LA Clippers: Paul George is having the best 3-point season in the NBA

The LA Clippers crashed out of the postseason last year, dropping a 3-1 advantage to the Denver Nuggets in demoralizing fashion. Paul George in particular was held up as the engine of that defeat, clothed in the context of past postseason failures and crowned with the lowlight of hitting the side of the backboard on a 3-point attempt.

George then spends the offseason complaining to anyone who would listen about the factors outside of his control that led to the Clippers’ demise. Doc Rivers utilized him poorly; his teammates didn’t want it enough; the pandemic more harshly affected the Clippers.

Coming into the season, it seemed that nothing was going to be different. George was refusing to take responsibility, he didn’t see that flaw in himself that would drive him to be better this time around. Then tip-off happened, and Paul George began shooting the lights out.

Paul George: An LA Clippers marksman

The base stats are enough to suggest Paul George is having the best shooting season of his career. He is shooting a career-best 47.4 percent from deep, and because a career-high 49.1 percent of his shots are from deep he has also shattered his career mark in true-shooting percentage. For Paul George personally, he is on fire.

It only gets more impressive when you zoom out and look at the entire league. 25 players are attempting at least 6.0 3-pointers per game; of those players, only Wayne Ellington, a shooting specialist for the Detroit Pistons, is shooting a higher percentage.

Despite missing the last few games due to contract-tracing protocols, George is seventh in the league in made 3-pointers and has the lowest attempts of any player in the top 15. He is efficient on a high volume, the perfect combination for a shooter.

Although Kawhi Leonard has the ball in his hands a lot, there is no traditional ball-distributing point guard on this team, putting the ball in George’s hands frequently to create shots. Similar to other ball-dominant shooters such as Stephen Curry and Damian Lillard, George has done much of the heavy lifting himself to create his 3-point attempts.

71.7 percent of his 3-pointers have come off of assists. Wayne Ellington, the only high-volume shooter with a higher 3-point percentage than George, has had 94 percent of his 3-pointers generated from assists. He has only his three triples all season that were not set up for him.

NBA history has proven that unassisted, or self-created, 3-pointers are harder shots. Therefore George gets credit not only for his volume and accuracy but the difficulty of his shots as well.

George’s spacing is opening things up for the entire team, a major driving factor to the Clippers’ 14-3 record in games George plays in. The Clippers are putting up a 115.7 offensive rating, behind only the Milwaukee Bucks and the Brooklyn Nets. No team is shooting better than their 41.4 percent from deep.

Add it all up, and Paul George has come out of the gates scorching-hot from long range. He is shooting a lot of difficult shots and hitting a lot of them, if you will. That success from deep has helped to drive the Clippers to the second-best record in the NBA.

The postseason, and its potential for another disappointing ending for the LA Clippers, is a long ways away. For now, we can focus on, and enjoy, one of the league’s stars having the best shooting season in the league.