FVV is 37% from 3 in his career, that is league average at best. Dillon is career 34.9% from 3....that is below average..... Dillon has outshot himself earlier in the season that is why his regression to the mean has hurt this team so much...because the team was a poor shooting team to begin with.
I’m using this year’s numbers because the ranking is for this year. And the 3pt average for the the league is usually around 34-35%. I’m not advocating for or against anything, just trying to give perspective.
https://www.espn.com/nba/stats/player/_/table/offensive/sort/threePointFieldGoalPct/dir/desc In this one the number of overall players estimated are about 164-170 players......who have been qualified and shot a decent amount of shots. (so the average is around 85th player) Miles Bridges and he has been shooting 37.7% on the season. Brooks is shooting over that, due to him shooting 60% in his first 20 games.
https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_stats_per_game.html The actual number is 36% this year, and generally 35-36%, so I was off a point. But they are both above average this year. Shooting 40% from three is the same as 60% from two. They would both need to be shooting 55-60% from two for a 3 to be a bad shot. They aren’t, so shooting more 3s is the right play for them. It drags their overall FG% down, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing. You need them taking those shots and drawing defenders out away from their most efficient scorer in the paint. There is a reason that this team has improved quite a bit since adding two players that appear on that list.
He is talking about league average. You are talking about players over a certain usage. Of course yours is higher because players who shoot better take more 3s. I think that’s the more relevant comparison but you guys are talking about different stats.
Probably, the main thing is that both Dillon and FVV were never considered good 3 point shooters by any teams before this season..... They were signed because they did other things well. Both shoot pretty high volume but are not capable high volume scorers. Someone like FVV also shoots a number of long 2s.....to the detriment of his team.
yes, the key thing is most teams has one or two 40% + 3 pt shooters. We don’t have even a 38% shooter.
I’m starting to get the feeling that Udoka’s style is to be very controlling on defense in exchange for giving players freedom on offense to decide good shots. A way of giving them a reward for their defensive buy in. This is a pretty common strategy but I’m not sure it works when 6 players in your rotation are 22 or younger. Probably works better with the veteran teams Udoka is used to. Udoka has to be more vigilant on demanding players cut out certain shots and benching starters if they don’t play along. Also he has to do something about the fact that we take: a high proportion of the least efficient shot in midrange jumpers (despite having 0 players making them above league average) and one of the fewest corner 3’s and transition points in the NBA (two of the highest efficiency shots in the NBA). These are fundamental parts of an NBA offense. This team takes as many stupid shots as we did under Silas, we just happen to have 2 wiser starters were brought in. He doesn’t have great mid range and 3pt shooters. He has very good corner shooters and athletic players. Something’s got to change. He can’t pin this whole season on his players when these problems were obvious 30 games ago and there are 28 games remaining. I also happen to think this team is not over being thrown in an article semi-saying no one is untouchable but the only person they really wanted to market was Jalen. That was so dumb. You go all out for your coach and with a few injuries he throws you all under the bus as though you’re not trying. Of course they would stop buying in as much if that’s how they feel. Speculation on my part but I have a very strong feeling about it.
I was surprised to see it that high, but that’s the way the league has gone. I don’t like seeing 4 of our starters in the top 7 of that list, but I just wanted to add little perspective as to why it’s not a reason to burn the whole thing down. Those poor shooting percentages have actually made us a better team. FVV and Brooks have done what I expected. We get enough other things from them that it’s not that concerning to me. Jabari and Jalen on the other hand…
There is no Duncan.... there is no Parker and there is no Gino on this team. The Rockets have some good pieces but those good pieces are not able to break down defenses and cause mismatches outside of Sengun when he is playing well. The best players the Rockets have at creating separation are rookies - Amen Thompson (who cannot shoot) and Cam Whitmore (who has blinders). Their best passer and ball handler is FVV, who can protect the ball and run an offense - but also cannot break down anyone at his size, and is surrounded by guys that cannot shoot. The glue was going to be Green, who can break down defenders, and has improved as a passer - but he struggles making decisions and shooting outside. So it is a mess of parts that do not fit at this point. I remember Bob Myers make a comment in passing during the off season that he didn't think that the Rockets or Pistons had built a balanced roster of young players that would fit together like a puzzle. Think about it - the Rockets are rolling out a power forward (Sengun) to play center. Jabari Smith is a good defender in some matchups, but he gets pushed around at the 4 because of his lack of lower body strength. Brooks is really a bench player of a great team - but he is playing as an undersized 3 and has physical limitations. Jalen Green is the shooting guard - but he cannot shoot, and he doesn't make good decisions. Fred can protect the ball and is a smart veteran, but he cannot break anyone down, is small and a lot of his passing goes to waste because there are so few shooters. Amen is playing a lot now - and playing very well for a rookie - he can cover 4 positions defensively, he is a great finisher and rebounder and solid passer - but his ability to create is hurt because he shoots 15% from 3 and can hit open mid range shots sometimes, but isn't confident enough to do it often. Whitmore at this point is just a bull with blinders that comes in, hits some tough perimeter shots - causes havoc in transition until the other team calms the pace and exploits his defense or lack of court vision. There is no franchise player that can score 30 a night - which would allow the rest of the guys to focus on defense......... we don't even know who the best player on the court will be from game to game.
