The Kobe Assist - grantland article

[dockingsched]

this article talks about how missed shots often times lead to good shots off of putbacks/offensive boards, and goes on to credit the person to miss the shot with a "kobe assist".

i know it sounds silly, but getting passed the part of a kobe assist, its a very intriguing look at how the lakers can' take advantage of kobe's misses to get the ball in good position and go right back up for the bucket. its a long article that i'll be reading in more detail later on, but like i said, its an intriguing look at how some of kobe's misses, where he takes them from, lead to a league leading amount of "kobe assists".

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/871 ... obe-assist

[Patman]

Cool article. Very interesting insights.

[dockingsched]

the most interesting part to me is a look at how sometimes a lower percentage shot may be smarter offense because it leads to higher percentage chance of getting an offensive rebound and possible immediate putback.

[Patman]

the most interesting part to me is a look at how sometimes a lower percentage shot may be smarter offense because it leads to higher percentage chance of getting an offensive rebound and possible immediate putback.

This was an effect I saw with Jason Terry and JJ Barea the year they won the title, especially against the Heat. They wanted to block their shots so bad that they were often out of position to rebound the ball.

[Luxury]

Kobe attracts 2-3 defenders almost every time. If he wants to pass, its up to the shooters and cutters. If he wants to shoot it, he has the ability to still hit those tough shots. If he misses, at least he created lanes/space for offensive rebounding opportunities.

I miss that 2008-2010 Laker team, they played this to perfection esp. Pau and Odom

[crazy8ights]

Kobe is probably the king of this, even watching last night's game there were a few examples. Interesting teams might study this article and sag off Kobe a bit instead of alleviating space when closing out on him. Either way seems like a win win situation if teams adjust.

[ennui]

This originally came to my attention in like 2009 when JVG was commentating a game. Kobe missed an off-balance jumper, but since he drew a double and it was a long two, Gasol got an easy put back as a result. JVG immediately stated that a Kobe Bryant (obviously doesn't only apply to him) miss from certain areas in certain contexts is as valuable as an assist.

[ennui]

Adversely, deeper shots have "harder" misses; the ball tends to fly out farther to the perimeter, where perimeter players rebound and are off to the races. Just from the eye test, I notice that Kobe's heat check threes often lead to run-outs and fast-breaks.

[Soul Chef Fresh]

Very interesting read.

It's definitely in the realm of advanced stats, but I don't think they'll alter Eff% or TS% to reflect this "Kobe Assist"

Coach Spo's after game adjustments for a system like this would be pretty amazing.

[Doormatt]

its really what makes basketball stats so hard to accurately judge players and why i really like advanced +/- numbers. but yes basketball is not like baseball and its hard even with advanced stats to judge players, since the value they provide to their team can be unique and cant be seen by anything measurable.

[Doormatt]

on a side note, i really like some of the articles on grantland. i read the one about arsenal and man utd that someone wrote, very well written and insightful.

[Slava]

I like their basketball articles, especially by Zach Lowe and Bill Simmons. Infact most of their opinion pieces on american sports is pretty good except for that Smush Parker butt love article but I feel they pull stuff out their asses when they talk English football.

[Doormatt]

iunno i thought the piece on arsenal was pretty decent, and kind of accurate. the one on man utd didnt make much sense but it was an entertaining read lol. i like reading americans opinions on football, its nice to see what people who havent followed the sport there whole lives look at it. its an interesting POV to read imo.

[Imadogg]

I love Grantland, I'll get to this article later though cuz I always leave a tab with each article open and they intimidate me and I take like 100 days to finally get to reading em but it's worth it.

I don't know if they touched on this in the article, but something like this was actually brought up on tv with regards to the Pacers. They have a real **** offense right now and everyone is shooting horribly on that team.. someone mentioned how it was actually great to have Granger on the team jacking up shots; he might have been chucking and shooting a low percentage recently, but he brought defenders to him, he freed up the rest of the guys, and his misses led to rebounds and easier offense for the team.

[Slava]

Danny Granger sucks, there's no two ways about it, you better be the 2004 pistons to win it with him as the first option.

[The Skyhook]

I remember during the 2009 and 2010 seasons the commentators on ESPN and TNT used to talk about this "Kobe assist" a lot. You definitely have to give credit to the bigs we had on the team. Gasol and Odom used to play volleyball with the backboard. This team was hella fun to watch back then.

[Imadogg]

Danny Granger sucks, there's no two ways about it, you better be the 2004 pistons to win it with him as the first option.

wat

Who brought up Pacers winning the title, point is people say he sucks but they're actually wayyyy worse offensively this year without him, so apparently his "sucking" might actually help the team with his Kobe assists