It's been a common criticism of T-Mac that he tends to take off-balance shots off the dribble. In fact, he himself kept expressing the desire aginast Utah in the playoffs for a purer point guard so he could play/shoot off the ball. I'm wondering: does any website or magazine track shooting percentages by differentiating between shots off the dribble and set shots taken directly after a pass? I'd be really interested to see how T-Mac shoots off the pass as opposed to off the dribble.
My reasoning may sound ridiculous but NBA 2k8 (the video game) has separate attribute ratings assigned to players for shooting off the dribble. So I actually think that stat does exist somewhere. To me its just a judgment call though, whether a player shots well of the dribble or set. McGrady simply needs to quit taking bad shots (when pigs fly).
I don't think you could find any superstar guard that doesn't shoot better off an assist than off the dribble. McGrady's highest percentage jumper has always been when he catches a pass coming off a screen. Another thing that most people aren't familiar with is -- T-Mac is actually one of the most accurate shooters in the league when it comes to long jumpers (inside the arc), probably second only to Rip Hamilton. And I'm pretty sure the majority come off screens, not off the dribble on an iso.
Of course, it's tough to tell what truly constitutes a "bad" shot for T-Mac, since he's so much more gifted a scorer than anyone else we have, excepting Yao. A "bad" shot for T-Mac is probably almost equal to a "good" shot for most of our other players, in the same way that Hakeem shooting through triple teams was about as good as someone else taking an open long jumper.
Synergy Sports provided that information a couple seasons ago, but now they keep all that in-house. I know the Rockets track all that stuff in detail. Maybe you can call in on one of those radio shows when Morey is there and ask him.
That's definitely true in general, though I assume the differential between shooting off the dribble and shooting off the pass is very different between players , which is why I'm so interested in knowing.
Maybe it'd be a good question to throw out there next time Clutch is on the air. Maybe he could get an answer.
i dont know if this is significant but aaron brooks seems to shoot better after running around a bit, from one side of the court to the other or moving through screens, than he does just from getting a kick out 3. in this game i think he missed 3 wide open 3 pointers, then in the 2nd half came out and hit a 3 after running around in a big circle. he's hit that 3 in prior games too when he wasn't able to hit the standstill 3.
I noticed that as well. It's damn frustrating. Last year, John Lucas struggled shooting the 3 even though he was known to be a very good shooter. Same thing is happening this year with Aaron Brooks. There's no way in hell that a shooter like that should be shooting under 30% from 3.
