Morey on 610: Avoiding long 2s a bit overplayed, mid-range shots can be efficient

Morey has to say that....he wants to bait his the rockets opponents in taking long 2s. Morey is a genius.

 

I think morey is saying the obvious - you aren't trying to avoid mid-range shots, you are simply trying to take the best available shot - and if a mid-range jumper that's uncontested is available for the taking - that's an efficient shot.

 

I think when a 3 pt shot is taken it should be made at a high efficiency. Same thing with 2 pt shots. By my calculations if a team makes more of their 3 pt shots as well as their 2 pt shots than what they miss for each within a game, the probability of the team winning is good. I have also found that if team A scores more points than team B it is almost a 100% chance that team A will win the game.

Very interesting stuff! Food for thought.

 

so players besides Harden are allowed to practice them?

 

Twos and post game, Morey doesn't know them.

 

A layup is extremely inefficient when it is blocked.

 

For comparison sake, can you do 1 of Kobe, Wade and Manu as well? Argubly the best 3 SGs of the modern era. Would have love to have Jordan and Drexler, but 3p shooting is not a major suit in that era.

 

Yup. And this is backed up by actual Rockets play. If you look at the type of mid-range shots the Rockets took, most of them came when players were running in from the 3pt line past recovering defenders. Or coming off screens. Very few, and basically none from players other than Patterson, came from actually spotting up from 18 feet.

Most of these came from Harden, Parsons, Delfino, and Lin. Rockets also designed many end-game plays where Harden came off the pick to shoot a mid-range shot. And if Lin's play last season was more due to injuries, then he should also be great in this regards. Since during Linsanity he was money from mid-range.

But this doesn't change the fact that if given a choice, Morey would want his spot-up shooters behind the arc than near the FT line(JHo brick range).

 

Well, the Rockets can't pick up Kobe, Wade, Manu in their primes. So what's your point?

Yes. If the Rockets can have 5 superstars on their team, then I'm sure jtr can agree that Morey can just take a vacation and let superstars shoot any kind of shot they want.

 

Didn't Morey say if there was a team of 5 LBJs it would be the best in the league?

 

Morey currently employs none of those players. If a player cannot create his own shot (and if you are horrible at penetration you probably cannot create your own shot - the skills to do so almost completely overlap) then he has to take assisted shots. But then he has to be open ... which rarely happens on two point shots.

I truly need to write an article on Thib's defensive philosophy. It would explain why open three point shots are are much easier obtained than open two point shots.

 

What are you doing wasting this invaluable insight at CF, when the team needs you?!

http://nbateamjobs.teamworkonline.com/teamwork/jobs/jobskey.cfm?s=rockets

 

i think it's just Morey's way of telling off those who think in the extreme.

even if the team mindset, strategies, and plays are geared towards 3s and layups, of course if an opportunity for a wide open midrange shot is there for a good shooter, then he takes it. "avoiding" is kind of extreme and is counterintuitive.

there are types of shots which are prioritized in the system they are in, and most likely midrange shots are prioritized less, but NOT avoided.

 

Morey is absolutely right

Mid range shots can be efficient

It is super efficient when you have Larry Bird popping those in all day

 

I don't understand this board's fetish with having this argument over and over again. Most people who have bothered to understand the strategy know what it means. It's the same five guys who refuse to read past their own ignorance who think that it means you never take a long 2 or you never design plays to get them. They literally think that the strategy creates this black hole where Rockets players are never allowed to shoot. Which is blatantly not true. But, no amount of reiterating the same points over and over again will get those people to listen.

Last time we had the thread go to 20+ pages, and one guy wrote a lengthy diatribe about how the long 2 was efficient because of his genius insight that you have to take the percentage the shot will go in and multiply it by the value of the shot to get the "real value", and the long 2 was totally more valuable than the 3 when you did that.

 

Cause I believe a midrange game is important for a good SG, and was hoping Kobe, wade and manu stats will back it up, and since I have no idea how to get the stats, I asked him. And IMHO, if Harden can add a midrange game, he be even more efficient in attacking the rim, as they have to respect the pull up jumper along with his drives to the rim.

 

Yup, long/mid-range 2's are only good when you're wide open or occasionally when you're forced to create your own shot because the clock is about to run out.

They're r****ded to take while contested in the middle of the shot clock unless you are a truly elite talent at making them, like Kobe or Dirk in their prime years.

P.S. LaMarcus Aldridge is not elite at making long range 2's and should not be taking nearly as many two-point jumpers as he does. He's a one-trick pony and his trick isn't good enough to cut it.

 

It's not about the stats, it's about common sense. 3s give you more bang for the shot, shots at the rim can generate foul shots in case they miss. NBA defense is so handicapped nowadays if you keep moving your team will find a hole to attack. Having your team move around to generate an open 3 or a shot at the rim is a lot better than taking an open mid range shot.

 

What I noticed is layups and 3's are usually defended very well in 4th quarter or clutch time.

Teams are so focused and phisical in those periods that you pretty much have to rely on the mid range shots more often than not.

Also in the last decade, 3's and layups strategy is consistently trending up to a point most teams are going to utilize it and defend it much better in the future.

 

The thing is you can't just park everyone behind the 3 point line and run a drive and kick offense. It won't work in the playoffs. You need guys who have a mid-range game. It's simply part of basketball, and I don't get why some people want to take it out.