We Can't Shoot for Sh*t

[PushDaRock]

I like RJ a lot but he's shooting 35.5 on the season from 3. Having him back will help us for sure but it won't solve the 3 pt shooting issue.

You may want to check our team 3 point shooting stats with Barrett playing vs he is not playing.
It could be early season, but top of the league in 3 point efficiency back then? Even it is average, we are still largely better than being bottom.

It was just a hot shooting streak tbh.

Scottie and Mamu were shooting like 50% from the 3 on decent volume. The regression to the mean is hitting now. Reality is our team is just a very bad 3 point shooting team lol.

Our 5 best players can’t shoot the 3 efficiently.

RJ, BI, Scottie, Poeltl and CMB.

Mamu was never really that hot from 3, his hottest month was October at 45.5% but that was over 6 games and 5 for 11 shooting. He was 39% in November on 1.1 make per game, nothing really crazy.

Scottie's did have a hot shooting month in October making 50% of his 3's, but again it was 6 games on 12 for 24 shooting. He was 37% in November on 1.1 make per game, really good for him but not much volume there.

So yeah, there's some regression to the mean but both are on such low volume that it doesn't alone explain 2 less made 3's per game and a 5.7% drop in 3 PT% for the team when RJ doesn't play.

[lobosloboslobos]

1) Our 3 point shooting was pretty good with Barrett, even he is not an elite 3 point shooter, that may answer half of the problem
2) Best player isn't a 3 point shooter nor playing at C, so it will always be 1/4 lower than other teams.

12.3 makes on 36.3% in games RJ plays
10.4 makes on 30.6% in games RJ doesn't play

That's encouraging.

[PushDaRock]

We have shooting specialists that can't hit 3's whaddya do.....

Gradey was drafted to be a sniper. He is one of the worst shooters on the team this year. He is shooting .302

IQ was signed to be a guy that takes difficult shots & hit at a 40% rate. He's way below expectations. He is now shooting .346
Super streaky too.

As for Barrett. It's not an awesome.%, but he has been pretty consistent. One of our more consistent 3 piint shooters. Jakobe is out as well. He was shooting well before the injury. So missing RJ & Jakobe is hurting us. (They are top 3 shooters for us % wise)

Also.....Battle should have been given more opportunity this season. I don't get what is up with the whole Battle situation, but they haven't done the team any favors by not integrating him into the offense & giving him a consistent role. The guy is shooting .439! I guarantee there are other teams in the league keeping an eye on him, hoping to take advantage of a cheap FA signing.

Even Lawson is shooting .381. He should have taken Gradeys minutes a long time ago.

Gradey not turning into a sniper & being one of the worst shooters in the league has hurt us. We have ofher guys, but the coach isn't using them.

Lawson has been a 32-33% in the G League and the NBA for his career. If you're expecting him to help, that's pretty optimistic.

Battle has been shooting just as bad as Gradey the last 2 months.

Lawson is still shooting better than Gradey.

Battle hasn't had enough opportunity. You can't be expected to peform getting spotty minutes here and there. How many shots has he taken over the last 2 months? 20?

And Gradey is still shooting better than him over their careers and the larger sample size

That's fine, but he still hasn't been performing when he's gotten those small opportunities lately is all I'm saying.

[MEDIC]

Battle is averaging significantly less 3 point attempts per game this season than last season:

2024: 4.4 three point attempts per game
2025: 1.3 three point attempts per game

You can't expect a shooting specialist to be impactful taking such low volume. It's crazy that he is shooting the % that he is.

[PushDaRock]

1) Our 3 point shooting was pretty good with Barrett, even he is not an elite 3 point shooter, that may answer half of the problem
2) Best player isn't a 3 point shooter nor playing at C, so it will always be 1/4 lower than other teams.

12.3 makes on 36.3% in games RJ plays
10.4 makes on 30.6% in games RJ doesn't play

That's encouraging.

It shouldn't be this big of a difference but we're over half way into the season and the numbers are what they are.

[MEDIC]

Lawson has been a 32-33% in the G League and the NBA for his career. If you're expecting him to help, that's pretty optimistic.

Battle has been shooting just as bad as Gradey the last 2 months.

Lawson is still shooting better than Gradey.

Battle hasn't had enough opportunity. You can't be expected to peform getting spotty minutes here and there. How many shots has he taken over the last 2 months? 20?

And Gradey is still shooting better than him over their careers and the larger sample size

That's fine, but he still hasn't been performing when he's gotten those small opportunities lately is all I'm saying.

So your solution for improving the 3 point shooting is to keep trotting Gradey & Ochai out there to shoot bricks?

[Clutch0z24]

Battle? Quickley (paid like one)?

