(Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)
For years, Paul George has been one of the NBA’s top wings, and he can not only drop buckets in bunches, but he has also had a reputation as one of the game’s top defenders.
He has also been a very accurate 3-point shooter over the years who owns a career accuracy of 38.1 percent from beyond the arc.
However, as a rookie, George shot just 29.7 percent from downtown, and he admitted during his own podcast that one of his teammates on the Indiana Pacers, Danny Granger, got mad at him for shooting a three when he was wide open because of his inability to convert such shots.
George said it motivated him to put in lots of work.
“Why you think you wide open?! Cause you can’t make ’em!”
PG had no choice but to improve his 3-point shooting after his rookie year pic.twitter.com/iRfvsPqXQK
— Podcast P with Paul George (@PodcastPShow) September 26, 2023
The forward said he started working out with shooting coach Mike Penberthy, a former NBA player who was elite from downtown, and Penberthy had him shoot lots of heavy balls from 3-point range.
It worked, as he improved to 38.5 percent from deep in just his second season.
In George’s third season, he averaged 17.4 points a game and got his first of eight All-Star selections, and he endured a serious lower leg injury in the summer of 2014, only to continue to put up big numbers starting in the 2015-16 campaign.
He was traded from the Oklahoma City Thunder to the Los Angeles Clippers in 2019, and he joined Kawhi Leonard there to form a squad many believed would win the NBA championship right away.
But the Clippers haven’t even come close to attaining that goal, and a huge reason has been injuries to both George and Leonard.
With George now 33 years of age, the clock is starting to run out on their chances of winning it all.
The post Paul George Opens Up On His Shooting Struggles During Rookie Year appeared first on The Cold Wire.
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