not that he could just flip a switch and give you those numbers. Same goes for most 80%+ free throw shooters of yore.
[I say this as someone who didn't play ball until the 90's, but, even then, most of my coaches had playing careers that ended before the NBA three-point line even existed. I'm extrapolating from my own 90's experience when I reference the 80's.]
