TheBlueDoggy
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I've noticed a lot on negative comments about the lob play for Matthews which the Blazers run seemingly fairly often. I too shared the opinion with many that Matthews was probably not the best choice for this play, considering his Zach Randolph-like jumping abilities. However, I see more often than not folks claiming that this has only ever been successful once, so I wanted to look at it a bit more and see what the success rate was.
So I went to the NBA.com shot chart, and looked at all of Matthews’ shot attempts in the restricted area, where he is 58 of 95, for 61.06%. I want to mention that it’s my belief that they didn't count some attempts which were horrible passes and Matthews might not ever had control of, as I recall there being more bad inbounds passes than what I found videos for. With that being said, here’s what I found for makes/misses on that play:
11/2 vs SAS – Make
11/8 vs SAC – Make
11/20 @ MIL – Make
11/22 vs CHI – Miss (very close)
12/6 vs UTA – Make and 1
12/12 vs HOU – Miss (clean dunk attempt, pass maybe too high)
12/28 vs MIA – Miss (never really attempted the shot, caught and pinned against backboard and dropped the ball on the way down)
http://stats.nba.com/playerShotchart.html?PlayerID=202083
Another disclaimer – There were a lot of clips for shot attempts, and if it didn’t look like the clip was setting up for an inbounds play I skipped the rest of it and moved on to the next shot. However, towards the end of this viewing I found a shot attempt that started out as a fast break foul, then setup for an inbounds play, so I may have missed some. I also recall a game (I thought it was Pacers) where Wes was fouled and shot two free throws, but I don’t recall seeing that attempt in the videos.
Out of 7 legit attempts I could find, Matthews made 4 and had an and-one on one attempt.
To me, this is pretty decent success rate, and definitely worth trying this play every once in a while, although I still believe a less vertically challenged player should be executing the play. I don’t really buy the whole Batum should be passing in because he’s a good passer argument, because he had several poor passes on this play.
So I went to the NBA.com shot chart, and looked at all of Matthews’ shot attempts in the restricted area, where he is 58 of 95, for 61.06%. I want to mention that it’s my belief that they didn't count some attempts which were horrible passes and Matthews might not ever had control of, as I recall there being more bad inbounds passes than what I found videos for. With that being said, here’s what I found for makes/misses on that play:
11/2 vs SAS – Make
11/8 vs SAC – Make
11/20 @ MIL – Make
11/22 vs CHI – Miss (very close)
12/6 vs UTA – Make and 1
12/12 vs HOU – Miss (clean dunk attempt, pass maybe too high)
12/28 vs MIA – Miss (never really attempted the shot, caught and pinned against backboard and dropped the ball on the way down)
http://stats.nba.com/playerShotchart.html?PlayerID=202083
Another disclaimer – There were a lot of clips for shot attempts, and if it didn’t look like the clip was setting up for an inbounds play I skipped the rest of it and moved on to the next shot. However, towards the end of this viewing I found a shot attempt that started out as a fast break foul, then setup for an inbounds play, so I may have missed some. I also recall a game (I thought it was Pacers) where Wes was fouled and shot two free throws, but I don’t recall seeing that attempt in the videos.
Out of 7 legit attempts I could find, Matthews made 4 and had an and-one on one attempt.
To me, this is pretty decent success rate, and definitely worth trying this play every once in a while, although I still believe a less vertically challenged player should be executing the play. I don’t really buy the whole Batum should be passing in because he’s a good passer argument, because he had several poor passes on this play.
