Mathamatical breakdown of why Kobe's 31 points on 25 shots last night was not efficient

Kobe and non-efficient go together like peanut butter and jelly. A detailed breakdown is not necessary.

 

TS% is the most misleading stat. People on this site like it because they can use it to make their case that Harden is the third best player in the league behind Lebron and Durant. I personally don't like it because it favors players that shoot a lot of three pointers, shoot a lot of free throws, or dunk a lot.

And it's not player efficiency...that would be the PER which I think is a much better measure of a players value because it accounts for rebounds, assists, steals, turnovers, etc.... TS% is true shooting percentage which puts weights on numbers of shot attempts, but if you got a guy that shoots a high percentage from the free throw line and takes like 15 to 20 free throws a game, he can go 5-17 from the field and still register a high TS%. I don't like it because players like Harden and Westbrook go barelling into the key looking for someone to run into and then jump laterally into them to draw the foul. I've said it many times, but the NBA rules committee needs to update their rules on those particular 50/50 plays and make them no call if it's the offensive player intentionally jumping laterally into defenders trying to get out of the way. Like the Reggie Miller rule where he would kick out his legs on three point shots hoping that the defender would get called for the foul. A guy with a high TS% due to a large number of free throws they shoot may also disappear a bit in the playoffs because the refs don't tend to call as many 50/50 fouls in the playoffs.

And as much as Morey hates mid-range jumpshots, he will find that guys like Kobe and Jordan lived off mid-range jumpshots and have a combined 11 championships between them. So there must be something to it. Oh, I forgot, Shaq and Gasol carried Kobe to his rings. But MJ has 6.

I like to compare a true shooting percentage to the on base percentage in baseball. A player like Frank Thomas would always have a very high on base percentage because he had a good eye and only swung at good pitches. But because he is the best hitter on the team, I would much prefer he swing at some bad pitches as well because I'd much rather have his bat than someone else on the team. So that said, for players that are super high in their shooting percentages, I would rather they take more tough shots because, lets face it, I'd much rather Kobe take a tough shot than Ronnie Price taking a wide open shot.

 

His point is that if Harden was running the offence, then it might work properly, and they'd be competitive, so Kobe wouldn't get as many shots.

But because Lin is crap, and can't do anything, coach tells him to just give it to Kobe, because a bad shot is better than a TO.

 

You don't need 'math' to figure out that was inefficient.

 

Maybe due to the fact that one has absolutely nothing to do with the other. Just saying...

 

Kobe's efficiency doesn't really shift regardless of whatever is around him because he basically still plays the same game, which has its advantages and disadvantages.

Kobe needs more spacing said no one ever, he basically operates in a 4x4 square.

 

Which is exactly what he wants/needs to continue to try to break "career total" records through sheer longevity and volume.

The minute D12 said "see ya" to LA, Kobe knew the door on matching MJ's ring total had slammed shut so he, not so reluctantly I would wager, went to plan B: Keep on Chuckin'

 

i don't think one needs the maths to figure that one out.
nothing about the lakers screams efficient, except for losing.

 

If there was ever a time where you did not have to criticize for Kobe for attempting a high volume of shots, this would be it.

Other than Kobe, this Lakers team has absolutely no one. It is really a trash of a team.

No system or coach can save you if you do not have NBA caliber players on your roster to begin with.

This team with the current roster will lose miserably this season, whether Kobe is averaging 5 PPG, 25 PPG, or even 50 PPG.

 

This may shock some people but shooting efficiency isn't the only measure of offensive impact. As has been mentioned Kobe has rarely had exceptional shooting efficiency yet has had an amazingly successful career.

He has an array of moves that give him space to get his shot off without actually getting by his man or really any motion from the rest of the offense. It's a very 90s style of play but it is particularly effective in the playoffs when refs swallow their whistles and defenses put the clamps on basic screen and rolls. Unfortunately, for him, he may never make the playoffs again.

 

Then I guess he didn't get my point.

 

He was going to gun regardless, but there is never a reason to keep taking contested shots with 2 and 3 people on you.

 

He is the third best offensive player in the nba, obviously it's not about defense

Despite its name PER is not an efficiency stat, what really does steals have to do with efficiency? so if you gamble all the time, that's efficient to you? PER says it is....If you box 2 people out so another team mate gets the rebound, that's the team mate being efficient? really? A stat that increases based upon sheer volume is efficiency to you?

The goal is to score points, TS tells you how well you score points when you attempt to do so, in other words, how efficient you are at scoring when you attempt to score, it's not exactly rocket science

That's nice that you don't like it, but what you're suggesting is implausible to police, the rules are much simpler, the defender needs to be in a legal defensive position. What Harden actually draws most of his fouls on though is lowering the ball when he knows they're going to swipe at the ball and swiping his arm instead, would you like that to not be a foul too?

So you bait some guy into biting on a pump fake, jump into him and that's not a foul? you can go watch street ball if you like.

Also the refs don't call less fouls in the playoffs, they usually call more, but players jump shots will wax and wane like any small stretch of games (Dirk shot 8% from 3 over 7 games, seem legit to call that a choke to you? or just bad shooting for a few games). You certainly seem to have an idealized view of Kobe that typically includes not even listening to Kobe though.

He doesn't hate the mid range, he feels that very few people are good enough at shooting them (they'll go from 36% at 3 to 42% at 2, in that situation taking a 2 is a bad decision), and that only the people who are really good at them should be taking them. It's a bad shot for most players and if you don't like bad shots, you're probably Byron Scott.

Also he believes that stars should play the game the way they want to (thats how you maximize them) and it's the teams responsibility to get other pieces around them, take the Spurs for example, Parker and Duncan are stars, they shoot mid range 2's because that's what works for them, basically everyone else on their team only shoots mid range when a defender bites on a 3 and leaves them wide open on a one dribble pull up 2. Morey didn't tell Harden to be that player, he has always been that player, at OKC, in College, that's just the game he plays.

Harden doesn't protect his percentages, he hurls those buzzer shots, he does the 2 for 1, which we know drops the percentage but increases the team percentage by doubling opportunities, he takes the hard shots, people even accuse him of being a chucker because he takes those bad shots, he can certainly be streaky for extended periods (heck he went a whole month last season shooting 28% from 3 and a different month shooting 50%, that's just the type of shooter he is), now if you wanted to accuse Durant of that (especially in his 50/40/90 season lol), then sure.

 

His team's doing nothing this year and he has scoring records to break. He be gunnin' all year, team be damned.

Kobe is truly old school, like that period in the 1970's before Magic and Bird brought back passing.

 

That's not how you calculate TS%

The formula is

TS%=PTS/((2xFGA)+(0.88xFTA))x100%

This formula factors in 3 pointers and free throws for an overall picture of a player's shooting efficiency.

In Kobe's case, his TS% was 55.2%, which is better than league average, and almost the same as his career average.

 

thats kobes game, why is kobe so damn inefficient compared to other goats, cuz he shoots in the face of triple team and dont let go the ball, its both his strength and weakness, given hes won 5 u cant argue with his style even if his team this season is bot 5 in league

 

it depends on your idea of efficiency and how u normalize given data set, my proposal is adjusting to team/opponent ts, also do a regression to find out extent of correlation

 

Absolutely disagree. If a player is shooting 20 free throws and shooting well from the foul line his overall shooting percentage should reflect that. Free throws are a part of the game and a player who gets to the line that much is very valuable.