It's true for players who take the time to learn how to shoot mid-range. It's not a far stretch. Even in youth ball, coaches teach players to shoot closer to the basket because kids lack the strength early on to hoist 3s with any kind of accuracy. Most of them don't forget that skill until they get to the NBA and coaches tell them to either launch 3s or go for rim pressure if they're capable of it.
But there are just so few guys capable of being efficient from that range, that’s the issue. A 44% mid range shot is horrendous offense, only 0.88 pts.
It's called talent plus basketball IQ and coachability. A dumb talented player can be a coachable hard workers, it's just going to take them longer. A smart talented player who's coachable is going to pick up complex concepts quickly. Amen, Reed, and Sengun are all smart, talented, and coachable, and that's why the Rockets are doing well.
I think we'll see a shift to more players utilizing that shot, since it's so hard to guard and it perfectly hits the weakest area of almost any modern NBA defense. Teams sell out to stop the 3 and sell out to stop drives, but none of them sell out to stop the middie. Players who develop this shot will find roles.
People dont stop the middie cuz its the worst shot in basketball, the more middies you take the better for the opponent. If all your team does is middies you will lose. There are some players like KD or Kawhi who are amazing at mid range but those are in the select minority. Overwhelming majority of mid range players are not even efficient enough to be taking mid range shots like Melo or Rudy Gay. Developing the mid range isnt as easy as developing your 3, Melo has been known as the poster child of Midrange shooters and he only has career TS of 54%. This shows how hard it is to be an effective mid range shooter even the poster child of Mid range sucks at it.
I don't think you have to be an amazing mid range shooter just like you don't have to be an amazing three point shooter... The threat of shooting the mid range is the key there because it means the defender has to gamble. He can't just close out and contest the three because you could fake it and get an open mid range shot or he can't just sink into the paint. I think the mid range shot is therefore crucial for Amen because it then brings guys closer to him to drive by and if they are playing in the paint, so far off of him that he can just take two dribbles and pull up and make them pay... It just makes defenders more honest. You don't have to go and take it all game long but you do need the threat that hey, I could pull up for this floater or midrange too.
Have you see Jalen's mid range %? Thats like telling Shaq to keep shooting 3s. Jalen's biggest issues are his low bball IQ and low "feel" for the game. His bball instincts tell him to do the wrong thing like he feels he can make that step back 3 and he clanks it leading to the fastbreak for the opponent. Or he thinks he can drive it inside instead he has it stripped. You cant have those mistakes when you are counted on to be the main man but as a sidekick to Booker I think Jalen will thrive like he did his first game.
As for Reed lapping Jalen, if he keeps this up the entire year then I dont think there is any argument lol. Reed is shooting at an ungodly clip 6 3s at 45.5% and at 63% TS overall. Thats already super star territory.
This is exactly why the team is successful, whoever joins the team rises to the next level with these players.
I liked morey, but i always said an elite offense can get buckets from anywhere. And analytics goes out the door when teams know you won’t take midrange. Your analytics are based off teams taking a variety of shots.
The issue is that you have to hit 50% of your midrange shots to be the equivalent of a 33% 3 point shooter and there's not many 50% midrange shooters. If you're a 40% shooter from midrange, they'll just let you shoot because you're hurting your team by doing so. The Rockets have 3 guys who shoot the midrange well enough to justify it, KD, Jabari, and Reed. If Amen developers that shot.... or any shot really, it would be amazing, but he's not there yet
This. The midrange is not an efficient shot. But you have to be able to do it fairly competently in order to keep the defense honest. The biggest flaw of the logic that because it's inefficient therefore you should seldom take it is that if the defense knows you aren't likely to have it in your play book, they can leave a large area of the court unguarded. You are taking away a lot of space for yourself to attack. I see the midrange like the running plays in football. It's inefficient and you should pass most of the times. But you have to have your running plays fairly effective to keep the defense honest and surprise your opponent here and there when they think you are going to pass.
This is funny. Booker by himself was a better backcourt than Jalen and FVV. Adding Jalen to Booker just makes it worse,
People mistake having a mid-range game in your back pocket vs. being the offense you run. Not even KD just go down the court and pull up from mid-range and he's the master of that shot. The power of having mid-range shot is that when your half court set bogs down and can't create a more efficient shot, this is an option to fall back on. This is what lacked when the Rockets didn't have CP3 and had to resort to 3s against the Warriors that led to 0-27. It wasn't that 3s are bad, but rather when you lack a star that keeps the defense honest, they can just smother your role players to prevent them from getting good 3pt shots. Reed being able to pull up from mid-range is unlocking his game because defenses can't just play him to shoot 3s. Reed's still not a fully formed offensive player because he's lacking at the rim. Curry for all the talk of 3s was quite good once he drives into the defense and could finish around the basket quite well. Stars has to operate at every level of the court and it's the 3-level scoring threat that works off of each other to make these players unguardable. Asking Reed or the Rockets to just focus on mid-range shot is stupid because no offense works when defenses can just defend a certain area of the floor.
