Dispatches From The Keyboard: Vol. 2

Idea

While combing through some numbers for an unrelated piece, I came across and subsequently tweeted this:

I thought that was pretty interesting and I decided to take a quick look into various aspects of how 3-pointers are taken and made. (Also, I post other graphs, stats, and such on Twitter that I don’t post on LB if that’s your thing.)

Result

So What?

1. It cannot be overstated how out of the ordinary everything about this Houston season has been. They are more or less rewriting every single 3-point-related stat in the book.
2. The Sixers’ best and highest-volume 3-point shooter does not create his own shots off the dribble. This is not surprising given the roster composition, but it does speak to the high volume of passes the Sixers complete, and the fact that the primary ball handler (Ben Simmons) is not a 3-point shooter himself. I don’t think it’s particularly surprising that Denver is the closest comparison for this reason.
3. The spiral plot does not seem to indicate any sort of gradient of team success based on similarity to the Sixers.
4. The most dissimilar teams to the Sixers are the squads with ball-dominant lead guards who hoist on their own - Damian Lillard, D’Angelo Russell, Kemba Walker, etc.
5. SOHCAHTOA saved the day on that spiral plot.

Data & Images via NBA.com/stats