Lindecision wrote:Improving his jump shot is great and all, but I'd rather Blake add a post move or two.
If we look at Blake's post success last season, he was quite fine. Blake is limited in what he can do by his length, a great jumpshot as well as very good FT shooting will actually produce better on court results and production for him than any marginal improvement in post moves.
Blake shot 37.2% FG from 16-23 and 39.8% FG from 10-16. Combine those were 34.3% of his FGA. He shot 71.5% FT. A player who Blake can sort of be compared to is Amare.
Amare in his prime years shot 45.6% from 16-23 and 45.0% from 10-16 and those shots were 31.7% of his FGA. He shot 78.1% FT.
Blake averaged 24.1 PPG this last season. If Blake shot 44% FG from 10-16 and 16-23 he would have made 29 more FG's which would be 58 more points. That would have given him an average of 24.9 PPG. 78% FT adds another 43 pts. He shoots 44% in those ranges and 78% FT and Blake without taking more shots would have averaged 25.4 PPG. 1.3 more PPG. That probably wins you 1-2 more games. Blake hitting so well from those ranges makes defenders stick with him more which could give him a few better shots at the basket attacking a close out.
Blake hit 50.5% FG on hook shots and 66.6% FG on layups. So that's his non dunk finishing. He had a 0.95 PPP on post-ups, which ranked him 34th in the league among all positions. That's in the top 10% of the league. He shot 47.5% when posted up, so this is including jumpshots from the post. A jumpshot will actually also add to his post game because his post jumpshot becomes more accurate and a better weapon. Will 1-2 post moves have more impact than those shooting improvements? Not at all. 1.3 PPG without taking more shots is a big deal.
Of course the assumption can't be made that he's working on only shooting and nothing else, no player does that, but even more so, continuing to develop his face-up game will be an important thing for him after his jumpshot.
