in praise of

THE RINGMASTER
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In Praise Of: Duncan Robinson
Ace • August 18, 2020 • 10:30am

A series of things worth your time in the absence of (college) sports.

I'm loathe to praise Reggie Miller after his years of terrorizing TNT basketball broadcasts with his inane commentary. I must admit, however, that I felt different about him growing up. In an era when offense moved slow and favored the physical, Miller was a revelation to watch—a rail-thin gunner whose game was predicated on running his defender ragged before quickly firing long jumpers.

The game eventually moved in Miller's direction. I spent my formative years watching Rip Hamilton play a midrange-oriented version of Miller's style. Later, Steph Curry amped up the volume, extended the range, and helped revolutionize the game.

The playoffs began yesterday in the NBA bubble. My Pistons were not invited, to put it kindly, which frees me to watch the NBA the way I prefer: free of rooting interests if I want to be, able to focus on the incredible level of skill, and taking in the matchup chess. (At least, this is what I tell myself when Detroit is bad.)

ESPN's Kirk Goldsberry, aka the shot chart guy, looked at six top storylines heading into the playoffs. One was the zero positive Covid-19 tests inside the bubble. Four others featured Damian Lillard, LeBron James, James Harden, and Jayson Tatum—three established superstars and a burgeoning one, respectively. The other player to get his own section? Why, that'd be Duncan Robinson.

Robinson became the first in the player-tracking era (dating to 2013-14) to take at least 500 catch-and-shoot 3s and make at least 45% of them. This guy is unreal. Just look at this list:

Best FG% on catch-and-shoot 3s (min. 500 attempts)

  • Duncan Robinson (2019-20): 46.2%

  • Klay Thompson (2017-18): 44.4%

  • Klay Thompson (2014-15) 43.7%

  • Stephen Curry (2018-19) 43.7%

  • Klay Thompson (2015-16) 43.6%

There are a lot of reasons to like the Heat as a surprise team in the East, and Robinson is a major one.

I'm biased. You know this. Duncan Robinson went to Michigan. I proclaimed multiple times on the MGoPodcast in his time here that I expected him to shoot 50% from three over a full season, including after the first time I saw him shoot in person at an open media practice heading into his debut season. There's a feeling of pride and, yes, a little vindication while watching Robinson scorch the nets at the game's highest level. Look at this shot chart!

I won't claim I saw this coming, however. I never thought Robinson had the requisite defensive ability to stick in the league, but he's continued to improve at that end to the point he even got subbed in for defensive purposes in a late-game situation—John Beilein, still Cleveland's head coach at the time, was impressed.

“I was watching a clip early in the season, the Heat played somebody we were going to play,” Beilein said in advance of Wednesday’s game between the Cavaliers and Heat at AmericanAirlines Arena. “There were seven seconds to go in the game and they had to get a stop, and [Robinson] was in the lineup. That struck me. I texted him right afterwards. I said, ‘What a long way, man. They got you in the end of the game for defensive purposes.’”

According to basketball-reference, Miami is 4.1 points per 100 possessions better on defense with Robinson on the floor this season. Even if Robinson gets exposed on that end over the course of a playoff series, he's made enough strides to indicate he'll be able to hang in the long term.

As for the historic shooting? Again, it'd be dishonest to say even this aspect of Robinson's game looked like it'd translate so well. He shot a respectable, not incredible, 42% from long range in college. Beilein's offense utilized him as a standstill shooter; there wasn't much else to his repertoire. Now?

Uh, holy shit.

Since joining Miami, Robinson has added the Reggie Miller aspect. In doing so, he's become one of the most enjoyable players to watch in the league, in addition to one of its most lethal offensive weapons.

Robinson led the NBA in the regular season by averaging 3.2 three-point makes per game just on shots before which he took zero dribbles. He needs little space to get off his shot and the Heat have designed much of their offense around the threat of getting him that little space. He may be the league's most exciting player to watch when he doesn't have the ball in his hands, at least while the Splash Brothers are out of commission.

He's also, like Miller before him, getting under the skin of his opponents. Notorious curmudgeon Chris Paul evidently got tired of whatever Robinson was saying and doing earlier this week, prompting an escalating series of events.

The little head rub Butler gives Robinson tells you what you need to know, though Butler also put it more explicitly in the aftermath.

Protect Duncan Robinson at all costs.

Robinson's Heat are the five-seed in the East, though they're -300 betting favorites against the four-seed Indiana Pacers. Game one is this afternoon at 4 pm ET on TNT. While I'd normally hope Miller isn't on the call, it'd be fitting for this one.

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In Praise Of: The New Thinking Man's Guide To Pro Football
Brian • August 5, 2020 • 3:13pm

A series of things worth your time in the absence of sports.

Paul Zimmerman's, AKA Dr. Z, New Thinking Man's Guide To Pro Football is not the best book in history. Neither is it the worst named. But this space is willing to wager that it would place top ten in a good book : bad name ratio competition. Throw in the cover, which is a football helmet/brain divided into areas labeled with a jumble of football phrases ("player to be named later", "skill positions"), inanities ("D (DEE-FENSE)"), and non sequiturs ("interest-free loan," "no-cut")…

9780671602765-us

…and we are rapidly approaching a world record for most disservice done by a publisher to an author.

In any case, the NTMGTPF is a 1984 book that is a modernized version of the original 1971 edition that goes over football position-by-position, from the quarterbacks to the linebackers to the special teams lunatics to the officials and press. I do not read sports books I do not have to for the same reason dentists don't hop into bed and start poking at their spouse's teeth, but when I picked up NTMGTPF I quickly found out it was something different.

I got into reading about sports in the mid-to-late 1990s, and writing about them a decade after that. One of the great early kerfuffles in the now-defunct Newspaper-Blog War Of The Aughts (losers: everyone) was newspapermen and women rattling on about bloggers in their underwear typing from mom's basement, and how they could never know the vital heartbeat of sports reporting that came only from being in a locker room.

[After THE JUMP: Vince Lombardi asks a delicate question, undelicately]

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