But 3pt shooting is impacted by other things, like offensive execution and the opponent's defense, that can offset the depth perception problem.
As you do not "pick and choose", I wonder why you didn't mention that the rest of the Rockets (not T-Mac) have also shot worse from the free throw line at home each of the last 4 seasons. Or that McGrady isn't the only player to have observed the difficulties in shooting in the Toyota Center. Maybe it's a coicidence, and this is a purely a T-Mac issue. Your free to have such an opinion. I tend to think it's a little of both -- Toyota Center is more difficult to shoot in (T-Mac isn't the only Rocket to make this observation), and McGrady just tends to be more comfortable shooting on the road. BTW, that McGrady hasn't yet gotten used to the building is his responsibility, but it is a separate issue. That doesn't change the obvious -- the way an environment is designed will impact players differently. If I had a big time slugger on my baseball team, all else being equal, I'd rather have a smaller field at home. Same idea.
it's not the TC. it's at home, yao and the rest of the team plays better overall. therefore, tmac sets them up more and he rarely gets into a rhythm. tmac knows that. when he's on the road, he's MUCH MORE aggressive. it's all about how he approaches the game. at home games, he looks to get his teammates involved. on the road, he looks to score. he can shoot well here. his best games in the playoffs as a rocket have been AT HOME. last yr v. utah, all of his best playoff games were AT HOME. all of his sucky games were in utah. it depends on the mentality of tmac. but in the playoffs, ALL OF THE SEATS ARE FILLED. most reg. season games, the TC is like a JV game at my local high school
We're talking specifically about shooting, best guaged by FT%. And the rest of the Rockets have not shot free throws better at home in each of the last 4 seasons. Edit: My mistake .. they rest of the Rockets (not McGrady) did shoot a little better from the line at home in the 05/06 season. In 04/05, 06/07, and so far this year, they have collectively shot much worse.
No, I don't. I don't have opinion one why or the other, the burden of prove the hypothesis is not on me. Vola, that's the idea of hypothesis test. You don't address all my questions either. And yes, environment, crowd, are different issues from depth perception. BTW, what's YM's home and way FT percentages? As the designated tech FT shooter, he's the only consistent FT shooter on the team.
give me league wide guards' FT percentage differences in TC versus in other places, means, stds, etc, then we can start to talk about if there's anything about TC and FT shooting, as of right now, these number really doesn't tell much.
Beyond statistics, I would attribute this to groupthink mentality. Your supposed leader has problems and it trickles down. Much the same way as the game where we missed something like 22 free throws. I guarantee that if you asked each of the players that night, the last thing they would have said would be that their depth perception was bad in the building. It was just a compounding situation. One miss turned to two, two turned to three and then everyone was over thinking it.
Sort of. He is over sensitive IMO. He let small things bother him and blame his failure on those things, such as fans letting out dissappointment that affects his FT shooting, and depth perception affecting his shooting. He is like a kind of girl, the kind of no love tonight if you don't set up everything just right girl. I can't believe some adults buy his excuses. If depth perception is legit, then Turbo will beat T-Mac on a parking lot basketball court. Tracie will miss every shot he throws up due to bad depth perception, and he doesn't drive anyway. He won't score and Turbo will win.
I'm not for players making excuses for poor performance, especially McGrady. He operates off how he "feels", which most of the time is lethargic and lazy. I really REALLY wish he use another motivator besides his current state of emotion. But if Lance Berkman says the winds at Minute Maid park blow in too much in left field and deadens the ball, and a player from another team randomly says the same thing, got to at least consider if its a real issue or not. Still if McGrady's at the free throw line with the team down by 1 with .5 seconds left, and he misses both free throws, SCREW depth perception he choked. So that excuse can only get him so far.
