i wonder why so many people think we're a terrible 3 point shooting team. the hawks are 15th in the league (i.e. right in the middle) at 35.0%. the rockets shoot 34.7%, basically the same. we shoot a ton and still basically shoot what an average team does. i suppose you could argue like DD that it would be better to have good shooters and teach them to play D, but we've basically gone for defenders (who didn't defend this year) and tried to shoot 3's and we still basically shot an average percentage so it's not like we ended up 30th in 3 point shooting and just stuck with it. it feels like people just don't like the "shoot 3's" strategy and then every game we don't shoot them well they say "why do we shoot 3's!", ignoring the games we obviously must shoot them well to be average.
Morey brought in Lawson. Morey is completely pathetic. But Les is blind. Hence, no hope for the fans. This team has a real shot at the top pick in 2017, if Morey doesn't trade it away. This is a VERY BAD basketball team.
I'm not defending those particular players. My point is we need shooting on this team. We rely heavily on 3-pointers as part of our offense. Yet it seems like every year, we have almost no guys who can be counted on to knock down open 3-pointers(never mind contested ones). Not only that, but we have no playmakers outside of Harden either. I realize Lawson was supposed to fill that role, but even had he worked out, he was never a very good shooter so he wouldn't have helped us in that area. Morey's had years to deal with this weakness, and it seems like he's only managed to make things worse. I'm willing to give him one more offseason to right the ship, especially if he and Les get their heads out of their asses on the issue of coaching. But it's put up or shut up time.
Me personally, I feel we're a terrible 3 point shooting team because of how many of our attempts are wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide open. Clank Brick Nothing but backboard Airball Clank clank clank That's usually what happens when Ariza shoots. That's only when he's wide open. That's not even taking into account when he does his dribble pull up over defenders or fadeaways for no reason.
shooting 3's isn't based on having good shooters or bad shooters or anything. it's literally just a "don't shoot mid-range 2's and instead shoot 3's because they're much more valuable", which is what virtually every team in the league is trying to do these days. everyone thinks we have no talent, no shooters, turn it over too much, shoot too many 3's. and yet you check the offensive rankings, and we're 8th. if everyone believes the former statement, then how do you explain the latter? maybe taking a ton of 3's instead of watching trevor ariza shoot 18 footers is a good strategy whether ariza is a great shooter or a bad shooter because it is just a more valuable shot? getting a bunch of shooters to take 3's at the expense of defense/rebounding/whatever else isn't the point. all else being equal, you should obviously try to get good shooters no matter what your strategy is. and you should obviously take 3's instead of mid-range 2's no matter who your shooters are.
certainly these 2 games have been terrible on open 3's, but that's my point. people say this every time we don't hit our 3's, ignoring when we do. it seems highly unlikely that the rockets take the 2nd most 3's in the league and also get the most open looks in the league even with every defense knowing we're trying to get 3's and even though we basically only have 1 person (harden) who can really create those looks. just based on the eye-ball test i would say we take a higher-than-average percent of contested 3's because that's the only way we could get that many up. and a contested ariza 3 is still better than him getting run off the 3 point line and trying to hit an off-the-dribble mid-range 2.
How many 3's do the Hawks attempt though? We shoot more than any team other than the Warriors. So when we're a below average 3-point shooting team, yet we throw up more than almost anyone else, that's not a very efficient offensive gameplan. And it's only made worse by the fact that missed 3-pointers result in long rebounds and we have one of the worst transition defenses in the league.
this is the first time in 8 years that we weren't in the top half of the league in 3 point shooting. considering you should probably expect at least a little drop in 3pt% for every incremental 3 you take, that would seem to indicate we have had decent shooters.
I think we were something like 19th in percentage. Yet 2nd in 3-point attempts. I'm sorry, but that's not an efficient offense. If you don't have the shooters, run something else.
the rockets shoot 30.9 3's per game. the hawks 28.4. the mavs 28.5. a difference, but not an enormous difference. the hawks shoot 35.0%, the rockets 34.7%, and the mavs actually worse at 34.4%. but no one calls rick carlisle an idiot or says the mavs should try to get some shooters before they launch 28+ a game. why isn't it? we finished 8th in offensive efficiency. despite the fact most people think we no shooters, no system, no one who takes care of the ball, and only have 1 creator. shooting 3's at a very slight percentage below the league average while taking a ton of them is much better than replacing those 3's with long 2's. it's not like we can replace them with more rim shots because already are in the top 5 on those. no one on the rockets shoot's their 16+ foot 2's more than 50% better than they shoot 3's, which is what it takes to make 3's a bad proposition.
Also, shooting in general tends to be streaky. Average shooters may end the season at the NBA average, but normally they will have weeks of making a ton of shots and weeks of making a few. Above average shooters tend to have few "cold streaks" and longer "hot streaks". So, you always are taking a chance, but why not improve your odds with better shooters. Given, we are not saying that EVERY player needs to be shooting near great than 37% from 3 point land, but you need more than 2 and preferable at least someone near 40%.
we were 8th in offensive efficiency. out of 30 teams. i don't see why people think that is an inefficient offense. i realize this season was a disaster, but we had an efficient offense. how many people on this board would say we have the 8th best offensive talent in the league? and yet we ended up 8th in efficiency. is it just impossible that focusing on 3's (which virtually every other team in the league is doing) helped our offense because otherwise we would just be taking long 2's? saying that we're not very good at shooting and then recommending that we take a bunch of inefficient mid-range 2's so that our really inefficient yet highly ranked in efficinecy offense will finally be good doesn't make much sense to me.
r u kidding me, terry is like 40 years old and has been at best average 3 point shooter this season. dude is an old, slow and undersized SG who can't defend nor pass.. and this guy is playing like 25 mins for us? that's how bad our roster is, and def most of that blame fall on Morey
Sorry, I was responding to your comment about needing someone who is shooter. Sorry you don't like the answer....
This. We are also 7th in points in the paint and 8th in free throws made. Our defense and effort is where this team fell off.
You should really blow their minds and let them know that Houston shot more 3 pointers last year than they did this year and shot them at almost the identical percentage. I don't recall this much b****ing about it last year ... why?
