I pointed out a number of other stats as well. Like I said I like Shane and have no intention to be harsh. My question was merely for someone to have the guts to ask him about the decline - perhaps in an extra nice way. Rarely do interviewers ask tough questions like that one.
As has been discussed, FG% is not a good indicator of offensive efficiency. A better indicator is True Shooting %, which accounts for 3s and FTs, or Dean Oliver's ORtg, which also accounts for things like assists, turnovers, and offesnive rebounds. Each of these have their own flaws, but is much better than just FG% in measuring a guys' efficiency on offense (for example, a guy who shoots 3s as a high prortion of of his shots will likely have a low FG%, but has high offensive efficiency since 3 pointers count for, well, 3 points). Battier's TS% over the last 4 seasons: .574, .561, .568 and .541. (League average is around .54) Battier's ORtg over the last 4 years: 119, 117, 118, 114 (League average is around 108). So, the story really is that Battier's offensive efficiency pretty much stayed the same for the first 3 years, but fell off during this past season-- one in which the Rockets played without its stars creating openings for spot-up guys. As Battier pretty much only shoots shots created for him (I think something like 88% of his made FGs were assisted), the numbers suggest more of an issue of the quality of available shots created by the team than an erosion of shooting skills. By the way, it's kind of interesting that even last season, Battier's ORtg was well above league average. The fact that he attempts a lot of 3s (4.2 per game, 36.2%) and a relatively high % of FTs (1.6 per game, 72.6%) compared to the number of 2 pointers (2.5 attemps, 45.8%) allowed his TS% to be at league average even though his FG% was well below league average (league average =46.1%). In addition, his low TOs, decent assist #s (and assist to TO ratio), plus respectable offensive rebound number (especially for a guy who hangs out by the arc a lot, and runs back to stop fast breaks frequently), brought his ORtg to a very good 114 (again, on very limited number of opportunities, his usage rate is about 10%, which is half of what you'd expect on a 5-man squad if we run a true "equal opportunity" offense). And about his DRtg, I think this rating has quite a bit of guess-work involved (very hard to truly quantify defense with only box-score stats), and individual DRtg is very much dependent on team DRtg. The Rockets having declined as a team (mostly due to missing Yao), it's not suprising that everyone's DRtg would decline. (Our other decent defenders, Chuck Hayes and Ariza, were about the same as Battier, as was Scola, Andersen was at 108, Kyle Lowry and Carl Landry were worse at 109... so pretty much all of the regulars are bunched together. Not too many variatoins... and I don't know about you, but I don't trust a defensive rating that has David Andersen higher than Kyle Lowry).
I think Battier would probably do something boring like shrugging it off, make a joke about being old, and say something these numbers don't matter much but lets see what happens this season. He's not gonna blame it on racism or do anything fun like that.
Shan's effectiveness on both ends goes up when Yao is healthy. Here's hoping he can have a bounce back year shooting the ball this year and continue to be the quaterback on the defensive end.
You know Van Gundy Lover you are one of the best posters on here. Kudos to you. P.S. You are also one of the worst. Ah but for now this was an example of one of your better works! Keeping it positive!
honestly, there are too many different stats being used, i can no longer keep up or remember which is which. all i know abt shane battier. -morey loves him. -he made kobe so frustrated in game 1 of the 2009 playoffs, kobe tried to cheap shot elbow n knee his head while he was down n kobe on his back.
This whole sub thread started when I simply asked why you can't get an interviewer to ask a tough question. I'm so sick of hearing useless crap like what is your favorite color? The answers you get from these interviews are often so generic that you might as well have had no interview at all. "I'm just going to go out there and give 110% and compete with this talented group of guys." Shane gives some of the better interviews why not throw him something other than a softball? He can take it! If he really does have ambitions to be a GM or hold some public office some day he should relish the change to play some hardball.