And above all, we lack shooters that shoot a decent percentage against good teams as well. Right when we wanted to make a push but obviously the FO is nonchalant about a Play In push......lol so.
The Celtics were .500% the year before Udoka was there. This group of Celtics has been around a number of years now - and Udoka has gotten them the farthest in his one season. The year after Udoka left - the Celtics were clearly not as good under Mazulla - the defense just did not make stops and a lot of reporters covering the team said the players in private would admit that they missed Udoka. Now - in fairness to Mazulla, he took over a team that was not built for his style of play and Brad Stevens went out and got the players that fit Mazulla's style of play and the Celtics may end up being as good - or better than the Udoka Celtics. Also - Mazzula wasn't dicking down the females around the team like Udoka was.
The year before Udoka Kemba Walker and Tristan Thompson were playing big minutes. The year after Udoka "left" the team only slipped to 5th in def rating after leading the league with Udoka. How hard would it really be to coach the Celtics with Tatum and Brown? You could have installed Stephen Silas as coach of the Celtics and they would still be frontrunners. Udoka might be ready to slide into Gretchen Sheirr just to get away from this mess.
Yes and no - basically every team now does this.... it works when you have an engine like Harden, Curry, Haliburton or Doncic running the offense. He calls it out when players make poor decisions on whether to shoot or pass - and he makes them work on it in practice. The two big culprits have been Green and Cam. Could or should Udoka come down even harder and bench players that are 19-22 years old? Maybe, I don't know. He points it out to the players and also in post game statements. Again - where and when do you draw the line? I don't know. I tend to give Udoka more rope because he isn't a push over and has a strong reputation with helping younger players. The roster balance sucks - and that really isn't Udoka's fault, that is the front offices fault. He doesn't have an NBA caliber center on his roster. He lacks a real creator - shooters, etc. I think we will see him mix it up some - but they really aren't that good at this point. The effort clearly hasn't been there - some of that is because they just could not play as hard as they were for a full season. Some of that is injuries and some of it is that the foucus lacks sometimes. I actually think Udoka has been restrained in what he has said - I see lots of mistakes being made that show a lack of poise or effort with a few players and I think the fact it isn't always consistently a lack of effort that he gives them a little more slack.
I don't know if being harder on two Youngsters than vets is the way to go I guess its because we expected more from the youngsters Rocket River
People think the fact that Amen can't shoot is a problem. Not really when we have guys capable of shooting and we spend half the time with the ball on the hands of a guy that the other team desperately wants to put a shot up. And he does. And he misses. Amen wouldn't take the shot to begin with. If you don't play Jalen it would force Ime to give Jabari more shots. The answer is literally right there.
What is our offense? Earlier in the year it was heavy Sengun FVV action. Now we just dribble around lost and create zero driving lanes or penetration.
Great notes but there’s no point Udoka calling things out if he’s not going to enforce them. What’s the consequence of ignoring him? The message he’s sending to the team is: nothing will happen if you ignore me. That deflates everything he does. That’s not a meritocracy. More likely Stone is forcing him to start Jalen. In which case I believe Udoka is being stubborn about changing anything to favor Jalen. Might be a toxic stubbornness going on between them. Have you heard anything to that effect or is this just Udoka being patient with the same results for 50+ games?
