We Can't Shoot for Sh*t

[YogurtProducer]

I actually do expect most guys to be better. Just look at our stock %'s over the last 15

IQ - 31.8% - gonna progress
Ingram - 31.4% - gonna progress
Shead - 29.4%
Mamu - 28.8% - gonna progress
Walter - 34.1% -
Dick - 26.2% - gonna progress
RJ - 35.1% -
Barnnes - 14.7% - gonna progress
Agbaji - 24.1% - one would think he won't shoot sub 25% forever
Battle - 31.3% - gonna progress
CMB - 14.3% - TBD, but I don't think he is a 40% shooter like early year, but he also is not a 14% shooter

If we were like middle of pack in 3pt% shooting as a team you can use the "Just a bad luck stretch" excuse but being dead last at 30 in the league more than likely means we are just a bad shooting team.

Sure - up to Dec 20th we were 15th (middle of the pack), and since Dec 21st (Which includes the stats I posted) we are 30th.

So considering we WERE middle of the pack for 35 games, and last for 15 games, which one is more telling of what we can expect going forward?

When you look at our team, that is not a roster you expect to shoot 29.0% from 3 like we have over the last month.

Indeed, and half of those "gonna progress" are in a downward trend.

Thats exactly the type of guys that you expect to progress. What do you think is more likely:

IQ is a 32% shooter like he has been over the last 15 games
OR
IQ is a 37% shooter like he has been over the last 365 games?

Now apply that for Mamu (35% career), Ingram (36% career), Dick (35% career), Barnes (30% career), Agbaji (34% career), Battle (41% career).

What is more likely? Everyone forgot how to shoot? Or is this just a weirdly bad stretch for a group of guys who really are not that bad of shooters?

Meanwhile, Shead, Walter and Barrett are the ones who improved over the year. Those are the ones I value.

Shead is shooting worse than last year.
Walter is up to 36.7% from 34.9%
Barrett is at 35.5% and has shot 36.0% as a Raptor since he got here.

So kind of weird to value 3 guys who haven't shown any monumental improvement outside of a whopping 1.8% by JKW (which is a whopping 2 more makes this year than if he "didnt improve")

TLDR - this board still sucks with understanding shooting variance.

[ItsDanger]

Good teams ramp up their defense in 2nd half, especially 4th quarter amd crunch time.

[ConSarnit]

Being ranked 30TH in 3PT% in the NBA certainly does trump defence and rebounding. We have no respectable shooters on this team. Pathetic

This team can't be taken seriously in the playoffs until this changes

I suspect we'll run into some major issues in the playoffs when teams lock in and stop guarding many of our players if they are on the perimeter.

Barnes, Shead, CMB, Poeltl. All candidates to not get guarded when they don't have the ball.

The entire offense is pretty much surviving off of transition right now. That's a bandaid solution for larger offensive issues. It's also something that tends to get shut down in the playoffs.

Lack of shooting + heavy reliance on transition = not the recipe for playoff success.

Yeah this shouldn't be confused as a team who is going to perform well offensively in a playoff atmosphere. But then again, neither is a team like Orlando so if that somehow is our round 1 matchup I think we got a very good chance.

This is year 1 of winning. We have lots of time to make moves and find some guys who can actually shoot the ball.

Also important to remember that it is unlikely a guy like IQ is going to shoot this badly forever. That alone is making it seem a lot worse than it truly is.

ORL would definitely be a slog of a series. Oddly enough I’m not really afraid of any East team right now, even with our own faults. Unless Tatum comes back at 90% is there any team that’s separated themself? DET’s offense could go in the tank in the playoffs. The Knicks would be annoying but largely due to Brunson’s incredibly annoying foul drawing game. The Cavs have shown themselves to be a paper tiger. I’d be more afraid of the Bucks with healthy Giannis than most of the higher East playoff teams.

[YogurtProducer]

Good teams ramp up their defense in 2nd half, especially 4th quarter amd crunch time.

Good thing we got the 3rd best 2nd half defence, the 7th best 4th quarter defence, and the 2nd best "clutch" defence.

So what are you even trying to insinuate?

[dballislife]

quick and gradey are suppose to shoot the 3 around 38-40% and shoot a lot of it...but them shooting 34 and 30 so far is the difference...these are our two main shooters or were suppose to be

[Westside Gunn]

If Walter and RJ are our 3 point % leaders we are screwed lol

IQ and Gradey really need to step it up

[SharoneWright]

Immanuel Brickley

[MEDIC]

Immanuel Brickley

Quick & Dick McBrick

[VanWest82]

We definitely need better shooters but we also need better screeners. Not having Jak in the line up really hurts us there. no one else on the team carves out space for guys. It'd also help if we had anyone who could reliably draw double teams and make the right pass out of them.

