Another night of the Sixers settling for long two after long two made me decide to delve deeper into long twos around the NBA, as well as within the team. I initially wanted to compare long two attempts per game to record, but quickly realized that was ridiculous considering how successful, defense-oriented teams are a thing (looking at you Memphis and Chicago). My next thought, which proved to be much better, was to compare offensive efficiency to 16-23 foot jumpers attempted each game. Courtesy: Hoopdata
15 Teams With the Most 18-23 Footers per Game |
|||
RANK |
TEAM |
18-23 Foot APG |
Offensive Efficiency Ranking |
1 |
WAS |
25.5 |
30 |
2 |
PHO |
24.4 |
15 |
3 |
PHI |
24.3 |
19 |
4 |
CHI |
24.1 |
24 |
5 |
BOS |
22.5 |
21 |
6 |
UTH |
22.2 |
10 |
7 |
GSW |
22.1 |
9 |
8 |
MIL |
21.5 |
25 |
9 |
TOR |
20.5 |
13 |
10 |
POR |
20 |
14 |
11 |
ORL |
19.9 |
26 |
12 |
MEM |
19.4 |
20 |
13 |
ATL |
19.1 |
12 |
14 |
CHA |
18.9 |
27 |
15 |
CLE |
18.5 |
29 |
As you can see, of the 15 teams who shoot the most 18-23 footers per game, only Golden State and Utah are in the top 10 of offensive efficiency. Golden State just shoots very well in general,and I admittedly have no idea what makes Utah successful offensively. Anyways, the overall theme appears to be that teams averaging at least 18.5 shots from 18-23 feet each game are just setting themselves up for offensive mediocrity at best.
Now onto the Sixers specifically. The league average is 19 "long twos" per game and a 37.9 field goal % from that range; the Sixers go above and beyond this to average 24.3 such shots and a field goal % of only 34.2. What Sixers fans see every game has thus been quantified: we settle for a lot of long twos and are pretty bad at making those shots. Also, we can easily take a look at the individual players and see which are taking these ill-advised shots.
Sixers From 18-23 Feet |
|||
Player |
Makes |
Attempts |
FG% |
Moultrie |
0.0 |
0.1 |
0 |
Wilkins |
0.1 |
0.4 |
29 |
Wright |
0.3 |
1.0 |
32 |
Turner |
1.6 |
4.4 |
36 |
J-Rich |
0.7 |
1.9 |
38 |
Holiday |
1.5 |
4.6 |
32 |
Brown |
0.0 |
0.1 |
0 |
Allen |
0.9 |
2.7 |
35 |
Wayns |
0.1 |
0.8 |
7 |
Swagy |
0.7 |
2.8 |
26 |
Ivey |
0.2 |
0.4 |
43 |
Hawes |
1.3 |
3.1 |
42 |
Thad |
1.0 |
2.9 |
34 |
Keeping in mind the league average of 37.9%, the only average to above average shooters from 18-23 feet on the Sixers are J-Rich, Ivey, and Hawes. I figure Hawes' high percentage from this area is a result of the many uncontested jumpers he somehow gets here. I do not know why Ivey's percentage is high, and J-Rich has been average at this range, but he is considered a good shooter, so this is just reasonable.
The rest of the team is, as expected, below average at the 18-23 range. Holiday and Turner combine for 9 long twos per game, which I find very disturbing, because they are supposed to be initiating the offense, and not holding the ball. It is kind of nice to see that Ivey, J-Rich, Wright, and Wilkins all keep the long two attempts below 2 per game; however, the amount taken by Lavoy, Thad, and Swagy is clearly too high. I understand taking an open shot if you have one, but perhaps deep two attempts for Lavoy and Thad could be cut back a little. My biggest surprise was Swagy's awful clip of 26%. That is really bad when he is shooting 2.8 times per game from this range. I assume this is a product of his many ill-advised shots, so I really hope he starts taking less of them and/or making more of them, but I know he will never want to stop taking crazy shots.
And that's all I have to say on long twos and the Sixers, thank you for reading.