The Psychology Behind Paul George's Shoe Swap
Does switching shoes actually improve performance? An investigation into why players swap shoes.
It's the first round of the Western Conference playoffs and the Los Angeles Clippers are up against the Dallas Mavericks. After 24 minutes, the Clippers head to the locker room leading 56-30. The problem is ... Paul George only has 5 points.
He's 2/7 from the field. He’s made only 1/4 three-point attempts. He’s shooting a meager 28.6%. What's he wearing during all this? The PG 2.
The Clips’ were winning, but this wasn’t the tone-setting playoff performance that Paul George was hoping for. Forget it being his lowest scoring first-half of the postseason, this was PG’s 4th lowest scoring first-half all year. It’s obvious that something needed to change, but what?
It’s the shoes. It’s gotta be the shoes. We saw Luka Doncic opt for an older shoe model this postseason. Doncic stuck with his original Jordan ‘Luka 1’ model even though the 'Luka 3' arrives this July. Jordan Rogers talked a little about the ramifications of this with Luka and Nike. Basically, that got me thinking - just how important is swapping shoes?
Half-time ends. Paul George comes out hungry and hits two threes within 90 seconds of each other. However, as you can see, Paul George is still rocking his signature PG 2.
After struggling in the first half, George finally gets back-to-back threes to go down. It felt like he was about to take over. Then, something interesting happened.
Ty Lue called a timeout halfway through the third quarter. The Clippers were up 72-52. A decent lead, but when you're up against closers like Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic, really who’s to say? During the timeout, Paul George switched shoes, opting for the Nike Kobe 4 Protro ‘Mamacita’ instead.
Here’s how the rest of that quarter went for Paul, starting from his very first drive.
PG gets rejected at the rim by Gafford, Kyrie Irving hits a contested three right in PG’s face, Tim Hardaway Jr. does the same to close out the quarter.
As you can see, not the best quarter for Paul George. In fact, George didn’t score for the rest of the third, meaning he hadn’t recorded a single point since changing shoes. This led me to question - why switch? Finally some shots go down, and now you decide it’s time for a change? Move your feet. Lose your heat. That’s what my Dad would say in the driveway. I know that's more about the shooter's feet being set, but, it seemed to apply here as well. It seemed like George’s shoe switch backfired. Then … the fourth quarter happened.
Paul George checked in with a little over eight minutes left to go in the game. The Mavs’ were in the midst of an 11-3 run. The Clips’ lead had been cut to 15. George proceeded to score 11 points in the fourth quarter, all coming in the Kobe 4’s and the Clippers won Game 1.
Backdoor cut to dunk, Mamba-esque mid range pull-up, textbook v-cut into a catch-and-shoot three, big brain swing to Terrance Mann on the weak side wing for an open three, and a deep contested two to seal the game.
I wanted to see if George played differently in one shoe versus the other to prove how effective these shoe switches are, if at all. So, I looked at Paul George’s stats during Game 1 and categorized them by shoe, separating it down to the very minute. I wanted to see if there was any measurable improvement. Strictly speaking in terms of individual performance, was this a successful shoe swap?
So we looked at the data. Paul George finished with just as many points in the Kobe 4’s as he had in his PG 2’s. The main difference was efficiency. It took him three quarters and 24.5 minutes to get to 11 in the PG 2’s compared to 13.5 minutes in the Kobe’s. His eFG% in Kobe’s was 68.75% while his eFG% in PG 2’s was 45.83%. So even though he shot better from beyond the arc in the PG 2s, George was much more efficient in the Kobe 4 overall. In conclusion, a successful shoe switch. But, that’s just one game.
To back up the claim that switching shoes actually helped George, I did some more digging. The last time George scored less than 10 points in the first half, like he did in Game 1, came Mar 29 against the Orlando Magic. He finished the game with 12 points, but wore the same shoes the entire night. Interesting…
Paul George explained his reason for switching shoes on his podcast:
“I had just put those [PG's] on. They wasn't really fully broken in yet. I was wearing those Kobe's for a while. At that time, I wanted to feel the ground a little more…I notice within a game when something needs to change, or if I'm not playing at the level I need to play at, or if something is off about my movement. It's all about how I feel connected to the floor.”
It seems like there’s some sort of connection between the switching of shoes and the effect it has on a player’s mentality in a game. It’s not for style or to flex how many different shoes a player can wear in a single season. Switching shoes is like a fresh start for a player. An opportunity for a clean slate.
Putting on my sports psychology hat, let’s talk about flow state for a second. Flow state is a state of optimal performance that allows one to transcend one’s average and usual skill level to fully realize one’s potential. It’s also when peak athletic performance is likely to occur. This is the state all athletes strive to be in come tip-off, kickoff, or whatever the case may be. A 2017 University of Oregon study revealed that in order to achieve this flow state athletes must have “complete trust in the sports products they use in their particular sport.” Through this lens of thinking, George’s shoe switch was merely a means to achieve this flow state.
We often think of these athletes as larger than life figures. While that's certainly true physically, like all of us, they're still just trying to reach their potential. Isn’t it kind of comforting to know Paul George, a 6-foot-9 demigod who can do any and all things on a basketball court, still looks for ways to improve, and in the simplest of ways? Do we not all have a lucky pair of socks, or a T-shirt we tend to opt for when we go to the gym? At the end of the day, are those not our own little ways of getting into a flow state? Maybe we don’t realize how overwhelmingly aware these athletes are when it comes to the granular details of the game. Remember, these are the most competitive guys on the planet - if they thought clown shoes gave them the upper-hand, they’d wear them. As long as they trusted them.
REAL investigation…few are doing it like this…!
Great writing,made me want to follow till the end