Please don't give me excuse, and look at other teams, they aren't that much better. Teams are also prefer to have 3&D over shooting specialist. Maybe go back to box-score of our previous games, and tell me who is the shooter you want to swap from our team.

If we were a better shooting team like you are trying to suggest we would not crumble everytime we are against a zone....If you think we are a good 3pt shooting team ...Your eyes are lying to you...



We rank dead last in 3pt shooting this year....That is not a winning formula especially in the playoffs when the game slows down and you need to hit shots.

Again, tell me WHO you want from the teams we played against last few games.
The excuse is that other teams are doing it because they got better shooters? No. Their best players were the reason, because you can't sub them out.

Not talking about individual players im talking about as a team.....You can't have a team shooting this horrible from 3 and expect to win.
Being dead last in 3s as a team means we are a bad shooting team as a whole....Battle can hit 4 3s in one game but if the rest of the team goes 1-25 than it does not really do much...

Having a bad shooting team in 2026 won't get you far in the playoffs.

[PushDaRock]

Battle is averaging significantly less 3 point attempts per game this season than last season:

2024: 4.4 three point attempts per game
2025: 1.3 three point attempts per game

You can't expect a shooting specialist to he impactful taking such low volume. It's crazy that he is shooting the % that he is.

lol that's because he made 10 threes in a row at one point and has only taken 41 on the year

His volume is lower because teams are taking away his catch and shoot 3's and he's not really a movement shooter. Done a better job with cutting and finishing at the rim this season though.

[Indeed]

You may want to check our team 3 point shooting stats with Barrett playing vs he is not playing.
It could be early season, but top of the league in 3 point efficiency back then? Even it is average, we are still largely better than being bottom.

It was just a hot shooting streak tbh.

Scottie and Mamu were shooting like 50% from the 3 on decent volume. The regression to the mean is hitting now. Reality is our team is just a very bad 3 point shooting team lol.

Our 5 best players can’t shoot the 3 efficiently.

RJ, BI, Scottie, Poeltl and CMB.

Mamu was never really that hot from 3, his hottest month was October at 45.5% but that was over 6 games and 5 for 11 shooting. He was 39% in November on 1.1 make per game, nothing really crazy.

Scottie's did have a hot shooting month in October making 50% of his 3's, but again it was 6 games on 12 for 24 shooting. He was 37% in November on 1.1 make per game, really good for him but not much volume there.

So yeah, there's some regression to the mean but both are on such low volume that it doesn't alone explain 2 less made 3's per game and a 5.7% drop in 3 PT% for the team when RJ doesn't play.

Rim pressure allows us to reduce what we are not good at in shooting the 3s, and allow the more confidence player to shoot it. We ended up with efficiency instead of volume. Because we got options.

If you look at the shooting split on shot clock, it indicated between 15-7 seconds left on the clock (half court set), we reduced our 3 point shooting to the league bottom and shooting very well with Barrett playing.

https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/shots-shotclock?ShotClockRange=15-7+Average&DateFrom=&DateTo=

[TGM]

It’s not just shooting. It’s the ability to create offense. BI is the only decent guy at doing that. The rest of the team including Scottie at times go stone cold and can’t turn things around.

This is where once again a pure point guard makes things different.

[Psubs]

1) Our 3 point shooting was pretty good with Barrett, even he is not an elite 3 point shooter, that may answer half of the problem
2) Best player isn't a 3 point shooter nor playing at C, so it will always be 1/4 lower than other teams.

Crazy how Barrett became a more reliable 3pt shooter than Dick.

[PushDaRock]

Lawson is still shooting better than Gradey.

Battle hasn't had enough opportunity. You can't be expected to peform getting spotty minutes here and there. How many shots has he taken over the last 2 months? 20?

And Gradey is still shooting better than him over their careers and the larger sample size

That's fine, but he still hasn't been performing when he's gotten those small opportunities lately is all I'm saying.

So your solution for improving the 3 point shooting is to keep trotting Gradey & Ochai out there to shoot bricks?

No, I'm saying there are no easy solutions. If you want to say Battle should play 15 mins a game or something, I'm not going to argue against it, but it's likely not moving the needle that much. Battle isn't getting much 3 point shooting volume this season because teams aren't just letting him catch and shoot anymore.

[Psubs]

If we were a better shooting team like you are trying to suggest we would not crumble everytime we are against a zone....If you think we are a good 3pt shooting team ...Your eyes are lying to you...



We rank dead last in 3pt shooting this year....That is not a winning formula especially in the playoffs when the game slows down and you need to hit shots.

Again, tell me WHO you want from the teams we played against last few games.
The excuse is that other teams are doing it because they got better shooters? No. Their best players were the reason, because you can't sub them out.

