I was just looking at the stats and it's amazing, the Blazers have 5 prolific 3pt shooters (attempt 2.5 shots a game) and 4 of those 5 are 40% or greater. Player / Attempts / 3pt% Damian Lillard / 7.3 / .400 Wes Matthews/ 5.2 / .526 Nik Batum / 5.6 / .403 Mo Williams/ 2.5 / .333 Dorell Wright/ 2.5 .444 That's some crazy shooting depth, especially when you realize later in the season we have more shooters available like C.J. McCollum and Crabbe. Most teams are considered good if they had two off this list. I realize this is our strength, and we lack in other areas, but damn we are strong at shooting the long ball.
Yup, built around LMA as our #1 option. Sure he's no superstar, but when surrounded by shooters like that it's a pretty tough combination for any team to defend.
I think about it this way: It's the platonic ideal of Orlando's offensive game around Dwight. Surround your most dynamic inside player with dynamic outside players. Orlando failed because Dwight can't shoot free throws of mid-range jumpers. LMA can be a bit shaky at the line in the clutch (ala Clyde), but not to the Hack-a-Dwight level.
Except LMA rarely plays inside. He's also one of those "outside players". Also, let's not forget JR Smith's blistering start to last season. Didn't he start out shooting some crazy percentage to open the season? And by the end of the season his 3FG% plummeted to 88th "best". I really hope that these guys can maintain their efficiency - but I suspect it would be an historical achievement if they do.
Inside the 3pt line is inside for the purposes of this offense. Pass it in, pass it out, pass it around, find the wide-open guy. Enough shooters to prevent double-teams on LMA.
I believe the team model was much different than our team though. New York is a ISO heavy offense. Our shots are coming with good passing for wide-open shots. It's more comfortable for a shooter to have a wide open shot, than contested late shot clock shots.
Beat me to it. Let's face it - JR Smith is prone to taking horrible, horrible shots which greatly hurt his percentage. The Knicks offense created a lot of good looks last season, and then JR went and found a lot of bad looks to supplement them.
Exactly! This year's Blazer squad has bought into something very special. Regardless of opponents, you can still tell how they are moving without the ball, passing and finding the open man. It's completely unselfish fundamental basketball. It is sooooo impressive to watch!
I guess the punishment model is reversed; in Orlando, if you doubled Dwight, you were punished by leaving a shooter open. We do that, but also, if you double a guard, you are punished by leaving LMA open on the pick and pop.
I guess a lot has to do with being able to trust the shooting of the players. All our shooters have a history of being good shooters. JR Smith has a history of being a streaky bad shot taking idiot, with a bunch of raw talent. That really can't be said for any of the Blazer shooters except maybe a bit for Lillard, but his history is short and his skill is through the roof, so I'm inclined to believe it. I could see any of our shooters dropping back a couple percentage points, but that it. They will all still be considered good, except for perhaps Williams.
Mo is our JR Smith equivalent (6th-man prone to taking to occasional bad shot), and he's 5th on our priority list for shooting 3s. Very, very different situation from NY last year.
There is just one thing missing from this team, and that's a shot blocker/rip protector. Don't get me wrong, I like Lopez a hell of lot and am glad to have him, but if he also had Tigger bounce (from winnie the poo) I would think this team was capable of really going deep and contending.
I understand that JR is a knuckleheaded chucker, I'm just trying to temper expectations - shooting from distance is often one of those hot/cold things. I don't expect them to keep up this percentage - but I hope they do!
Me too. I remembered that one year Phoenix went to the wcf, they held on to such a hot 3 point shooting %.
You just compared our efficient, wide open, shooters who take good shots to that jack up artist. Really showing your BBIQ on that one blue... You need a dose positivity in your life...
I know the 3-pt shooting model is no popular among the analysts, but the key is how open many of the shots are. I would guess our top 4-5 shooters could hit 80% from three unguarded in practice. So, put that at about 50% unguarded in games. Add to that the difficulty of a guarded 5-10 footer and the odds of making that shot. As long as we keep moving the ball and taking open threes I don't see why this can't work. It's also been nice to see the team recognize when the three opens the middle so they can exploit that. So far so good.
Stotts mentioned once in an interview that his schemes were not designed to make offensive rebounding a priority, 3pt shooters get back on defense quicker than guys in the paint. When you have this many 3pt shooters, teams really can't double two guys in the paint without paying. I like the tactic. It leads to good transition defense.
