TORONTO – Two shooters, having two very different seasons, at least for now.
That may be the best way to encapsulate the trajectories of Danny Green and C.J. Miles to this point. The pair are the closest the Raptors have to designated three-point threats – players whose primary role is to stretch the floor and drop bombs from beyond the arc.
It’s a specialty that has never been more valuable and as Green and Miles burrow deeper into their contract years – Green is in the option year of a four year $40-million deal while Miles can opt out of the last year of his three-year, $25-million contract – they each have the potential to put themselves in high demand while lifting the Raptors fortunes along the way.
But they need to make shots.
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So far, it’s Green who looks like he could cash in based on his form through Toronto’s first 21 games. The 31-year-old looks completely revitalized since arriving from San Antonio where some injury issues and a change in playing style saw Green shoot an ordinary 35.7 per cent from deep the previous three seasons combined, compared to a sparkling 42.3 in the four years prior.
“I think I’m more confident and have a better rhythm, just because of the flow of the game and the system we have here and the pace we play at,” Green said after a rare 0-for-4 outing on Sunday against Miami. “It helps me keep in a flow and it helps that the coaches and the team are constantly behind me, encouraging me too.”
It shows. Heading into the Raptors meeting in Memphis Tuesday night with the surprising 12-7 Grizzlies, Green is shooting 42.5 per cent from deep on nearly six attempts per game; his success rate ranking sixth in the NBA for players who have attempted at least 100 threes this season.
A few stalls down from Green in the Raptors dressing room sits Miles, living the flip-side of the boom-or-bust existence of a shooter’s life, where your value on a given night is determined by whether you can knock down two or three triples in six or seven attempts. Make three and you’ve had a great night; 1-of-7 and you’ve failed.
So far this season, the successes have been few and far between for Miles who is heading into Tuesday night’s game shooting just 26.3 per cent from behind the arc, making him one of just nine players in the league with at least 50 attempts from deep to connect on less than 27 per cent of them.
Miles claims to be unruffled: “That’s the biggest thing, to stay out of your own way,” he said after going 2-of-6 from deep on Sunday against Miami. “What else can you do besides shoot it the way you know how to shoot it? Some night’s they go in, some nights they don’t. I have a Ray Allen quote that I live by: When he was in Seattle and had [a] tough night one of the coaches said, ‘You didn’t shoot it all that well last night’ and Ray said: ‘I shot it fine, they just didn’t go in.”
But, at times, it does look like Miles is forcing the issue. One of the things that makes him so valuable as a microwave-type scorer off the bench is his determination to get threes up in volume. Last season, he led the NBA in three-point attempts per minute, getting up a somewhat hard-to-believe 12.2 per 36 minutes. He’s not quite at that rate this year – although he still leads the team with nine per 36 – but he does seem to be taking his share of tough threes. According to NBA.com, Miles is seventh in the league in the ratio of threes he takes that are tightly covered – with a defender within 2-to-4 feet – with 16.7 per cent of his triples being put up while defended, of which he’s converted just 21 per cent.
It comes with the territory when you’re on a scouting report as someone that can’t be left alone – Green isn’t far behind with his well defended at 15.3-per-cent. “Some teams do better jobs than others [covering shooters],” says Green. “But part of our job is just to open the floor for other guys.”
The two triples Miles made Sunday – his second game after missing five due to a groin injury – would qualify as tough ones: A big step left after a pump-fake …
or a 26-footer in transition at the end of the first quarter.
Nurse says he thinks Miles’ willingness to take tough shots – while admirable – could be curbed a bit. He says that some of them have come off play calls where he’s been trying to create opportunities to get Miles going, but that may be part of the problem.
“I think he needs to let it happen,” Nurse said as the Raptors were getting ready to leave Monday afternoon. “I think he’s got to let the game come to him, I think he’s trying to press a little. I’ve been a part of that too: I’ve drawn a lot of plays for him and you’re trying to get a guy going and I both of us maybe need to take a step back and let the shots come out of the offense a little bit.
“The quality [of looks Miles has had] has been mediocre just because of that,” said Nurse. “He’s had some really wide-open looks out of the flow of the offence, which I like, but the set plays haven’t been as open but he’s taking them anyway. The quality of shots needs to improve and I’d like to see them come out of the flow of the offence more and move further and further away from set plays.”
Miles feels like a breakout is around the corner as he gets his legs back under him and the game begins to flow: “Slowly but surely you can feel it happening; the game is slowing back down.”
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Green has been in that mode all season. He says it’s the Raptors’ increased pace and the opportunities he’s found in transition and early offence that have helped spark his game since coming from the Spurs, but he can still remember his slumps, moments where he could do everything right and have nothing to show for it.
“You’re only going to get so many cracks at it,” said Green of the sharp-shooters’ lot. “Mentally you just have to not get too down and stick with it.”
Ultimately, the key for any elite shooter looking to break out of a slump doesn’t change much: give it time and let your habits take over and math do its magic:
“The law of averages are usually going to play out, most times,” says Green. “As players and competitors we get frustrated. We want to shoot better; be perfect; have better numbers; score more — but we understand the nature of it.
“It may change here or there depending on play calls, the flow of the game and minutes, but mostly you just have to be patient.”
Says Miles, “I work too hard, I’m first in the gym, pretty much every day, doing all the stuff I do, the pressure isn’t on me, it’s on the people guarding me.”
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