Last year I made a compilation of all of Ryan Anderson’s stepback and fadeaways from the midrange area. I called it a jumperilation. It was sick. It was, God forgive me for uttering these words, Dirk-esque. And, if present trends continue, there’s not going to be another one this year.
Ryan Anderson has essentially halved his midrange jumper attempts this year. Last year his role in the Pelicans offense wasn’t as clear, it was more like “Ryno just please go out there and score in any way you can”. This year he’s focused on three-pointers like everybody else on the Rockets, and therefore he can’t just isolate inside the three point line and shoot turnarounds like our favorite seven-foot German.
This might be a good development for Ryno personally and for the Rockets as a team, but it sucks for me because there was nobody else in the league taking and making those shots as consistently as Ryno was. Now there’s a void in the NBA where nobody is shooting these shots, and if Kristaps Porzingis doesn’t fill that void starting approximately right now, I’m going to quit highlights and delete my channel.