RealGM

A few weeks ago there were some comments made in regards to Jordan's mid-range shooting ability, where the regular season statistics were dismissed entirely in favor of the playoffs, sample size be damned. Below I have complied a basic chart of Jordan's shooting from the 1991 playoffs. Only one made 2 pt. field goal by Jordan is unaccounted for, late in the 3rd quarter of Game 1 vs. New York, when TNT had a live look into the Sixers game for a couple of minutes. These are the same templates as found on NBA.com. Keep in mind some of the zones on the first chart overlap the paint and mid-range areas. The paint is separated by shots at the rim (layups/dunks) and shots outside of the rim area (seeing as there was no restricted circle at the time). Mid-range is defined as anything outside the paint and inside the 3 point line. I must say there is little surprise in these results. Any average fan would at least have an idea of where Jordan's sweet spots were on the court with enough games watched.


At Rim: 78/108 FG (72.2%)
In Paint (Overall): 102/171 FG (59.6%)
Mid-Range: 84/178 FG (47.2%)
3 Point: 10/26 FG (38.5%)

Dipper 13 wrote:

At Rim: 78/108 FG (72.2%)
In Paint (Overall): 102/171 FG (59.6%)
Mid-Range: 84/178 FG (47.2%)
3 Point: 10/26 FG (38.5%)

What are these numbers without the finals?

Not to mention free throws, he lived @ the free throw line.

He made his living around the basket.

What are these numbers without the finals?

Not as good if I recall correctly. Sorry I didn't keep track by series. Even in Game 3 of the Finals he wasn't missing a great deal of mid-range shots, but rather more in the paint. He was in a shooting slump starting midway through the Sixers series due to knee tendinitis, though he picked it up in the Detroit series.

Dipper 13 wrote:

What are these numbers without the finals?

Not as good if I recall correctly. Sorry I didn't keep track by series.

I'm asking because I'm doing 1991 finals analysis and his play vs Lakers was clearly aberration as he was hitting literally almost every shot - so that would screw overall playoffs result. + He was playing vs rather bad defense. Here are for example all his FGA (and other things like RBS, AST, STL) from G1, so everyone could see it by himself and judge:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmhpUI2grDg[/youtube]

I believe that Game 4 vs the Sixers (11/27 FG) brought his average down, while Game 2 of the Finals (15/18 FG) brought it up. I wasn't paying much attention to his mid-range shooting, but rather his overall floor game.

Great job. Prime/Peak MJ was a monster. No weak spots at all.

Restricted/paint/midrange/3 numbers look a lot like what Lebron is doing this season. A little worse in the paint, a little better from the midrange, a little worse from 3.

It's a product of Phil Jackson putting impetus of taking it to the hole more or shoot high percentage shots by the basket.

This stat is another reason though why Kobe's range is superior.

mopper8 wrote:Restricted/paint/midrange/3 numbers look a lot like what Lebron is doing this season. A little worse in the paint, a little better from the midrange, a little worse from 3.

Not at all. Lebron is 79% in the restricted area, over 70% in the paint, and the midrange/3 numbers are kinda similar. Also MJ did it in the playoffs so his regular season numbers probably look more like Lebron's.

That's really impressive. Those mid range numbers look Dirk/Kobe like. 91 MJ truly had no flaws in his approach to the game offensively.

His numbers look a lot like Lebron's. Really good at the rim, really good from mid-long range, good from 3 point land but a bit lower on the mid-close range.

GAME TIME wrote:It's a product of Phil Jackson putting impetus of taking it to the hole more or shoot high percentage shots by the basket.

This stat is another reason though why Kobe's range is superior.

How can you ever come to that conclusion based on those numbers?

Shot Clock wrote:

GAME TIME wrote:It's a product of Phil Jackson putting impetus of taking it to the hole more or shoot high percentage shots by the basket.

This stat is another reason though why Kobe's range is superior.

How can you ever come to that conclusion based on those numbers?

I don't exactly understand his post either

Phil wasn't the one to teach MJ good shot selection. MJ was always smart about his shots. Phil was the one who got Mike to buy into team ball and helped in reducing his stat padding habits

Dude scored around 10(9.8) of his 27 points from the midrange
All hail Mike

DavidStern wrote:
What are these numbers without the finals?

Why is this relevant? Ready to raise some more frivolous objections and engage in more obfuscation and double talk like you did in the other thread?

Anyway, thanks to Dipper13 for compiling this data.

EDIT: Made this post before reading DavidStern's subsequent posts. How this dude gets away with trolling every thread regarding Jordan is beyond me.

GC Pantalones wrote:Great job. Prime/Peak MJ was a monster. No weak spots at all.

Except for the ladies.

Ok, I had to get that out of the way.