Hmmm .. where did I say that I "proved" anything? To really determine if its a problem with the Toyota Center with any real certainty, lots of things need to be looked. I just add a little extra to what Clutch gave in his first post -- namely that the pattern of poor shooting at home extends to his teammates (though perhaps not to the same extent) over the last 4 years. That may suggest certain things, but obviously it's not a proof of anything. Never said it was. Depth perception, if that is a relevant issue here, is part of the environment. And if the answers are readily available to me, I'd be happy to address your questions. You brought up that McGrady has been a worse shooter at home throughout his career. That's a potentially important point, and for others who are curious, here's his FT% home and way over his career: Code: [B]McGrady's FT% splits over his career H R[/B] 9798 TOR 77.8% 62.5% +15.3% 9899 TOR 74.2% 70.0% +4.2% 9900 TOR 71.7% 69.4% +2.3% [I] Toronto Career 73.4% 68.4% +5.0%[/I] 0001 ORL 69.9% 76.6% -6.7% 0002 ORL 73.7% 75.8% -2.1% 0003 ORL 77.7% 81.3% -3.7% 0004 ORL 81.7% 77.3% +4.4% [I] Orlando Career 75.8% 77.9% -2.1%[/I] 0005 HOU 75.1% 79.6% -4.5% 0006 HOU 68.8% 79.1% -10.3% 0007 HOU 66.0% 74.0% -8.0% 0008 HOU 55.9% 74.8% -18.9% [I] Houston Career 69.9% 77.0% -7.1%[/I] It's mixed. He was a better FT% on the road in 3 of his 4 years at Orlando, though not his last year there. He was consistently better at home in Toronto. Since coming to Houston, he's been consistently (and significantly) worse at the line in the Toyota Center. http://www.basketball-reference.com/fc/psplit.cgi?player=mingya01&year=2008 This year, he's 81% at home and 91% on the road. But he's had a couple seasons in the past where he's shot better at home. Why guards, specifically? I only ask, because that information would be much easier to collect if we just look at league wide players overall.
That's really interesting. I wonder if there's any evidence for this type of "groupthink" phenomenon for free throw shooting.
Better "evidence" would be cited in baseball. Mainly where poor hitting is contagious. It's the same sort of situation.
Here's some data for the last 4 seasons. I compare opponent FT% in each NBA city to what the opponents usually shoot. It can be thought of as "FT% defense" at home. Rockets opponents shoot nearly 2% worse in Toyota Center than normal (and they've shot worse in the Toyota Center each season). Only Cleveland and Denver opponents have a worse differential. Code: [SIZE=2][B]team ft% FT% diff[/B] WashingtonWizards 77.70% 75.10% +2.60% NOrleansHornets 76.97% 75.10% +1.88% PortlandTrailBlazers 76.89% 75.17% +1.71% NJNets 76.50% 75.14% +1.36% SeattleSupersonics 76.15% 75.01% +1.15% Philadelphia76ers 76.18% 75.07% +1.10% MemphisGrizzlies 76.17% 75.14% +1.02% IndianaPacers 75.63% 75.08% +0.56% LALakers 75.65% 75.10% +0.55% AtlantaHawks 75.50% 75.14% +0.36% UtahJazz 75.50% 75.16% +0.34% MilwaukeeBucks 75.18% 75.13% +0.05% SacramentoKings 75.02% 75.01% +0.01% OrlandoMagic 74.90% 75.20% -0.31% DallasMavericks 74.58% 74.96% -0.38% TorontoRaptors 74.57% 75.00% -0.44% CharlotteBobcats 74.70% 75.22% -0.52% MiamiHeat 74.81% 75.34% -0.54% NYKnicks 74.61% 75.19% -0.58% SanAntonioSpurs 74.56% 75.19% -0.63% MinnesotaT-wolves 74.40% 75.05% -0.65% PhoenixSuns 74.37% 75.02% -0.66% DetroitPistons 74.28% 75.12% -0.84% ChicagoBulls 74.27% 75.15% -0.88% GSWarriors 74.28% 75.22% -0.93% LAClippers 73.75% 75.00% -1.25% BostonCeltics 73.81% 75.08% -1.27% HoustonRockets 73.20% 75.09% -1.89% ClevelandCavaliers 73.09% 75.21% -2.13% DenverNuggets 72.57% 75.12% -2.55%[/SIZE]
because Guards are the ones who are generally thought to be able to shoot the ball. Nice, but it wouldn't be the one I would be looking for. hmmm, so DC's AA center is a great place to shoot the ball? sounds strange.
From today's Chronicle: Not shooter-friendly The Rockets have not played well enough to inspire fans with tickets to even fill the lower bowl at tipoff. They have cited Toyota Center itself for their poor shooting at home, saying opposing players have commented about it. "I really feel a lot of guys are not comfortable playing in this arena," McGrady said. "I hear guys saying things about how they're not comfortable playing in the arena, how it's not a good shooting arena for whatever reason. "I feel the same way. I really feel the same way. It's not just our guys. It's guys around the league. They hate our arena. Who was the last player to score 40 in our arena?" This season, that would be no one. Allen Iverson is the only Rockets opponent to reach 30 in Toyota Center. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/5488872.html
TMac is right! Depth perception at Toyota Center is terrible. It is also terrible for the Rockets in Game 7s. Must be some conspiracy...