[TGM]

We ate the worst 3pt shooting team in the league followed by Blazers, Magic, Pacers and Pelicans.

There is one coming denominator amongst all five of our teams.

Blazers - No PG right now. Jrue, Scoot, Dame all out.

Magic - Suggs has been half injured and they playing a bench PG in Jones

Pacers - Tyrese out Pacers are 3% lower on 3pt shooting percentage compared to last year. nembhard is a decent but not top tier PG. more like high end back-up

Pelicans - Murray out and they playing Fears who plays more like a SG.

This is not coincidental. Also why despite Ja not being a great 3pt shooter he can still elevate the team by giving better open looks.

[lobosloboslobos]

We ate the worst 3pt shooting team in the league followed by Blazers, Magic, Pacers and Pelicans.

There is one coming denominator amongst all five of our teams.

Blazers - No PG right now. Jrue, Scoot, Dame all out.

Magic - Suggs has been half injured and they playing a bench PG in Jones

Pacers - Tyrese out Pacers are 3% lower on 3pt shooting percentage compared to last year. nembhard is a decent but not top tier PG. more like high end back-up

Pelicans - Murray out and they playing Fears who plays more like a SG.

This is not coincidental. Also why despite Ja not being a great 3pt shooter he can still elevate the team by giving better open looks.

One thing I have always thought is that guys hit 3s when they know the ball is coming their way, or when they get it as part of the flow that they can feel shaping up to lead to the ball getting to them. That is something a good PG does, he gets the ball to guys where and when they are expecting it and i really believe that has a very big impact on whether that shot goes in.

So much of our half-court offense feels incoherent to me, like plays happen but rarely does it feel like there was a plan that was being put into action, except sometimes with Shead running the play. You watch a team like Boston and the ball moves much more purposefully to guys like Derrick White. he knows the ball is coming to him, or Pritchard or whoever is waiting at the 3pt line. They are ready and waiting when the ball gets there. That hardly ever happens with us. Even if we do get open looks it doesn't seem like the guy has been waiting and expecting the pass, more like it just ends up there. That could be part of our problem and yeah it's tied to PG play.

[MEDIC]

We ate the worst 3pt shooting team in the league followed by Blazers, Magic, Pacers and Pelicans.

There is one coming denominator amongst all five of our teams.

Blazers - No PG right now. Jrue, Scoot, Dame all out.

Magic - Suggs has been half injured and they playing a bench PG in Jones

Pacers - Tyrese out Pacers are 3% lower on 3pt shooting percentage compared to last year. nembhard is a decent but not top tier PG. more like high end back-up

Pelicans - Murray out and they playing Fears who plays more like a SG.

This is not coincidental. Also why despite Ja not being a great 3pt shooter he can still elevate the team by giving better open looks.

One thing I have always thought is that guys hit 3s when they know the ball is coming their way, or when they get it as part of the flow that they can feel shaping up to lead to the ball getting to them. That is something a good PG does, he gets the ball to guys where and when they are expecting it and i really believe that has a very big impact on whether that shot goes in.

So much of our half-court offense feels incoherent to me, like plays happen but rarely does it feel like there was a plan that was being put into action, except sometimes with Shead running the play. You watch a team like Boston and the ball moves much more purposefully to guys like Derrick White. he knows the ball is coming to him, or Pritchard or whoever is waiting at the 3pt line. They are ready and waiting when the ball gets there. That hardly ever happens with us. Even if we do get open looks it doesn't seem like the guy haks been waiting and expecting the pass, more like it just ends up there. That could be part of our problem and yeah it's tied to PG play.

Part of that is experience & age though. All of their main guys have been in the league for 8 seasons or more. Plus Tatum and Brown have been together that whole time.

White - 31 years old
Brown - 29
Hauser - 28
Pritchard - 28
Garza - 27
Queta - 26
Simons - 26
Tatum - 26

Almost every player has entered their prime.

Ingram is the only player on the roster this season that can match these guys experience wise & age wise (not going to count Yak......who hasn't played).

The other night against the Lakers we had BI, & almost everyone else that played was 24 years old or less & 3 years or less in the league. Shead has one year experience. CMB is a rookie, Martin is a rookie, Gradey has two years, Battle has 1 year.

It's actually impressive that they kept up.

