ATLTimekeeper wrote:Indeed wrote:vini_vidi_vici wrote:Anyone know who leads the L in fewest Opponents points in the paint??
Ill give you a hint, most of the people in this thread havent looked. We should look at the Cavs, 3rd most points in the paint, with their "bigs", as something to emulate though.
From basketball reference, opponent FG% from 0 - 3, we are giving up in the top 4 at 71.8%. Meaning opponents may not shoot a lot in the paint (or at 0 - 3), but the shooting percentage is among highest.
If you watch the last game, you probably know we have everyone come into the paint and protect the rim. In perfect scenario with our length, we can go out and contest 3 point shots. However, most of the time we are not perfect, and we were leading (now 2nd) in corner 3 attempts (29.7%).
In conclusion, we are not giving a lot of attempts in the paint, if we do, they are most likely going to score (71.8%). If they are able to make a pass to shooters (2nd in giving up corner 3), we need to be perfect in rotation and quick enough to contest them, and keep us in the middle of the league.
Or if we have a shot blocker (actually Birch isn't bad contesting shot, but probably not enough with just one), we may not need to collapse that much and stay with shooters. Just my thought.
They've given up the corner 3, but have taken away the above the break 3. So more role players are getting easy high % looks, but it's still a lower volume shot than the above the break 3. League high from the corners the last few years is 11-12 shots, and the Raptors have been up there. Above the break is around 30, and this year the Raptors are giving up 22. This is in part because Achiuwa and Birch can extend pretty far (although Birch is more conservative).
Given that Achiuwa, Barnes, Banton, Mykailiuk are all playing minutes this is pretty promising. As they gain experience in the league and in the system they'll be able to make more intuitive plays. Even Birch and Trent have barely been with the team.
We are giving up 35.3 attempts for 3s per 100 possessions, we are middle in giving up 3s, which is 14th this year. And 35.3% for opponent 3FG%, which is 12th (tied 10th) this year. So the result suggested we are not the top league in defending 3s. We are top team in defending the 2s in limiting 49.6% of opponent shots in 2 per 100 possessions being 26th, while shooting 52.4% being 12th.
So that tells me:
1) We are limiting 2FGA (26th), but opponent shooting percentage for 2 isn't bad (12th)
2) We are being average in 3FGA (14th), but opponent shooting percentage for 3 isn't bad (10th - 12th)
And how many 3s are being close to the defenders? We are near middle, but above the half (11th)
https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/opponent-shots-closest-defender/?Season=2021-22&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&CloseDefDistRange=6%2B%20Feet%20-%20Wide%20Open&sort=FG3A_FREQUENCY&dir=1
This clearly tells me that we are not contesting 3s above average and opponent are shooting above average for that reason. Why we are not contesting that much, which personally believe our focus is to defend the paint (limiting 2FGA).
If you are happy with our defense being average with giving up a lot in the half court offense, maybe it is ok with you. But so far we are below average in defending 3s. The raw points you use will be different with less possessions opponent gets, meaning like last game if we didn't get rebound / turnover well, opponent has the similar possessions, our defense will reflect how it was in the last game, slowly out scored by opponent.