From the marginal man to the champion shooter! Isaiah Joe is counterattacking!

Isaiah Joe, the second round No. 19 pick in 2020, was not a simple shooter before entering the league. Before entering the NBA, he was more like an all-round defender who was very capable. In his senior season as a league-level senior, Isaiah Joe averaged 22.8 points, 4.4 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 2.9 steals per game, winning the Arkansas Player.

Until I entered the University of Arkansas, Isaiah Joe was the team's starter, and Daniel Gafford was still standing beside him.

Today, Gafford has been the main center of the Mavericks and a key contributor to reaching the finals last season. Before entering the league, Gafford at the university showed dominance in the penalty area, averaging 16.9 points per game with a shooting percentage of 66.0%. As long as he is present, the opponent will arrange heavy troops to guard him, and the outside teammates will naturally get many opportunities.

Just as Isaiah Joe said:

"Other teams will focus on his defense and then let me gain a lot of gaps outside the three-point line."

Under this line of thinking, Isaiah Joe began to have an idea: Why don't he shoot more three-pointers?

So, Isaiah Joe decided to transform to the outside direction. He spent a lot of time polishing the three-pointer, whether it was a three-pointer after receiving the ball, a three-pointer after dribbling, a three-pointer backward step, or even a long shot that was a big step away from the NCAA three-pointer line, he had reached the qualified level. Finally, he developed a set of outside shooting techniques with fast shooting speed, high shooting angle and beautiful posture.

In his first season in college, Isaiah Joe scored 13.9 points with an average of 41.4% of the outside shooting percentage and scored a total of 113 three-pointers, breaking the University of Arkansas' record for freshman Arkansas and the third in history to shoot more than 10 three-pointers every 40 minutes while maintaining a 40% outside shooting percentage.

However, the other two people in front of him were Curry and Jamal Murray.

As a shooter, Isaiah Joe is quite special. He has good ball holding ability, and can also find space for shooting after pick-and-roll and ball holding. His jump shot rate after dribbling can also reach 38.6%, and his phone will be basically not difficult for him in the offense and defense conversion. With an excellent passing perspective, Isaiah Joe is not just a simple ending point.

But from another perspective, although Isaiah Joe has excellent shooting skills, he still showed a significant decline in one-on-one defense, breakthrough confrontation, and offensive efficiency in the subsequent season, which eventually led to him falling to the 49th pick in the 2020 draft before being selected by the 76ers.

The 76ers were still in the reconstruction stage. In addition to the main players such as Simmons and Curry Jr., there were also Shek Milton, Matisse Seble, and Falkan Kolkmaz on the bench. In addition to the upcoming Maxi, under strict rotation, Isaiah Joe did not get much performance opportunities and spent a lot of time in the Development League.

During the two seasons, Isaiah Joe only got two starting opportunities, played in 96 games, and played in half of them in less than 10 minutes, and was directly abandoned in more than 30 games. Such an unstable appearance frequency also directly affects Isaiah Joe's shooting feel, and his outside shooting percentage basically dropped to 34.9% of the league average, but judging from the shooter's logo, this is definitely not qualified.

And in the third season of his career, the last year of his rookie contract, in the face of an unsecured contract, if Isaiah Joe cannot prove himself before the start of the season, it will naturally be difficult to win the opportunity to renew the contract. In the end, what awaits him will only flow into the free market.

In order to win the next contract, third-year student Isaiah Joe chose to participate in the summer league. The 76ers lineup of that year lacked the potential for new players and there was only one first-round rookie in the team. As the opponent, the Thunder is just the opposite. They hold 5 first-round rookies and send out all the sophomore players they are the main players of last season. Josh Giddy, who led the team at that time, was even the main controller of the Thunder team and a member of the All-Rookie Team of the season.

Even though the opponent is strong enough, Isaiah Joe worked hard enough to make a difficult three-pointer in the countdown stage. At the end of the game, the 76ers beat the Thunder by 1 point. Isaiah Joe scored the highest 19 points in the game. Although the 76ers did not continue him because of this game, this unexpectedly opened another window of opportunity.

Soon, Isaiah Joe received a call from Oklahoma.

The Thunder, who is about to enter the next stage of the reconstruction period, found Engelland, who is known as the shooting doctor, and Vince Rozman, the vice president of the scouting department of the 76ers. These two have greatly helped Isaiah Joe's career. Especially Rozman, who has been observing Isaiah Joe for two years, saw that Isaiah Joe enter the free market, he actively persuaded Presti to leave the last place to Isaiah Joe.

Although it has won the favor of the Thunder, it is still quite difficult for Isaiah Joe to stand out in the Thunder. The team also has Trey Mann, Aaron Wiggins, and Lindy Waters on the bench, who performed well last season, and the Thunder has no more opportunities to show off than the 76ers.

In the first five games of the season, Isaiah Joe only played for 7 minutes in total. He was sent by the head coach to the final moment of the sixth game against the Mavericks.

At that time, the Thunder was 16 points behind the opponent. Isaiah Joe had an opportunity to explode. The first time he touched was to grab a rebound on Doncic's head and get two free throws. After both free throws, Isaiah Joe had confidence, and then hit another two-pointer.. At the same time, the Thunder relied on several defensive counterattacks to narrow the score, and there was only one three-point gap in the last 30 seconds. For the Thunder who made 2 of 22 three-pointers from the outside on the field, they needed to tie the key hit of the score.

The voice of the commentator began to sound on the sidelines:

"Isaiah Joe vs. Doncic, in a very critical round, Doncic passed to Wood, and Wood passed to the bottom corner Brock..."

"The three-pointer was not scored, Alexander caught the rebound, and with 22 seconds left, Alexander broke through inward and passed to Isaiah Joe..."

"The shot was made, and the two sides were tied!"

In the last moment, Isaiah Joe was able to stay on the court, made 4 of 4 shots in the whole game, scored 15 points in 9 minutes on the court, scored 8 points in overtime, and finally made a key three-pointer to tie the score.

The top-level shooting performance at the critical moment and the Thunder, who urgently needed peripheral firepower, hit it off. After that, Isaiah Joe proved that he was not a flash in the pan. He began to gain the trust of the head coach. He averaged 19.1 minutes per game and ranked seventh in the team, scoring 8 single-game 20+ points, and a highlight performance of 33 points in a single game.

Then he began to compete for the championship with the Thunder, and his offensive output fell slightly last season, but after receiving a four-year, 48 million contract renewal, he averaged a career high of 10.2 points per game this season, averaging 2.6 three-pointers per game, maintaining an efficient outside shooting percentage of 41.2%.

There is no doubt that without Isaiah Joe, there would be no Thunder with 68 wins in the regular season. Although he did not perform stably in the playoffs and was targeted at the defensive end, he finally won the championship with the team and completed a major counterattack from the marginal player to the championship member.