Paul George shot just 5-of-18 from the field in Monday’s loss to the Suns.
The Philadelphia 76ers dropped their third game out of their last four on Monday night, losing 109-99 to the Phoenix Suns to fall to 14-20 on the season. While the list of reasons for the Sixers’ struggles this year would resemble a CVS receipt, one that came to the forefront on Monday was Paul George’s shooting struggles.
The 34-year-old veteran shot just 5-of-18 from the field, and is now shooting just 41.4 percent from the field on the season, the worst mark of his career outside of the 2014-15 year when he played just six games after coming back from his awful broken leg injury with Team USA. Now, it’s only a 24-game sample size for George, and it would be understandable for him to need to find his footing a bit after twice suffering bone bruise injuries in his knees earlier this year. He even recently had excellent shooting nights in the losses to Sacramento and Golden State. George echoed the idea of remaining patient with the process when asked postgame how to get going on the offensive end:
“Just keep shooting. I think just try to find a rhythm here. I thought I was getting into a good rhythm on the road, just find the rhythm here that’s it. Once I find the rhythm here, kind of settle myself, and have an expectation of where I need to play once I get that rhythm.”
George did acknowledge he needs to let things come to him a bit more, when describing conversations with head coach Nick Nurse to get him going offensively:
“We’re having those conversations about how to get good looks and quality looks, and I just have to read what’s going on out there. I think tonight they did a great job of loading up, it seemed all my drives and all my catch-and-shoot situations were highly loaded and playing in crowds. I have to do a better job of letting the game come to me. I know I have a mentality to try and get going and try to be aggressive, but some of the shots I’m taking probably aren’t the best looks within the offense, and that’s just a result of me kind of pressing a little bit. So just let the game come to me.”
Speaking to the matter postgame, Nurse fell into the ‘shots just weren’t going in’ camp:
“He’s in there with a lot of the guys tonight as far as generating good shots and shots that we want him to take. For whatever reason, they just weren’t going in tonight. I think you can throw the whole team in there … 38 percent from the field isn’t going to win you many games. And then throw in another 10 missed free throws. You’re in trouble anytime you miss 10. Usually, you’re on the wrong side of the score.”
Teammate Tyrese Maxey also didn’t seem too concerned about George getting going in spite of Monday’s showing:
“He’s never played with the Sixers, so he’s trying to find his way to play with Joel, play without Joel. That’s difficult and I understand where that’s coming from. He’s getting good looks, he’s had some good games, he had some breakout games. He does so many other things well for us, he guards, he rebounds, he’s in the gaps. So I think the shooting will come.”
Still, if we look under the hood, George’s shot selection is concerning. Per Basketball Reference, his average field goal attempt distance is the longest of his career at 18.1 feet. It’s not because he’s taking more threes either, as his percentage of threes among his total field goal attempts is consistent with his tenures in Oklahoma City and Los Angeles. Instead, George is shooting fewer than 10 percent of his shots (9.2 percent) from within three feet of the rim for the first time in his career. He’s shooting 18.6 percent of his shots from between 16 feet and the three-point line, his highest mark outside of a few years when he was with Indiana when he was an All-NBA player and taking iso long twos was more the norm for NBA offenses.
Basically, George isn’t getting to the rim as much as he used to and is settling for a bunch of long twos, which is just inefficient offense. If we want to be optimistic, maybe he was tentative pushing off the knees when coming back from the bone bruises. Also, having Joel Embiid available more consistently should open up shots and driving lanes for the guys around him, including George. Regardless, the Sixers signed George to a max contract, and while no one expected him to be an All-NBA player in his mid-30’s, the team is going to need a lot better than the worst shooting year of his career if they’re going to approach the expectations they had coming into the season.