OT-ish: "Move it or you die"

[B-Roy]

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/the-nbas-next-shooting-revolution-has-already-been-televised/

A great article on how the assist is the most important quality of a good offense. There's some really good information here.

The most foolish shot in the NBA is the unassisted midrange shot, a.k.a. the “on-my-own midrange field goal,” a.k.a. the OMFG. You can see above that shooting efficiency and passing are intertwined; shot sequences that include a preceding pass event are much more fruitful than ones that do not. On the left, you see points per shot for unassisted attempts, and we see darkness corresponding to very low values; on the right, we see points per shot for assisted attempts, and we see the light.
Last season, OMFGs accounted for about one in five shots across the NBA, but that high frequency isn’t matched by high efficiency. Leaguewide OMFGs yielded a meager 0.68 points per shot. That’s very low, considering that even an average Sixers possession yielded 0.93 points.

It seems the Blazers are moving more and more towards this philosophy as well. I think the last two years, we were inching towards this as well but Aldridge was a horrible ball-stopper that was being coddled and enabled by the entire franchise. Sadly, I feel like Pop is going to get Aldridge to buy into the team concept and he'll probably be better because of it.

 

[PtldPlatypus]

I love that they found a way to tie that shot to that acronym. I will now post that in the game thread any time I'm watching and see one.

 

[BlazerCaravan]

It seems the Blazers are moving more and more towards this philosophy as well. I think the last two years, we were inching towards this as well but Aldridge was a horrible ball-stopper that was being coddled and enabled by the entire franchise. Sadly, I feel like Pop is going to get Aldridge to buy into the team concept and he'll probably be better because of it.

I'm okay with that, because LMA leaving Portland lets both Portland and San Antonio improve. LMA staying lets neither team improve.

 

[Draco]

Yeah it is interesting. Teams are shooting way more threes, small ball and passing offense. These changes have been undeniably successful. I'm glad we've had these changes, there's far less scrub stiff big men clogging up the court than 10-20 years ago. I'd rather see a small ball wing than unskilled plodding centers. Makes the games more interesting to watch.

The way the game is played is always changing though. At some point there will be a new counter strategy that an innovative coach will implement and take advantage of these trends.