Comments on: More on Perimeter Players & Free Throw Rates

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 06:51:23 +0000

Neil i was wondering if you would consider revisiting this post. I'd be interested in your thoughts as we approach the half way point.

By: JeffD

JeffD — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 16:47:34 +0000

The Rick Barry / Jamaal Wilkes combo of GS circa 74/75 would be interesting to include, in that they each shot and drove well, shot FTs well, and won a title together in their first season together. Talk about accomodating each other quickly, and still performing !

By: notherbert

notherbert — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 14:43:05 +0000

i'd be interested to see shot charts from the 2008 Olympics. my poor memory tells me Wade got some open looks there.

i also wonder what Wade and LeBron's catch and shoot percentages are.

how much of an increase in efg% would make up for a reduction in FTAs?

By: storyofgreats

storyofgreats — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 08:38:04 +0000

Heat is gonna be awesome bulldozing its way to 74-75 wins and going 16-0 in the playoffs shooting 60+ FT's in the process.

By: Nick

Nick — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 05:39:50 +0000

Trying to compare the Heat to anything that has ever come before is an exercise in futility. You have the best player in the league, who happens to LOVE to pass teamed up with the second-or-third best player, who also is pretty fond of passing to the open man. They may both have had similar styles, but they ended up in those styles due to their teams' set-ups. How LeBron will act now that he can people to pass to who are good in their own right cannot be predicted with the information we have. There's never been anything like it before. Every Heat game is going to be worth watching, especially against the crappy teams, because you don't know what sort of thing they'll bring out when they're way ahead. It wouldn't surprise me if they have regular season games where Miller shoots 20 3s and scores 30+ points, just because they think it'd be fun to do. This Heat team goes way beyond special into the realm of surreal.

By: Leroy Smith

Leroy Smith — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 01:31:56 +0000

The only times I can remember teams actually backing off Wade and daring him to shoot the J (as a strategy) was detroit in the playoffs in 2005; and detroit and dallas in the playoffs in 2006. My point being that, Wade's jumper is underrated as he almost nevet get wide open ones. James on the other hand has never really had that luxury, but his 3pt% has gone up each season. in fact, the last two years he has taken more and shot a higher percentage than Bryant. He also shot a better percentage than Anthony last year, but he couldn't dream of taking more threes than Anthony.

Also, I am 100% sure that no other duo, that match the criteria for this article, consisted of two of the 3 best players in the league.

By: schtevie

schtevie — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 18:29:49 +0000

A few suggestions, though they likely imply diminishing your sample size to nothingness.

(1) A 24 to 30 mpg player is not the kind of player (first guy off the bench) that is most germane to the issue at hand.

(2) Control for the change in outside shooting ability as well, with ft% (above or below average) perhaps as a proxy.

(3) See if changes in game pace (poorly measured as it may be) has an influence on outcomes. To realize the potential of slashing combos, maximizing effective shot clock time in the half court would seem to be key.

By: Jason J

Jason J — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 18:23:51 +0000

I wonder if you looked at this from the perspective of teams needing good perimeter shooters to pair with hard drivers and comparing that to how many 2 hard driver teams have one that is a consistently good perimeter shooter if that wouldn't pretty much show the issue. I'm wondering if winning is going to show a link to needing a good shooter to go along with a determined driver. Anecdotal evidence and logic lean that way... (Clyde / Porter.Ainge; MJ / Hodges.Pax.BJ.Kerr.Toni; Kobe / Rice.Shaw.Fish.Fox.Horry.Sasha.Radman)

By: Ejypt

Ejypt — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 17:34:10 +0000

I think what holds them back is just how easy it is to pack in the paint and force Wade/James to shoot 3s, which they're all too happy to do. An unbalanced offense which is too reliant on drives is predictable and easy to defend.

By: Neil Paine

Neil Paine — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 17:29:49 +0000

The conventional wisdom this summer has been that defenses will just start packing it in, daring someone to shoot a jumper rather than letting them drive with abandon. (In the Goodrich/West example, we saw Goodrich respond to that by becoming a jump-shooter, keeping defenses honest.)

I'm not necessarily saying the conventional wisdom is correct here, though -- like I said, there are historical examples of high-FTRI combos that carried strong offenses. The general trend I found here is that it's more difficult to succeed offensively when you combine perimeter players who have the same inside tendencies, but James and Wade are such a uniquely talented pairing that you may have to just throw history out the window.