Ben Taylor
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Mini Pod - Reggie Miller's scoring
🕑 Added 2021-10-14 16:15:02 +0000 UTCOne thought hit me after recording: Do we psychological give guys more credit for higher volume and lower efficiency because they take so many more difficult attempts?
eg 25/75 on on 65% TS vs. 30/58%
The second player takes 25.9 scoring attempts, the first player only 19.3. I imagine a lot of those differences are a willingness to take difficult shots, and make them anywhere between, say, 35-45% of the time (versus simply rarely ever taking them). Obviously those shots can have value (i.e. broken possessions), but I'm thinking of the psychological boost of *seeing* them being attempted so frequently. A highlight-film kind of bias, if you will...
Thoughts?
Comments
Focusing on offense, I think it's very difficult to be an all-time great scorer without a willingness to attack. (Here's where it's problematic to split scoring and playmaking.) Of course, if you shoot a lot and it’s inefficient, you not only hurt the overall team offense (instead of passing) but you yourself become less valuable as a scorer. So there’s probably a certain amount of aggression/risk that is needed, but I think the starting point should still always be “how can I generate a super high efficiency shot for the team.”
Do you think that, much like how high-risk playmakers like Nash and Magic have higher potential for all-time great offense, that high risk and sometimes more inefficient scorers have a greater ceiling for all-time scoring than more conservative, efficiency oriented players? Or does it not work the same for scoring and playmaking? What about defense? I know you’ve criticized gamblers like Jordan, but does hunting for high value defensive outcomes like steals boost his value over a player that’s afraid of getting too many fouls and/or exposing his team’s defense?
