[Grantland] Goldsberry - The Future of basketball is here

Lately teams have been finding it easier to shut down Harden and our 3pt shooting.

Can Morey go into his laboratory and figure out the next move?

 

That's more a function of our 3 point shooting being a bit statistically worse.

 

Good article. Also touches on why most of the basketball media dislikes the way the Rockets play. It will take a while for Harden to shake off the "no defense" label that he earned last year too.

 

when shoot a lot of threes you're going to make them or miss them.
the coin flip evolution of basketball.

 

Teams are not shutting down our 3PT shooting IMO. We just suck at shooting them.

 

lol this is true.

 

I still question how teams can win championships without a midrange jumper. Yes, 3-points and layups can be efficient and fun but they're also easy to defend against once the playoffs start.

The only person that can create his own midrange is still Harden. So if teams literally focus on stopping Harden, we don't really have much going on. Dwight and Smith are both TERRIBLE free throw shooters, so just foul them and don't let them get easy buckets.

 

Good article. Really nice research.

 

Teams have also been able to foul Harden with no calls so that's a factor

 

thats cause we have poor shooters... we have a pretty efficient offense just because we take 3's at such a high clip, if we were actually a good 3 point shooting team we would be scary.

 

I think bad free throw shooting is the biggest hindrance to Moreyball right now. I often look at Rockets box scores and see the free throw numbers and think about how many more points they could score if they were just average at shooting free throws. Many times, it could be 10 points they miss out on. 10 points that cost them the game.

If Dwight and Smith or T. Jones shot even just 75% from the line, they'd be such a better scoring team. Bad free throw shooting kills.

 

Once again they're crowning something that hasn't won jack. Like back when the Suns 7 seconds or less offense was suppose to be the blueprint. Rockets never even made it past the first round yet.

 

Craziest stat from the article:

 

There was nothing wrong with the Suns 7 seconds or less offense, it was that they played sub-par defense. Maybe their lack of defense was related to putting so much energy on offense but that offense put up a ton of points that some teams couldn't stop or keep up with scoring.

 

Spoiler

By the way, that's also true if you only shoot a few threes: you are going to make or miss them.

 

Great research. Harden being off the charts in made corner threes and assisting made corner threes is why he should win MVP

 

We don't suck bruh, we just streaky. We can make 850 3s in a game while threatening to set NBA records or we can't even throw it in the ocean in another game.

 

And yet, even with the statistics to show just how great Harden as been all season, you're still going to have fans and media members talking about his gimmicky offense and bad defense. The lack of knowledge surrounding the NBA and its fans is atrocious. When guys like Barkley, Mark Jackson, and Reggie Miller mold the opinions of thousands of basketball fans, you know you're in trouble. Goldsberry is one of the few guys out there who is a must-read on everything he puts out.

 

Side note...interesting that TY LAWSON is up there in stats with Harden in a few categories. Denver is a team that might be willing to make trades. Perhaps TY LAWSON is the DRAGIC fall back option?

The top 3-point assisters, as of January 4:

1. Harden – 113
2. Ty Lawson – 105
3. John Wall – 93
4. Rajon Rondo – 89
5. Eric Bledsoe – 86

The top corner-3 assisters, as of January 4:

1. James Harden – 58
2. Ty Lawson – 40
3. John Wall – 39
4. LeBron James – 34
5. Josh Smith – 31

The top 3-point producers (made 3s + assisted 3s), as of January 4:

1. James Harden – 195
2. Damian Lillard – 170
3. Stephen Curry – 159
4. Kyle Lowry – 141
5. Ty Lawson – 138

EDIT: hat tip to Finsraider who had mentioned Ty Lawson in the past.