How Players Deal with a Bad Shooting Night
July 21, 2008
Every player reacts differently to having an off night shooting. Some will let it get to their heads and their entire game falls apart while others are able to focus on getting their teammates involved or hitting the boards. We decided to take a look at how players reacted last season to having a game where they shot under 30% from the field. How were their assist, rebound, and turnover numbers affected? To keep everything relevant, we only looked at players who averaged at least 10 points per game during the season and who had at least 10 games where they shot under 30% from the field.
On a per minute basis, we found that rebounding averages were the same in bad games as during the season, but assists dropped 3% and turnovers increased 4%. So, that wasn’t very interesting, but some of the individual players stood out. Linas Kleiza of the Denver Nuggets must have pleased coach George Karl with his ability to tune out bad shooting performances and increase his rebounding by 29%, his assists by 38%, and decrease his turnovers by 36%! Although he doesn’t record many assists to begin with (1.2 per game), the increase in rebounding is interesting.
If you’re not impressed by Kleiza because he isn’t enough of an impact player, how about Hedo Turkoglu? Hedo increased his rebounds by 24%, his assists by 18%, and decreased his turnovers by 6% in bad shooting performances.
Ok, so now you’re wondering, who are the guys who completely stink up the joint when their shot isn’t falling. Sam Cassell falls into that category with his turnovers going up 22%, rebounds down 37%, and assists down 14%. There’s not much trash to talk when Sam I Am is having a bad game, apparently. Grant Hill, surprisingly, isn’t much better with his turnovers going up 16%, rebounds down 14%, and assists down 34% in bad games. Josh Smith is pretty consistent with his rebounding and assist numbers in bad games, but he turns the ball over, pathetically, 51% more often when he’s having a bad shooting night! (Sorry for posting this while you’re on the free agent market, Josh)
The turnover numbers are the most interesting here so let’s look at the increase in turnovers for the 10 biggest culprits (of letting their poor shooting get to their head):
| J.R. Smith | 61% |
| Josh Smith | 51% |
| Al Horford | 50% |
| Luis Scola | 46% |
| Kirk Hinrich | 44% |
| Paul Pierce | 43% |
| Lamar Odom | 40% |
| Wally Szczerbiak | 39% |
| John Salmons | 35% |
| Andres Nocioni | 31% |
Coach, you might want to bench these guys when their shot isn’t falling (except Pierce, he might get hot)!
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