Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Shot Chart (1969-1980)

Dipper 13 · Post #1 » by **Dipper 13** » Fri May 31, 2013 12:02 pm

KAJ shot chart from various games from 1969-1980, using the NBA.com templates. 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.

While KAJ is a good finisher at the rim, it's his efficiency in the paint on shots from a few feet out which stands out. His shooting touch is excellent from the 5-15 foot range with those wheeling hook shots and soft jumpers that swish through the hoop. He is deadly efficient in the paint on shots (51.4%) that are not necessarily at the rim. Plus he is much better from the right block (56.8%) than the left (38.7%). Almost the exact opposite of Wilt Chamberlain, who preferred the left block to the right.

At Rim: 157/216 FG (72.7%)
In Paint (Overall): 251/399 FG (62.9%)
Mid-Range: 54/121 FG (44.6%)

Charts

Spoiler:

List of Games (24 Total)

Spoiler:

Jordan23Forever · Post #2 » by **Jordan23Forever** » Fri May 31, 2013 12:24 pm

That mid-range % for a big is insane even though most were probably within 10-11 feet or so.

colts18 · Post #3 » by **colts18** » Fri May 31, 2013 12:38 pm

What was his percentage for hook shots?

Dipper 13 · Post #4 » by **Dipper 13** » Fri May 31, 2013 12:43 pm

What was his percentage for hook shots?

I didn't keep track, if I had to guess it would still be above 50%.

That mid-range % for a big is insane even though most were probably within 10-11 feet or so.

Yes most of them were. But there were even some shots in the pain attempted from 14-15 feet out. He seemed to take more jumpers from the right side. Also his wheeling move from the left side would be coming back across the middle (where he was excellent) but he was best turning to the right baseline for the hook, where he could shoot it with his right hand and protect the shot much better against the help defense. Even though he could hit the shots with his left hand, he didn't seem as comfortable with that as his regular hook. It's all about the rhythm & mechanics.

This is an example of his ideal shot both across the middle and from the right side.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usDqCrm0r_w&t=1m51s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usDqCrm0r_w&t=3m20s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usDqCrm0r_w&t=6m50s

mysticbb · Post #5 » by **mysticbb** » Fri May 31, 2013 12:53 pm

To put something here into perspective. During the here selected sample Abdul-Jabbar had 58.7 fg%. Overall, regular season and playoffs combined, Abdul-Jabbar from 1969 to 1980 had 55.3 fg%. Thus, we have a sample which is not exactly representative for him.

There are also essentially no shots from 15 to 23 ft, where the best midrange shooters today are basically taking half of their midrange shots.

colts18 · Post #6 » by **colts18** » Fri May 31, 2013 12:55 pm

mysticbb wrote:To put something here into perspective. During the here selected sample Abdul-Jabbar had 58.7 fg%. Overall, regular season and playoffs combined, Abdul-Jabbar from 1969 to 1980 had 55.3 fg%. Thus, we have a sample which is not exactly representative for him.

There are also essentially no shots from 15 to 23 ft, where the best midrange shooters today are basically taking half of their midrange shots.

I would hope that Kareem was not taking 23 foot shots in the era of no 3 point line :lol:

. I'jm surprised with no 15 footers since I've seen Kareem attempt long hook shots. I wish Dipper tracked Kareem's hook shots because when I tracked them, they seemed impossible to stop. Kareem was at least 50-60 FG% on hooks.

Dipper 13 · Post #7 » by **Dipper 13** » Fri May 31, 2013 12:57 pm

Thus, we have a sample which is not exactly representative for him.

Yes it's much better to look at the charts, and this is only 24 games (some incomplete). Even Charles Barkley from the 1988-92 sample was 44% from "midrange" though with less than 100 FG attempts.

viewtopic.php?f=64&t=1244886#p35532647

At Rim: 216/270 FG (80.0%)
In Paint (Overall): 237/324 FG (73.1%)
Mid-Range: 41/93 FG (44.1%)
3 Point: 13/53 FG (24.5%)

Charts

Spoiler:

Dipper 13 · Post #8 » by **Dipper 13** » Fri May 31, 2013 1:02 pm

I'jm surprised with no 15 footers since I've seen Kareem attempt long hook shots.

