falcolombardi wrote:penbeast0 wrote:I don't think it's racial, I think West had more of a long range jumper or slash mentality while Oscar was famous for working his man, if you gave him a 20 footer, he'd try to work you for a 15 footer, if you gave him the 12 footer, he'd try to push in for 10. He was so much stronger than any of the other guards of his era (including West) that he could finish through defenders more than West who got knocked down more and tended to be more reliant on speed and getting separation.
That seems to be a good thingh no? If he is able to get better shots where west is forced to take longer jumpers that are worth the same that is part of their jumpshooting skillsets too
And if west could get similar jumpers but just liked to take longer ones for no clear benefit then that would also talk well about oscar shot selection relative to west
I don't think it is true that their jump-shooting skillsets were the same (although I suppose that depends on how you define jump-shooting skillset), and you are correct that West could not get similar jumpers but it is due to their physical characteristics and not jump-shooting skillsets. Jeff Mullins, a 3-time all star, said that West and Oscar were the two best players he ever guarded (and he played during their primes). I asked Mullins about their differences. He said that Oscar was the master at backing you down to keep getting closer and closer to the basket. He could do that because he was the first "big guard" who was just bigger and stronger than whoever was guarding him. Yes, bigger and stronger than West. Plus Oscar had "that great big butt" (his words, not mine!); Oscar could just use his "great big butt" as a battering ram to inch closer and closer to the basket. Thus the vast majority of Oscar's jumpshots were post-up turnaround jumpers. Because West didn't have the same size, strength, or butt, he relied more on his quickness so West shot many more moving jumpers (coming off screens) than Oscar. West was known for having the quickest pull-up jumper until Curry came onto the scene; and the speed of Curry's pull-up jumper has been compared with videos of West's.
So I think you are missing a lot of context to ignore the types of shots both players tended to shoot when trying to compare jump-shooting skillsets. Oscar clearly had the better post-up game and turnaround jumper since his size was a key weapon in his favor. West had the better pull-up jumper and much better range on his jumper. Remember that Oscar rarely attempted a jumpshot beyond 16 feet or so. Think back to when Oscar played "around the world" in one of those halftime contests on TV; remember the first shot had to come from the top of the key. Since I had
never seen Oscar shoot a jumpshot from that distance in an actual game, I was curious what that would look like or if he could even do it. If you recall, he didn't. He opted to use the old-fashioned one hand set shot similar to his free throws. West, on the other hand, used his same jumpshot motion for a 15-footer as he would for shots that today would be considered 3-pointers. Of course, West like everyone else not named Lucas rarely shot from that distance in a game since you can shoot a better percentage from 15 feet than you can from 23 feet. But since Oscar didn't shoot from beyond 16 feet and West would attempt more shots in the 16+ foot range, it doesn't surprise me that Oscar would shoot a slightly higher percentage.