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Every shot Kobe Bryant ever took

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Re: Every shot Kobe Bryant ever took

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

John Stockton averaged 10.5 assists per game. I wonder what Kobe's assists were after Shaq left?

John Stockton was a point guard so that's not an apt comparison. Kobe averaged 6.0 assists per game the year after Shaq left, the highest season average of his career.

You're right -- although of all the great players, Kobe seemed the worst at making the players around him better. Of course, I have not watched the NBA lately, so don't take me too seriously.

Re: Every shot Kobe Bryant ever took

#152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kobe Bryant being integral to the Laker's success is absolutely correct. The Laker's made the strategic decision to structure everything around him and it worked well. No doubt that would have failed with a less talented individual. However, it is important to view his accomplishments in that light. He scored 40+ points in games because the team basically said "Let's have Kobe score 40+ points today". Because of that…

I wonder if on some forum for Basketball fans somewhere, some folks are sitting around discussing PG's impact on technology and startups.

I've quoted pg on a basketball forum before.

Re: Every shot Kobe Bryant ever took

#153
post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Those players, with the exception of Michael Jordan who is an exception to almost all NBA players ever, are forwards or shooting guards. Their job is not to assist, it is to shoot.

That said, basketball is more mobile now than it every was and passing plays such as the pick and roll are an essential part of any team's arsenal. A good player will assist his teammates as well as shoot. On the other hand, it's really not fair to pick out these players as good or bad since their circumstances have all varied. LeBron James played on teams with Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, Ron Artest, Kevin Love and other excellent players. Kobe Bryant played with Shaquille O'Neil; Michael Jordan with Scott Pippen and so on. It's easy to pass when the players around you are also capable of scoring. I honestly can't think of a great shooter who's played with Carmelo Anthony. That could be because he's a ball hog and they never get to shoot and are thus forgotten, it could also be that he's the only good shooter and a centerpiece of their team.

Re: Every shot Kobe Bryant ever took

#154
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd never think to view source on random pages I visit, but this has me curious who else does things like this. Why is JS executing SQL?

It's an API call to CartoDB, that's how it is designed to work. The response is JSON. http://docs.cartodb.com/cartodb-platform/sql-api/

Thanks for sharing. That's pretty slick then. I feel like some things are better expressed in SQL syntax.

Re: Every shot Kobe Bryant ever took

#155

A random thought, but you could use this data to play an extremely long game of HORSE with Kobe Bryant. I'm sure someone is already setting up a Tumblr blog to document their attempt :)

One could use the data to assist another NBA player to play an extremely long game of HORSE with him. I am certainly not an NBA player, so I expect my game with him would be fairly short.

Re: Every shot Kobe Bryant ever took

#156
post #116
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.

we talkin' bout practice?!!

[deleted]

Re: Every shot Kobe Bryant ever took

#157

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…

My intuition is that 'underutilized' is probably not the reality of things.

One can take bad shots - and part of Steph's magic is knowing what is a good shot for him.

And for him, an incredible shooter, this means plenty of shots from anywhere on the court.

Re: Every shot Kobe Bryant ever took

#158

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.

Yes, and not only that - Curry probably wouldn't be as useful without the defensive spacing and assignments necessary to deal with not 1 but 2 incredible 3-point shooters.

Re: Every shot Kobe Bryant ever took

#159

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…

My intuition is that 'underutilized' is probably not the reality of things. One can take bad shots - and part of Steph's magic is knowing what is a good shot for him. And for him, an incredible shooter, this means plenty of shots from anywhere on the court.

The author of the 538 piece makes an interesting case that he may actually be underutilized. The gist is that his efficiency has not gone down as his number of shots has gone up, and that a "bad shot" for Curry is still better than a "good shot" for most other players.

Re: Every shot Kobe Bryant ever took

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Great stat I saw today: the 95-96 Bulls made 544 3-pointers that year. The 2015-2016 Warriors, if you took away every 3-pointer that Curry made, would still have 675. The game has changed indeed!

I was brushing up on Zache Lowe yesterday and came across this (extremly HN-friendly) gem from a few years ago[0] about the Raptors' program for mapping ideal defensive positions, and I couldn't get over the part where the analytics team was begging the coaches to make players shoot more 3s. I guess all it took was a coach known for being a sniper in his playing days having two of the three best shooters in the league to make that analytical dream a reality.

http://grantland.com/features/the-toronto-raptors-sportvu-ca...

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