In the paint? I just kept track the way NBA.com did, which can be a bit misleading. He did take quite a few shots from 14 or so feet out across the middle.

colts18 · Post #9 » by **colts18** » Fri May 31, 2013 1:06 pm

Dipper 13 wrote:
I'jm surprised with no 15 footers since I've seen Kareem attempt long hook shots.

In the paint? I just kept track the way NBA.com did, which can be a bit misleading. He did take quite a few shots from 14 or so feet out across the middle.

Did you see Kareem take any true jumpers from like 14 feet or farther? I don't recall seeing him taking a long jumper before

mysticbb · Post #10 » by **mysticbb** » Fri May 31, 2013 1:14 pm

colts18 wrote:I would hope that Kareem was not taking 23 foot shots in the era of no 3 point line

For sure. My point was rather that we saw a development in terms of midrange shots, which makes the statement "midrange % being insane for a big" in todays context just misleading. Today's best big midrange shooter are having such percentage (or even higher) just from 16 to 23 ft.

colts18 wrote:I wish Dipper tracked Kareem's hook shots because when I tracked them, they seemed impossible to stop.

Yeah, it would be nice to see the numbers based on shot types (at a rim a differentiation between layups and dunks). But tracking all the stuff is time consuming, so, I appreciate that he presented the shot chart created during that sample. Well, I can imagine that Abdul-Jabbar was able to hit the midrange shot at a higher level than usual during that sample. But anyway, seeing the shot locations is already really informative.

Dipper 13 wrote:Yes it's much better to look at the charts, and this is only 24 games (some incomplete). Even Charles Barkley from the 1988-92 sample was 44% from "midrange" though with less than 100 FG attempts.

Thanks. Haven't seen that chart before. Especially telling that Barkley took so many shots from the left (baseline) while not being that efficient with that. Also, he was not that good from the corners (albeit really small sample) with that 3pt shot, but from the left and top he made nearly 39% of those. Based on that, force him to the left and below the ft extended (obviously depending how his passing was from that spot, the smaller amount of shots from the right side might be due to better passing angles from those spots). At the rim he was obviously nearly unstoppable despite his height disadvantage. But with his lower body strength, agility and relatively great quickness (for his size and strength), he was easily able to compensate for that disadvantage. Would have been nice, if he would have used that on the defensive end as well ...

Edit: Just want to say that I really appreciate the effort of yours to provide so many information about those "older" players, Dipper 13. To bad the lack of an adequate search function or a quick list of all of your posts makes it tough to find them quickly when needed.

Dipper 13 · Post #11 » by **Dipper 13** » Fri May 31, 2013 1:30 pm

colts18 wrote:Did you see Kareem take any true jumpers from like 14 feet or farther? I don't recall seeing him taking a long jumper before

Only one from the right side in his first ever game (1969), and I believe the shot clock was a factor.

mysticbb wrote: At the rim he was obviously nearly unstoppable despite his height disadvantage. But with his lower body strength, agility and relatively great quickness (for his size and strength), he was easily able to compensate for that disadvantage.

Yes, also he went up strong with two hands nearly every single time. Outside of tip ins I don't recall him taking many 1 handed shots (including dunks) around the rim.

Edit: Just want to say that I really appreciate the effort of yours to provide so many information about those "older" players, Dipper 13. To bad the lack of an adequate search function or a quick list of all of your posts makes it tough to find them quickly when needed.

Google Search can find basically anything. Just type the following and then the search term afterwards (with a space):

site:forums.realgm.com

mysticbb · Post #12 » by **mysticbb** » Fri May 31, 2013 1:52 pm

Dipper 13 wrote:Google Search can find basically anything. Just type the following and then the search term afterwards (with a space):
site:forums.realgm.com

And add Dipper 13, if necessary. ;) But it is still a mess, because I get just a link to the thread (albeit to the respective page), not a direct link to the post.

lorak · Post #13 » by **lorak** » Fri May 31, 2013 1:59 pm

We should have one sticked thread with links to the most informative posts (like Dipper's here).

BTW, I counted KAJ's sky hooks in one game (1981 playoffs vs Rockets) and he made 7 of 13 attempts.

colts18 · Post #14 » by **colts18** » Fri May 31, 2013 2:05 pm

DavidStern wrote:We should have one sticked thread with links to the most informative posts (like Dipper's here).

BTW, I counted KAJ's sky hooks in one game (1981 playoffs vs Rockets) and he made 7 of 13 attempts.