Not talking about individual players im talking about as a team.....You can't have a team shooting this horrible from 3 and expect to win.
Being dead last in 3s as a team means we are a bad shooting team as a whole....Battle can hit 4 3s in one game but if the rest of the team goes 1-25 than it does not really do much...

Having a bad shooting team in 2026 won't get you far in the playoffs.

I'm assuming Boston is top 3. They don't even need Tatum to get to the rim. Just spamming the 3, opens up the court and not allowing teams to go zone on you.

The Raptors have enough defense with Scottie and CMB. Just need more players that can shoot.

[Indeed]

And Gradey is still shooting better than him over their careers and the larger sample size

That's fine, but he still hasn't been performing when he's gotten those small opportunities lately is all I'm saying.

So your solution for improving the 3 point shooting is to keep trotting Gradey & Ochai out there to shoot bricks?

No, I'm saying there are no easy solutions. If you want to say Battle should play 15 mins a game or something, I'm not going to argue against it, but it's likely not moving the needle that much. Battle isn't getting much 3 point shooting volume this season because teams aren't just letting him catch and shoot anymore.

Easy solution is to have 4 players with shooting, so that if one player isn't shooting well, you still have 3.

viewtopic.php?f=32&t=2488790&start=100#p120823036

He's likely going to be an All-Star this year, maybe even an outside shot of making an All-NBA team. Contract isn't really an issue right now for him on a rookie max.

For what we need to fillout, his contract that doesn't match his skill set is an issue.

You need a 3&D center to compensate the spacing, you need 1st and 2nd option, those 3 will cost at least 65% of the salary, adding his, that is at 90% with another shooting PG, which is gonna cost more than 10%.

If he can shoot the 3, we can cheap out on the C, or if he can play PG, we may get away with a MLE SG. It just won't work in terms of so many things we need to fill, and usually you surround your 1st and 2nd option, instead of your 3rd option (except he is elite C who can defend C and switch against guards).

You are way overthinking this

I didn't over thinking this.

[HumbleRen]

You may want to check our team 3 point shooting stats with Barrett playing vs he is not playing.
It could be early season, but top of the league in 3 point efficiency back then? Even it is average, we are still largely better than being bottom.

It was just a hot shooting streak tbh.

Scottie and Mamu were shooting like 50% from the 3 on decent volume. The regression to the mean is hitting now. Reality is our team is just a very bad 3 point shooting team lol.

Our 5 best players can’t shoot the 3 efficiently.

RJ, BI, Scottie, Poeltl and CMB.

Mamu was never really that hot from 3, his hottest month was October at 45.5% but that was over 6 games and 5 for 11 shooting. He was 39% in November on 1.1 make per game, nothing really crazy.

Scottie's did have a hot shooting month in October making 50% of his 3's, but again it was 6 games on 12 for 24 shooting. He was 37% in November on 1.1 make per game, really good for him but not much volume there.

So yeah, there's some regression to the mean but both are on such low volume that it doesn't alone explain 2 less made 3's per game and a 5.7% drop in 3 PT% for the team when RJ doesn't play.

Shooting variance is measured over a lot more time than the data we had with RJ.

I think regardless of RJ is there or not, we’re a poor 3 point shooting team.

[TheDunc]

Its obvious that getting better shooting would solve alot of problems, i think one player that could come in right away and that wouldnt cost an absurd amount is Nikola Vucevic.

He doesnt solve the bigman problem but he helps two areas the raps are weak in right now size and 3 point shooting. His D isnt good but hes still a 7 footer who can rebound and hes smart.

Plus he plays every game, im not even a fan of his game but i do see a temporary fit

[theonlyeastcoastrapsfan]

We don’t have very good starting pg play.

[Psubs]

Its obvious that getting better shooting would solve alot of problems, i think one player that could come in right away and that wouldnt cost an absurd amount is Nikola Vucevic.

He doesnt solve the bigman problem but he helps two areas the raps are weak in right now size and 3 point shooting. His D isnt good but hes still a 7 footer who can rebound and hes smart.

Plus he plays every game, im not even a fan of his game but i do see a temporary fit

Vucevic for Poeltl, who says no? Bulls only have under-sized Jalen Smith under contract for 2027.

[Tha Cynic]

You guys are over-indexing this way too much. If you watch the games, you can clearly see that our players flat out miss wide open shots and can’t burn defenders when they go under screens. This team is very bad at shooting and having one player back isn’t changing that.

At this stage I’m questioning our development staff and how they’re teaching shooting. Everyone is using the same tools/system but the message and execution is different. Raptors are bottom of the league. Something needs to be revamped completely here.

[deck]

What I feel we should be talking about is why has this been a persistent issue for many years?

Certainly talent is part of the issue, but it seems like there is also something systemic within the organization where our players see their shooting regress here.