Fencer reregistered wrote:UcanUwill wrote:I remember Bill Simmons once called Anthony Davis an evolutionary Kevin McHale. Which sounds stupid, and maybe it is, Russillo or whoever Bill was talking with, said, wtf are you talking about, Davis cant play in the post at all. (It was before Davis had post game). But Bill countered - well, that is evolutionary part, that is how game is played now.
Maybe implying that if Kevin was born in this era, he would have been more like AD? I think McHale being a great post player, overshadows the fact he was a defensive player. I didnt know he was great defender at first either, I was not familiar with 80s NBA, I knew Kevin McHale as white guy who dominated in the post, it took me years to catch up with history to find out his defensive capabilities.
McHale had a decent stroke from 3 late in his career, at least for a while. It's easy to imagine that, had he grown up in this era, he'd have had every skill Kristaps Porzingis has on offense, plus post scoring better than Jokic's (but not passing near the Walton/Sabonis tier, let alone the Bird/Jokic one).
McHale was alledged to be a decent 3 point shooter in closed practices. McHale hit some 3s on TV pre-game. McHale had good form on his free throws and fall away jumpers from a
2 feet inside the free throw line.
McHale shot 3s at 26 percent for his career but half of those shots were desperation 3s and nobody shoots desperation 3s well.
MCHales average per season was shooting 3 for 12 at 3s for the whole season. Curry averages 4 for 9 3s per game over his whole career.
McHale’s best 3 point shooting season at age 33 he was shooting 0.5 3s per game so shooting a 3 every other game and hitting 0.2 3s per game so hitting a 3 every 5th game for a good 40% rate on 3s in the better of his only two good 3 point shooting years age 32 abd age 33 when he shot a decent percentage on 3s but at extremely low volume.