I keep saying that if they are serious about winning, they need some veteran help. Experience matters.

Imagine this team with a 26 year old Scottie, a 27 year old RJ & a 30 year old Ingram (& a 22 yo CMB)......who have all been playing together for 3 seasons.

[StopitLeo]

It's been pretty bad.

Quickley has been really disappointing. I think we were all expecting a 38-40% 3pt shooter when he was given that contract and he's below league average right now.

Gradey has never shown that he can be the shooter people projected when he was drafted. At 30% right now he is basically unplayable.

What I don't understand is why Ochai is not getting more time or shots. He was basically a knock down 3pt shooter last year.

[PushDaRock]

It's been pretty bad.

Quickley has been really disappointing. I think we were all expecting a 38-40% 3pt shooter when he was given that contract and he's below league average right now.

Gradey has never shown that he can be the shooter people projected when he was drafted. At 30% right now he is basically unplayable.

What I don't understand is why Ochai is not getting more time or shots. He was basically a knock down 3pt shooter last year.

lol what do you mean? Have you seen Ochai's shooting percentages this year?

[CPT]

This won’t be fixed by adding a Luke Kennard type.

Our starters need to shoot better, or they need to be replaced with players who can.

I would like to see a decent stretch with everyone healthy and IQ shooting at the level he’s capable of before drawing any final conclusions, but we could all look at this roster and know it was going to be an issue.

I’m also not sure why Ingram isn’t a better shooter. He just seems like he should be better at it than he is.

We don’t have to be 1st in the league, but we can’t be last.

[StopitLeo]

It's been pretty bad.

Quickley has been really disappointing. I think we were all expecting a 38-40% 3pt shooter when he was given that contract and he's below league average right now.

Gradey has never shown that he can be the shooter people projected when he was drafted. At 30% right now he is basically unplayable.

What I don't understand is why Ochai is not getting more time or shots. He was basically a knock down 3pt shooter last year.

lol what do you mean? Have you seen Ochai's shooting percentages this year?

Ochai has only had 58 3PA this season.

He's been an above-average 3pt shooter from the corners his entire career and last year he really improved above the break.

[MEDIC]

This won’t be fixed by adding a Luke Kennard type.

Our starters need to shoot better, or they need to be replaced with players who can.

I would like to see a decent stretch with everyone healthy and IQ shooting at the level he’s capable of before drawing any final conclusions, but we could all look at this roster and know it was going to be an issue.

I’m also not sure why Ingram isn’t a better shooter. He just seems like he should be better at it than he is.

We don’t have to be 1st in the league, but we can’t be last.

At this point though, the problem isn't the guys that are shooting 35% or more. It's the guys that are shooting less than than that & taking a lot of 3 point shots.

The way our offense works (a lot of transition points), like you said......I don't think they need to be a top 10 3 point shooting team percentage wise........but they need to be able to punish the teams that play zone or sag off our shooters. Just enough so that they have to adjust or at least be hesitant about doing it.

We need more volume guys shooting closer to league average.

[Indeed]

We ate the worst 3pt shooting team in the league followed by Blazers, Magic, Pacers and Pelicans.

There is one coming denominator amongst all five of our teams.

Blazers - No PG right now. Jrue, Scoot, Dame all out.

Magic - Suggs has been half injured and they playing a bench PG in Jones

Pacers - Tyrese out Pacers are 3% lower on 3pt shooting percentage compared to last year. nembhard is a decent but not top tier PG. more like high end back-up

Pelicans - Murray out and they playing Fears who plays more like a SG.

This is not coincidental. Also why despite Ja not being a great 3pt shooter he can still elevate the team by giving better open looks.

One thing I have always thought is that guys hit 3s when they know the ball is coming their way, or when they get it as part of the flow that they can feel shaping up to lead to the ball getting to them. That is something a good PG does, he gets the ball to guys where and when they are expecting it and i really believe that has a very big impact on whether that shot goes in.

So much of our half-court offense feels incoherent to me, like plays happen but rarely does it feel like there was a plan that was being put into action, except sometimes with Shead running the play. You watch a team like Boston and the ball moves much more purposefully to guys like Derrick White. he knows the ball is coming to him, or Pritchard or whoever is waiting at the 3pt line. They are ready and waiting when the ball gets there. That hardly ever happens with us. Even if we do get open looks it doesn't seem like the guy haks been waiting and expecting the pass, more like it just ends up there. That could be part of our problem and yeah it's tied to PG play.