When I tracked 2 Kareem playoff games vs Walton, he made 15 out of 20 hook shots. 1 on 1, no one except maybe Wilt or Shaq would have a chance vs Kareem's Hook

ceiling raiser · Post #15 » by **ceiling raiser** » Fri May 31, 2013 2:13 pm

colts18 wrote:
DavidStern wrote:We should have one sticked thread with links to the most informative posts (like Dipper's here).

BTW, I counted KAJ's sky hooks in one game (1981 playoffs vs Rockets) and he made 7 of 13 attempts.

When I tracked 2 Kareem playoff games vs Walton, he made 15 out of 20 hook shots. 1 on 1, no one except maybe Wilt or Shaq would have a chance vs Kareem's Hook

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there footage of Thurmond blocking at least one?

That's not terribly surprising about Walton though. He was certainly one of the best team defenders we've seen, but I don't think I've seen anything to suggest he was an exceptional man post defender.

dautjazz · Post #16 » by **dautjazz** » Fri May 31, 2013 2:22 pm

DavidStern wrote:We should have one sticked thread with links to the most informative posts (like Dipper's here).

BTW, I counted KAJ's sky hooks in one game (1981 playoffs vs Rockets) and he made 7 of 13 attempts.

WOW!

That's a lot of hook shots, and great accuracy. Was the hook shot a shot out of necessity if he couldn't get a clean look otherwise or was it simply his go to move?

Post #17 » by **tsherkin** » Fri May 31, 2013 2:34 pm

Great work.

As to Kareem favoring the right block versus Wilt the left, KAJ's favorite move was going baseline for his righty skyhook, whereas Wilt's hook was primarily right-handed so, like Shaq, he preferred the left block so it left him going into the paint.

dautjazz wrote:WOW! That's a lot of hook shots, and great accuracy. Was the hook shot a shot out of necessity if he couldn't get a clean look otherwise or was it simply his go to move?

It was definitely his go-to move. He could do it going baseline with the right hand, he could do it baseline with the left hand on the left block (not as accurately) and I've seen him do it in Milwaukee coming out of a face-up drive and moving into a spin. He milked that thing for all it was worth. Left block, he also did it moving into the paint with his right hand.

Meantime, when someone calls the skyhook "unblockable," it's not meant to be taken 100% literally. Wilt blocked a few, Hakeem could frustrate it, Thurmond did alright... but by and large if he got the ball, he was getting off the hook and he obviously shot very, very well.

As to mystic's comments about total RS and PS FG%, I have to support them. I wanted to disagree with him, but...

Kareem played 74 games in his final season at 47.5% FG (3.8% lower than his previous career-low), and he shot 46.3% over his last 39 playoff games, which was also atypical (though he shot quite poorly in the 72 and 73 playoffs).

Reasonably, we should be looking at Kareem's prime, right, to control for possible end-stage decline?

Over his first 11 seasons (e.g. during the time when he was winning MVPs):

RS: 55.5% FG
PS: 53.6% FG

So yeah, 58.7% isn't ultra accurate, even on a season-to-season basis. That's still really, really good, but there's something in there which doesn't totally represent his finishing ability. Probably on his more distant shots, maybe? A change in proportion?

ronnymac2 · Post #18 » by **ronnymac2** » Fri May 31, 2013 6:48 pm

Awesome work Dipper. Thanks for the info.!

I remember watching a game from the mid-70s where KAJ was using the mid-range jumper/set shot as a weapon from about the free throw line. He did use that shot occasionally, kind of like a young Tim Duncan.

Man, Kareem's sky-hook was something special...

Dipper 13 · Post #19 » by **Dipper 13** » Tue Jan 7, 2014 7:23 am

Couple more games added, quite a few of which are incomplete. There are some inconsistencies with the FGA in comparison to the shot chart, but I also kept track of the "Skyhook" statistic.

26 Games Total

http://i.imgur.com/AATHz6a.png

Skyhook: 108/193 FG (56.0%)

Gregoire · Post #20 » by **Gregoire** » Tue Jan 7, 2014 11:59 am

Dipper 13 wrote:Couple more games added, quite a few of which are incomplete. There are some inconsistencies with the FGA in comparison to the shot chart, but I also kept track of the "Skyhook" statistic.

26 Games Total

http://i.imgur.com/AATHz6a.png

Skyhook: 108/193 FG (56.0%)

its interesting to compare post-up with MJ and Shaq