BenoUdrihFTL wrote:Shewasfly wrote:On Bam shooting 3s....
How about we get Bam to even look for his shot aggressively and make defenses actually care about guarding him before even thinking about expanding his offensive game out to the 3? Why further expand an offensive game that he is so freaking reluctant to use even as is?
If anything, I wish Bam had worked on ball handling/getting a tighter handle so he could maybe feel more comfortable taking less athletic players off the dribble in the high post. But he's a turnover machine when he tries, and you can tell that's a big part of why he's so hesitant to look at the basket even now.
In the past two seasons Bam is 39% on FGA from 16 feet to the 3pt line and 81% on FTs. It's not a huge stretch to imagine him shooting around 33-35% on wide open spot up 3s. Even if he doesn't actually hit that percentage, the threat of him shooting from there every once in a while would open up the floor for everyone else (specifically our leading scorer who doesn't shoot 3s Yimmy)
And your critique about Bam's onball handling is spot on. Which is all the more reason the threat of a 3 would drastically improve his game. As it is now, defenders sag off Bam and force him to create in space with his dribble -- a tough task for even the most elite handlers. But if he's willing to let it fly from range then defenders would be forced to respect his airspace and now suddenly Bam can add a pump fake to his onball arsenal
All good points. And to be clear I wouldn't be mad if Bam put up some 3s especially corner 3s, when he found himself open there.
But at this stage I'd rather Bam get used to actually letting it fly from mid-range before venturing out to the 3, especially as a focus. Like you said, they sag off of him already and basically don't guard him. He's not bad as a mid range shooter, and should be even better than what he's shown considering his touch at the line, but he just seems to have no confidence. He looks visibly scared to me sometimes when he has the ball. I just feel like 3 point shooting is an even bigger ask when you're talking about someone scared to put up a mid range shot with 3+ feet of space between them and their defender.
Pushing him out to the three also takes away from another skill he's improving on: drawing fouls.