Part of that is experience & age though. All of their main guys have been in the league for 8 seasons or more. Plus Tatum and Brown have been together that whole time.

White - 31 years old
Brown - 29
Hauser - 28
Pritchard - 28
Garza - 27
Queta - 26
Simons - 26
Tatum - 26

Almost every player has entered their prime.

Ingram is the only player on the roster this season that can match these guys experience wise & age wise (not going to count Yak......who hasn't played).

The other night against the Lakers we had BI, & almost everyone else that played was 24 years old or less & 3 years or less in the league. Shead has one year experience. CMB is a rookie, Martin is a rookie, Gradey has two years, Battle has 1 year.

It's actually impressive that they kept up.

I keep saying that if they are serious about winning, they need some veteran help. Experience matters.

Imagine this team with a 26 year old Scottie, a 27 year old RJ & a 30 year old Ingram (& a 22 yo CMB)......who have all been playing together for 3 seasons.

Thunders and Spurs must have some kind of veteran inside them that age cant explain, lol.

Stop giving excuse, Davion Mitchell said the same thing on his 1 year here on how he needs to think who to setup before calling the play. We simply lack a PG, rim pressure, a center, 3 point shooting with Barrett and Poeltl injured, and hardly able to fill with just these 2 positions.

[MEDIC]

One thing I have always thought is that guys hit 3s when they know the ball is coming their way, or when they get it as part of the flow that they can feel shaping up to lead to the ball getting to them. That is something a good PG does, he gets the ball to guys where and when they are expecting it and i really believe that has a very big impact on whether that shot goes in.

So much of our half-court offense feels incoherent to me, like plays happen but rarely does it feel like there was a plan that was being put into action, except sometimes with Shead running the play. You watch a team like Boston and the ball moves much more purposefully to guys like Derrick White. he knows the ball is coming to him, or Pritchard or whoever is waiting at the 3pt line. They are ready and waiting when the ball gets there. That hardly ever happens with us. Even if we do get open looks it doesn't seem like the guy haks been waiting and expecting the pass, more like it just ends up there. That could be part of our problem and yeah it's tied to PG play.

Part of that is experience & age though. All of their main guys have been in the league for 8 seasons or more. Plus Tatum and Brown have been together that whole time.

White - 31 years old
Brown - 29
Hauser - 28
Pritchard - 28
Garza - 27
Queta - 26
Simons - 26
Tatum - 26

Almost every player has entered their prime.

Ingram is the only player on the roster this season that can match these guys experience wise & age wise (not going to count Yak......who hasn't played).

The other night against the Lakers we had BI, & almost everyone else that played was 24 years old or less & 3 years or less in the league. Shead has one year experience. CMB is a rookie, Martin is a rookie, Gradey has two years, Battle has 1 year.

It's actually impressive that they kept up.

I keep saying that if they are serious about winning, they need some veteran help. Experience matters.

Imagine this team with a 26 year old Scottie, a 27 year old RJ & a 30 year old Ingram (& a 22 yo CMB)......who have all been playing together for 3 seasons.

Thunders and Spurs must have some kind of veteran inside them that age cant explain, lol.

Stop giving excuse, Davion Mitchell said the same thing on his 1 year here on how he needs to think who to setup before calling the play. We simply lack a PG, rim pressure, a center, 3 point shooting with Barrett and Poeltl injured, and hardly able to fill with just these 2 positions.

The Thunder are a complete anomaly.

The discussion was comparing the ball movement & basketball IQ of the Boston Celtics vs the Raptors.

A perfect example is when we added capable veteran players for the championship run. Especially Gasol. The game looked very different. Suddenly the right reads were being made. Not only were they being made, but they were being made much quicker (instinctively).

Experience (& basketball IQ) matter.

Is our PG play also a problem? For aure. We have a guy who isn't a playmaker & a 2nd round pick that only has one year of experience.

[PushDaRock]

It's been pretty bad.

Quickley has been really disappointing. I think we were all expecting a 38-40% 3pt shooter when he was given that contract and he's below league average right now.

Gradey has never shown that he can be the shooter people projected when he was drafted. At 30% right now he is basically unplayable.

What I don't understand is why Ochai is not getting more time or shots. He was basically a knock down 3pt shooter last year.

lol what do you mean? Have you seen Ochai's shooting percentages this year?

Ochai has only had 58 3PA this season.

He's been an above-average 3pt shooter from the corners his entire career and last year he really improved above the break.

He's shooting 52% of his 3's from the corners and he's making 23% of them. Why would he be getting more playing time?