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Every shot Kobe Bryant ever took

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Re: Every shot Kobe Bryant ever took

#131

Post by rossta »

phamilton wrote: post #91
balls187 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My biggest complaint with Kobe is that he scored a lot of points because he took a lot of shots. Isn't that the point of basketball?

The point is to make shots, not just take them. EDIT: There's roughly a finite number of shots a team can take in a game. If one player takes most of the shots, then sure they will score a lot of points. But are they maximizing team points? If other members of the team have a higher shooting percentage then taking less shots and passing the ball around will be advantageous.

This doesn't account for the possibility that his teammates have a higher percentage because Kobe is the biggest threat to take a shot and the opposing team sets up to defend accordingly.

Re: Every shot Kobe Bryant ever took

#132

Post by IkmoIkmo »

avn2109 wrote: post #73
matwood wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's called practice. That area for a shooter is no-mans land. They either will setup outside the 3pt line or significantly inside the 3pt line. It is simply a spot no shooter, and particularly one like Kobe, would ever setup and wait for a pass or call for the ball from.

Not only practice, but also training. Every shooting coach in the league will tell you that the deep two is the worst shot in basketball. Kobe had it drilled into his head since he was seven years old that you never shoot a deep two .

I wonder if we'll ever see a maverick player perform well because he's taking these shots, trains for them, specialises in them, positions for them, in a world where defenders train supposing you'll position differently, and reposition rather than take the shot if you happen to receive a ball in a deep two position.

Re: Every shot Kobe Bryant ever took

#133

Post by achompas »

curiousgeorgio wrote: post #103

Knowing almost nothing about Kobe Bryant (I haven't followed the NBA for years), it looks like there's an interesting trend in 3 point attempts. At any given year of his career, the distribution of 3 point shots made compared to other shots made seems fairly balanced, as one might expect. However, the number of attempted 3 point shots (or 3 pointers missed) seems to rise significantly in the latter half of his career…

Great catch. What you're observing is the effect of a new trend (or a nonstationary distribution, if you prefer) wrt. shooting tendencies, as it affects the coaching and strategy of one (star) player. Your suggestion that

> [the] extra point outweighs the increased likelihood of missing as an overall statistic

is a relatively-recent discovery for people in the NBA: the expected point value of a three-point shot is much higher than the expected point value of a very very long two-point shot.

Re: Every shot Kobe Bryant ever took

#134

Post by achompas »

A number of commenters have astutely identified the change in shot distribution over Kobe's career, which is due to a combination of age (older wing players tend to drive less and shoot more as they get older or experience injuries) and league trends towards more 3-point shooting.

If you're interested in reading an excellent analysis of the 3-pointer in the modern NBA, I highly recommend Ben Morris's article on Stephen Curry, whose historic shooting ability is so absurd, one could argue he is underutilized despite his high field goal attempt numbers.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/stephen-curry-is-the-rev...

Re: Every shot Kobe Bryant ever took

#135

Post by gbhn »

IkmoIkmo wrote: post #132
avn2109 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only practice, but also training. Every shooting coach in the league will tell you that the deep two is the worst shot in basketball. Kobe had it drilled into his head since he was seven years old that you never shoot a deep two .

I wonder if we'll ever see a maverick player perform well because he's taking these shots, trains for them, specialises in them, positions for them, in a world where defenders train supposing you'll position differently, and reposition rather than take the shot if you happen to receive a ball in a deep two position.

Probably not. Training for 3-pointers gets you 50% more points for (from what the outside seems like) a basically equivalent training perspective.

Re: Every shot Kobe Bryant ever took

#137

Post by simplemath »

achompas wrote: post #134

A number of commenters have astutely identified the change in shot distribution over Kobe's career, which is due to a combination of age (older wing players tend to drive less and shoot more as they get older or experience injuries) and league trends towards more 3-point shooting. If you're interested in reading an excellent analysis of the 3-pointer in the modern NBA, I highly recommend Ben Morris's article on Steph…

I can't escape Curry even here.. the ubiquitous magical little bastard

Re: Every shot Kobe Bryant ever took

#138

Post by aidenn0 »

achompas wrote: post #134

A number of commenters have astutely identified the change in shot distribution over Kobe's career, which is due to a combination of age (older wing players tend to drive less and shoot more as they get older or experience injuries) and league trends towards more 3-point shooting. If you're interested in reading an excellent analysis of the 3-pointer in the modern NBA, I highly recommend Ben Morris's article on Steph…

The 2016 Warriors have Curry who broke his own record for 3-pointers in a season (and now holds the #1, #2, #4, and #7 slots for that record), but they also have Klay Thompson whose season was good enough for #3 all-time in the books. Thompson is shooting .420 to Curry's .444 so it's not like Curry's being underutilized in favor of a poor outside shooter.

Re: Every shot Kobe Bryant ever took

#139

Post by chishaku »

waynecochran wrote: post #136

Here is an image of every pass Kobe made in his career: https://ezekiel.encs.vancouver.wsu.edu/~wayne/kobe-pass.png

That was funny but it's time to dispel the Kobe "ballhog" myth.

Consider that Kobe logged a career average of 4.7 assists per game.

Compared to other elite shooting guards/small forwards:

  * Michael Jordan - 5.3
  * Lebron James - 6.9
  * Kevin Durant - 3.7
  * Carmelo Anthony - 3.2
  * Dwayne Wade - 5.8

Re: Every shot Kobe Bryant ever took

#140

Post by duaneb »

chishaku wrote: post #139
waynecochran wrote: post #136

Here is an image of every pass Kobe made in his career: https://ezekiel.encs.vancouver.wsu.edu/~wayne/kobe-pass.png

That was funny but it's time to dispel the Kobe "ballhog" myth. Consider that Kobe logged a career average of 4.7 assists per game. Compared to other elite shooting guards/small forwards: * Michael Jordan - 5.3 * Lebron James - 6.9 * Kevin Durant - 3.7 * Carmelo Anthony - 3.2 * Dwayne Wade - 5.8

I don't know basketball. Are those players known for assists?
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