Stevens believes in open guys taking shots. He seems to value his team taking shots that are high percentage in the abstract over trying to get specific guys to take shots that are high percentage for them.
Yes, but this is nonsense. That's how we end up with Baynes shooting wide open threes. You'd be hard pressed to find a coach in the NBA other than Stevens who thinks these type of shots are good.
Mike D'Antoni and Steve Kerr, to name two.
Clint Capela and Zaza Pachulia combined have one half-court heave this season, so I'm skeptical about this assertion...
Aron Baynes has 9 three point "attempts" all year, so I'm not sure things are as "crazy" over here as you make out.
Draymond Green, however, has taken 181 threes this year despite shooting below 30%.
Eric Gordon has attempted 452 threes this year despite shooting barely over 33%.
Bobby Brown has attempted 40 threes in 20 games despite shooting about 28%.
PJ Tucker is shooting below 35% and has attempted 178 threes.
Andre Iguoala has attempted 82 threes despite shooting 23% (!).
The difference between Baynes and these guys is that Baynes is a 6.5% career three-point shooter. Nine three point attempts are probably nine too many.
That's fine. You think 9 three point attempts has made an impact on the season?
Here are the eyebrow raisers on the Celts roster:
Smart - 211 threes at 29.9%
Semi - 100 threes at 29.0%
Theis - 51 threes at 31.4%
Larkin - 49 threes at 34.7%
Everybody else with more than 10 attempts on the year is shooting over 35%
For reference, 35% on a three point attempt is like shooting 52.5% on a two point attempt.
Would it be ideal for the team if those 411 three point attempts had been taken by other players? Yes. The question is whether you think it's realistic that the team could have generated better looks on most of the possessions that ended in those attempts. From watching the team this year, I think it's fair to say that sometimes when any of those players takes a shot from deep, the ball could have swung one more time and found somebody else.
At the same time, Stevens seems to value a culture where players who are open with a "good" shot take that shot without hesitation, whether they are one of the top players on the team or a role player. I think you could argue that there is value in a guy like Semi, Theis, or Larkin taking an open three when the ball finds them in that position, even if in the aggregate it's not a really good value shot for that specific player. It sends the message to everybody else that they should not hesitate to take a shot when one presents itself.
If those players were told not to shoot threes, it would encourage the defense to play much more aggressively on everybody else that's on the floor. At least if Smart regularly attempts outside shots, it can spook the defense into defending him.
Additionally, if guys like Smart, Larkin, Theis etc were reluctant to shoot from outside, you'd have more possessions ending in shot clock violations or turnovers as the team attempted to find a closer shot that isn't guaranteed to be there, instead of just taking the open three pointer. This seems especially likely given the lack of quality offensive options when Kyrie is off the floor.
Topic: This is the wrong type of roster for CBS (Read 5002 times)