So NBA.com has this feature called Hotspots, where you can look up how a well a team or player is shooting from a certain spot on the floor. For whatever reason they don't let you look at this year's numbers, however some guy managed to 'crack' their database a few years ago, which enables us to looks at this year's numbers: As a team: For comparison: Lakers, Spurs, Heat, Celtics, Bulls As you can see we shoot (way) more threes than any of those teams. Our shot distribution is most similar to the Lakers. We're similar to the Lakers, Spurs and in Heat in terms of shot location accuracy. It would seem that if you can clog down the paint against the Bulls, you'd have a decent chance of beating them, though that's probably a lot easier said than done. Rockets players: Spoiler Seems like Patterson prefers the right side, but overall his shooting is unreal. Scola's midrange game is pretty solid. Miller has shot the ball well from the outside, but his inside numbers leave a lot to be desired. Chuck is Chuck and Hill, well, he's Hill. Inconsistent. I wouldn't put too much into Budinger's numbers, since he started the season off really slow, but none of our guards/wings actually seems to have a very efficient mid-range game. Might be a spacing issue, with our bigs usually occupying the elbow area, though it's most likely more of a lost art thing. Overall probably nothing shocking or surprising, but I thought I'd share anyway.
As I would suspect, Patrick Patterson is an absolute beast from mid-range. He is also easily the best at finishing at the rim.
I think that a shot there is strongly contested. Your not taking it in and your not far away from the center to get an uncontested shot. Just a guess.
Because the mid range game is a lost art in the NBA now. Most players either want to dunk or shoot the 3. All about the dramatic play. Watch most young guys play today. It's either and 3ball or a shake and bake cross-over to try and drive in and dunk or shoot a layup. No in between game. Very few young guys work on that.
There's a reason for that. Long 2s are the worst shot to take in the league, and then anything closer usually won't be your normal shot unless the play was run specifically for you or if the shot is contested. What I mean by that is that If you beat your man in the 5-15 ft range, you'll usually be going into space where there is another defender. Simplest example of this is if you beat your man going to the rim. Now you've eliminated your first on ball defender but you have to deal with the big man who will be rotating over to you. If you go in for the layup, you'll have to deal with the big, and if you slow down to pull up you give your original defender time to recover. This situation is pretty much the reason the floater was invented as a shot, but there aren't that many players that have a consistent floater. I would guess that for most players it will almost always be a more efficient move to pass the ball or to go in for the layup/dunk anyway. In the end it doesn't really matter as long as you have shots that your team can get and they are good at those shots. I don't really see it as a weakness of the team that the guards and wings are bad in the 5-15 ft range because the team offense is good enough to not be forced into those shots (obviously, as the rockets have one of the best offenses in the league). I mean, Chris Bosh is a lot better on the right side of the court and as a result that's where he has all of his plays now. It's not really a weakness because you can't really force him to shoot from the right side of the court.
The dunk and the 3 are also the statistically most efficient shot. So, it's quite reasonable for a player and a team to take more of these than the mid-range shots. Even a great mid-range shooter like Dirk only hits a little over 50% of those mid/long 2 pointers in the long run. We know people hit at a much better rate around the basket (and draws more fouls, too). The value of the typical 3 pt shot, too, at least eaqual to of a midrange 2 shot be even a great shooter (league average on 3s = 36%, which translate to roughly 54% for 2s, and that's not accounting for the value of offensive rebounds).
Lowry is a weird animal, he projected to have a solid midrange game earlier in his career, I guess next season is a chance to get back on that track and complete his portfolio. Patrick needs more shots, I'm sorry for Scola but Patterson should be stapled as next years' starter.
Its because the game is no longer physical toward penetrators...Why pull up from 15 ft when you can waltz the paint and get a foul(Kmart) or dunk on a weak center (everyone except Howard,Shaq)...Theres no fear in the paint anymore
LOL the Chuckwagon makes a living in the paint and only 1 attempted 3. I thought his jumpshot was coming along.
wow, thanks for the link on getting current year data. scola really is killing it on long 2's this year. i haven't added up this year's, but i remember looking up mcdyess/bosh/ilgauskas/kurt thomas for last year and all of their long 2's percentages came in between 44% and 46%. and those are some of the best mid-range shooting big men in the game. so for scola to be at 48.3% this year is amazing. also just looked up some of the bigger name players. kobe appears to have fallen off quite a bit on long 2's compared to a few years ago but he has some of the best short 2's percentages of anyone. and lebron should apparently never shoot from the right side of the court. he seems to be about 15% better on long 2's and on 3's from the left side versus the right side. i wonder if the heat know about that and if there's any way to change somthing like that without being conscious of that change and having it affect you.
