On Giannis, HS Hoops
July 16, 2021 at 11:23 p.m.
On Giannis, HS Hoops
By Chip Davenport-
Giannis stands 6-foot-11, demonstrates speed, agility, good ballhandling skills, and power. He’s a terror inside, and in the current NBA finals versus the Phoenix Suns he is shooting 72.2 percent inside the three-point arc, mostly inside the paint to boot.
Why, you might ask, does Giannis need a shock collar?
He has no business attempting three-point shots. The Greek Freak is a paltry one for ten beyond the three-point arc. I believe Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer should equip Giannis with the same type of shock collar used to reinforce canine behavior.
Giannis’s teammate, 7-foot center Brook Lopez, could also use such a device. Lopez’s shooting performance attempting two-point shots is 64.7 percent. Lopez hit one of 11 three-point shots in the first three games of the finals.
Milwaukee’s strongest offensive performances in their conference finals and the NBA finals correlate to Lopez and Giannis taking greater focus on their inside game. Their size and strength are of little use standing outside the arc looking as functional as a lawn flamingo.
They’re but a symptom of a problem, though, among those who have no business attempting three-point shots.
Steph Curry, whose 47.7 percent career three-point shooting accuracy is better than more than half the NBA players’ two-point shooting accuracy, has led the charge in what seems to be a permanent shift in the game.
The trey gets an additional point on the scoreboard, an additional attempt on the free-throw line if you’re fouled. The trey’s advocates will tell you it’s a more efficient means of scoring, and it could win a game otherwise merely sent into overtime by a team facing a two-point deficit. In fact, the seismic shift the trey has made in analytics has produced the effective field goal percentage metric.
This metric takes the Warsaw Tigers 2020-2021 boys’ basketball season overall shooting accuracy of 47.8% to an effective field goal percentage of 53.3%. Warsaw, by the way, connected on 54.2% of their shots inside the arc, and many of those were inside the paint. There were three players on the Tigers’ roster who were true mid-range jumper threats. Additionally, the orange and black connected on 34.3 percent of its shots outside the arc.
For each Giannis or Lopez in the NBA, each team has its share of sharpshooters from three-point range. The league overall was over 39 percent from long range.
These guys are good! Watch them in warmups. They make almost all their uncontested shots.
I feel differently about the three-point shot in the high school game. I believe perhaps no more than three or four of your best long-range shooters have any business hoisting shots from the parking lot.
I think high school basketball players have a harder time controlling their compulsion to shoot from beyond the arc. Steph Curry and dozens of other NBA stars have made the three-point shot the 21st-century dunk.
I get it. I was 5’10” at my tallest. I’m 5’9”-and-change currently on the back nine of my life. I loved, as a kid, getting to horse around a lower-height rim to feel the sensation of dunking. Therefore, I can understand why most high schoolers would embrace the long-range game on a regular court.
Almost all high school basketball players can’t dunk. However, among those non-dunking athletes, a large portion in that flight-deficit community can’t shoot well, either!
I looked at twelve Warsaw Tigers who scored in the team’s 23 regular and post-season games in 2020-2021. I found the same issue even among those who formed our conference co-championship squad.
Two players who shot close to 40 percent (and I used players who attempted more than 10 three-pointers for that group) were 68-173 for 39.3% from three-point land. The remaining ten players were 39-139 (28.1%). Granted, one individual, who was 9-39 (23.1%) leaves the rest of his nine teammates right at 30%. In fact, his big, strong frame would come in handy snaring offensive rebounds.
Look, the only place I am in awe of witnessing anything succeeding at a 30% clip is while I’m watching a baseball game! Watching 25%-30% three-point accuracy among most athletes participating in a high school basketball game on any given night is excruciating!
Warsaw head coach Matt Moore even stated in postgame comments this past season he wants to see fewer three-point attempts than free-throw attempts. Makes sense, eh? Drive the lane, draw a foul, get two uncontested shots at the charity stripe. Your chances of hitting the shots you need to topple your opponent are quite favorable.
That works if each player from top to bottom on the depth chart puts in the time to practice properly shooting free throws.
Three athletes who exceeded the team’s overall free throw accuracy of 71% were 143-185 (77.3%) at the line. The remaining Tigers were 75-122 (61.5%). Shooting at the latter clip is going to put a team on the wrong end of a final score. In fact, it did create some problems for Warsaw in a few games.
The top three free-throw shooters were effective drawing fouls when driving the lane. Conversely, no Tiger 6’3” or taller shot better than 66.7%. Those folks are the ones hammering away at the boards, prime candidates for drawing loose ball fouls and shooting fouls as they power up on a second-chance shot. Is it fair to say conventional wisdom should tell you it behooves big men to practice just as many free throws as their smaller teammates drill?
Everyone in every NBA roster spot is a good basketball player. Obviously at high school level there will be a greater top-to-bottom disparity in talent. However, my next grave concern possibly making high school offenses excruciating to watch is the 35-second shot clock on the horizon.
Discussing the reasons why I believe the 35-second shot clock will or will not work be fodder for another column in another Weekender edition.
In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this rhetorical question.