The last couple of days I've heard a lot more out of Battier which is nice. He's going to have to be a leader this season and preach defense. If there is one thing i'm tired of hearing about, it's "Bye Bye Brooks". AB isn't going anywhere, he just felt like he needed some attention and spouted off about an extension knowing the policy. I am excited to see Courtney, he's going to be a great asset. A player with Ariza's defense, a better shot, and better handles. What more could you ask for. Go ROCKETS
In Battier's case FG% is more accurate than for most players since Battier's game consists almost entirely of catch and shoot jumpers, 3 pointers and maybe once in a blue moon back up post up on a smaller player or an open layup. As Kev posted Shane's FG% has declined every year from 06-07, which not incidentally was the year he had his highest PPG, highest MPG and played all 82 games. Note that his last 3 years' FG% not only is in decline every year but set new career lows every consecutive year. Compositing his dropping FG% with Shane's 3PT shooting and FTs (generally declining but not dramatically nor consistently) you can infer that Shane can still shoot, he just can't get open. What that probably indicates is Shane's slowly and steadily losing what athleticism he once had on the open court, meaning he's taking more contested shots and getting fewer odd cherry picks around the basket. Since Shane's a player who will generally not take a bad shot nor the player who will end up with the ball in the hands at the end of the shot clock, it's more likely that FG% is related to Shane's ability to get open or finish than with the team. If the team wasn't getting him open looks, it would be more correlated to fewer FGA per game or PPG not in FG% as he'd probably just pass on the bad shot. What it probably means is what were once open looks when Shane was a bit faster or could get some separation have become increasingly more contested. The reason his TS and stuff isn't dramatically impacted is because Shane's value to his team is heavily weighted towards 3P shooting. Even as his athleticism and overall FG% drops it's completely offset by how well he shot the 3 that particular year. Note the correlation between Shane's 3P% and his overall efficacy for the team. It's heavily weighted towards 3s even in the face of dropping overall FG%. Season TS% ORtg 3P% FT% 06-07 .574 119 0.421 0.779 07-08 .561 117 0.377 0.743 08-09 .568 118 0.384 0.821 09-10 .541 114 0.362 0.726 What stands out are his best years 06-07 and 08-09. in 06-07 when Shane's TS is highest his 3P shooting is 42.1 (the highest ever in his career). In 08-09 his 3P shooting is 38.4% boosted by near career-best FT%. The other 2 years when his 3P shooting is low his value is low. What does that mean? First it means that in Battier's case FG% is remarkably "good" indicator of a consistent degradation of his speed and skills in the open court from what little offensive game he did have circa 05-06/06-07. At one time he could make a basket that wasn't an open jumper at almost 50%. Now he's a sub .400 shooter doing anything but open 3s. Basically at this stage of his career Battier shouldn't take any shot that isn't a wide open 3. If you split out the non 3 pointers his TS and Offensive Rating would be ****. But what it also means is that yes Battier is getting older, slower and less reliable healthwise but that he can still do what the team needs him to do, which is to hit open 3s, at least until last year when all his shooting including FTs dropped precipitously near career worsts. Most are willing to give the benefit of the doubt and say his 3 point shooting last year (and thus his efficiency) is the result of not having Yao but of course that doesn't explain why his FTs were near 10% below his career bests and significantly below his career average.
Actually, no. A guy who shoots a ton of catch/shoot spot-up 3s doesn't use his own atheleticism and speed to get open. Not sure why Battier was worse at standing in the corner last year than he was 3 years ago. Also, FG% is a composit of 2 pt and 3 pt FG%. A better would be to look at the # of 2pt, 3 pt and attempts separately and 2 pt and 3 pt shooting percentages separately. In fact, in Euro League stats, they list 2 pt % and 3 pt % separately, which, I think, is a lot better than the way the NBA does it. For Battier: 2 pt attemps : 3 pt attempts : FT attempts over the last 4 years = 3.5 : 4.5 : 1.4 (56% of FG attemps = 3s) 3.1 : 4.6 : 1.3 (68% of FG attemps = 3s) 1.9 : 4.0 : 1.1 (68% of FG sattempts = 3s) 2.5 : 4.2 : 1.6 (63% of FG atempts = 3s) 2pt % over the last 4 years: 48 50 46 46 3 pt % over the last 4 years: 42 38 38 36 % of Battier's shot which are "close shots": 24 18 19 22 His close shot %: 53 61 57 54 % of Battier's jumpers which are assisted: 86 87 94 91 None of this showed a straight line "decline." That FG% did is rather a meaningless fluke. First, what do you mean his FTs are declining, he actually shot more FTs per game (or per minute) last season than he did in any of the previous 3 years. Second, not sure what you mean about his ability to get open declined. Battier rarely ever got himself open in any of his 4 years as a Rocket, especially for his jumpers, and especially for the 3s. As such, his decline in 3 pt %, in particular, likely has to do with the quality of the openings created for him. Third, Battier doesn't pass off every contested shot, he also does take a number of shots with the clock running down. In fact, around 20% of his shots over the last 4 years came when the shot clock has 3 second or less on it. Here's an example: <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/STrs94U7Gbo?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/STrs94U7Gbo?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object> Here's another one: <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/HCccONZyl5E?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/HCccONZyl5E?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object> Fourth as for his declining ability to "cherry pick" around the basket. Not sure if that's true. His shooting % on "close shots" was actually the worst during his first year here. Also, last year Battier's FT attempt was higher than his other 3 years, most of those probably came from fouls committed closer to the basket. Actually he's a 46% shooter on 2 pt attempts. So he not a sub .400 shooter on 2 pointers. Also, assuming that Battier's FTs came from exclusively 2 pt attempts rather than 3 pt attempts, his TS% on attempts from within the arc would be pretty good. For example, last season, his TS% on 2 pointers would be approximatley: 231/((168+106*.44)*2) = .538. Just about the same as his TS% on 3s. (.543). So, no, the FG% is not a good indicator of any degradation of his "speed" or "skills" because he rarely used speed or individual skils to get open. His FG% change has more to do with (a) shot selection (i.e. 2s vs 3s), which is more of a function of role/coaching strategy than anything else, (b) the degradation of McGrady's skills and speed, resulting in lower quality looks for Battier, especially for spot up 3s, (c) the injury to Yao Ming last season (which, again, forced Battier (and everyone else) to be less selective in shots fired in the half court.
They're not running for public office or interviewing for a job! They're athletes, this is entertainment, everything's in good fun. Why would you want to make him feel uncomfortable and embattled? What would you do with "tough questions"? Not vote for him? Fire him? P.S. We can't even get reporters to ask people running for office tough questions, I'd rather focus on that, than putting our athletes on the hot seat.
What good is an interview if you don't learn anything new, provocative or actually revealing about on court tribulations? I'll help you out with some great information: My favorite color is blue and I give 110% in my job. I wasn't uncomfortable at all answering that so all is well in the world for you.