If these kids are now rushed by the shot clock will a mid-range jumper or a three-point shot most likely be chucked in the air as the shot clock whittles to zero?
Giannis stands 6-foot-11, demonstrates speed, agility, good ballhandling skills, and power. He’s a terror inside, and in the current NBA finals versus the Phoenix Suns he is shooting 72.2 percent inside the three-point arc, mostly inside the paint to boot.
Why, you might ask, does Giannis need a shock collar?
He has no business attempting three-point shots. The Greek Freak is a paltry one for ten beyond the three-point arc. I believe Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer should equip Giannis with the same type of shock collar used to reinforce canine behavior.
Giannis’s teammate, 7-foot center Brook Lopez, could also use such a device. Lopez’s shooting performance attempting two-point shots is 64.7 percent. Lopez hit one of 11 three-point shots in the first three games of the finals.
Milwaukee’s strongest offensive performances in their conference finals and the NBA finals correlate to Lopez and Giannis taking greater focus on their inside game. Their size and strength are of little use standing outside the arc looking as functional as a lawn flamingo.
They’re but a symptom of a problem, though, among those who have no business attempting three-point shots.
Steph Curry, whose 47.7 percent career three-point shooting accuracy is better than more than half the NBA players’ two-point shooting accuracy, has led the charge in what seems to be a permanent shift in the game.
The trey gets an additional point on the scoreboard, an additional attempt on the free-throw line if you’re fouled. The trey’s advocates will tell you it’s a more efficient means of scoring, and it could win a game otherwise merely sent into overtime by a team facing a two-point deficit. In fact, the seismic shift the trey has made in analytics has produced the effective field goal percentage metric.
This metric takes the Warsaw Tigers 2020-2021 boys’ basketball season overall shooting accuracy of 47.8% to an effective field goal percentage of 53.3%. Warsaw, by the way, connected on 54.2% of their shots inside the arc, and many of those were inside the paint. There were three players on the Tigers’ roster who were true mid-range jumper threats. Additionally, the orange and black connected on 34.3 percent of its shots outside the arc.
For each Giannis or Lopez in the NBA, each team has its share of sharpshooters from three-point range. The league overall was over 39 percent from long range.
These guys are good! Watch them in warmups. They make almost all their uncontested shots.
I feel differently about the three-point shot in the high school game. I believe perhaps no more than three or four of your best long-range shooters have any business hoisting shots from the parking lot.
I think high school basketball players have a harder time controlling their compulsion to shoot from beyond the arc. Steph Curry and dozens of other NBA stars have made the three-point shot the 21st-century dunk.
I get it. I was 5’10” at my tallest. I’m 5’9”-and-change currently on the back nine of my life. I loved, as a kid, getting to horse around a lower-height rim to feel the sensation of dunking. Therefore, I can understand why most high schoolers would embrace the long-range game on a regular court.
Almost all high school basketball players can’t dunk. However, among those non-dunking athletes, a large portion in that flight-deficit community can’t shoot well, either!
I looked at twelve Warsaw Tigers who scored in the team’s 23 regular and post-season games in 2020-2021. I found the same issue even among those who formed our conference co-championship squad.
Two players who shot close to 40 percent (and I used players who attempted more than 10 three-pointers for that group) were 68-173 for 39.3% from three-point land. The remaining ten players were 39-139 (28.1%). Granted, one individual, who was 9-39 (23.1%) leaves the rest of his nine teammates right at 30%. In fact, his big, strong frame would come in handy snaring offensive rebounds.
Look, the only place I am in awe of witnessing anything succeeding at a 30% clip is while I’m watching a baseball game! Watching 25%-30% three-point accuracy among most athletes participating in a high school basketball game on any given night is excruciating!
Warsaw head coach Matt Moore even stated in postgame comments this past season he wants to see fewer three-point attempts than free-throw attempts. Makes sense, eh? Drive the lane, draw a foul, get two uncontested shots at the charity stripe. Your chances of hitting the shots you need to topple your opponent are quite favorable.
That works if each player from top to bottom on the depth chart puts in the time to practice properly shooting free throws.
Three athletes who exceeded the team’s overall free throw accuracy of 71% were 143-185 (77.3%) at the line. The remaining Tigers were 75-122 (61.5%). Shooting at the latter clip is going to put a team on the wrong end of a final score. In fact, it did create some problems for Warsaw in a few games.
The top three free-throw shooters were effective drawing fouls when driving the lane. Conversely, no Tiger 6’3” or taller shot better than 66.7%. Those folks are the ones hammering away at the boards, prime candidates for drawing loose ball fouls and shooting fouls as they power up on a second-chance shot. Is it fair to say conventional wisdom should tell you it behooves big men to practice just as many free throws as their smaller teammates drill?
Everyone in every NBA roster spot is a good basketball player. Obviously at high school level there will be a greater top-to-bottom disparity in talent. However, my next grave concern possibly making high school offenses excruciating to watch is the 35-second shot clock on the horizon.
Discussing the reasons why I believe the 35-second shot clock will or will not work be fodder for another column in another Weekender edition.
In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this rhetorical question.
If these kids are now rushed by the shot clock will a mid-range jumper or a three-point shot most likely be chucked in the air as the shot clock whittles to zero?
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