Re: Shot selection

["Cecil Wright" <cecil@hfx.andara.com>]

Very well stated Kim.  Bravo!

Cecil
-----Original Message-----
From: Kim Malo <kmalo19@idt.net>
To: celtics@igtc.COM <celtics@igtc.COM>
Date: Thursday, February 26, 1998 7:51 PM
Subject: Re: Shot selection


>At 06:36 PM 2/25/98 -0400, Cecil Wright wrote:
>Alex Wang wrote:
>
>>>Walker is currently shooting 42% on two-pointers and 28% on
>>> three-pointers. If Walker could hit just one shot per game
>>>that he currently misses, he will be shooting 45% which would
>>>be pretty reasonable. So he's probably costing us about two
>>>points a game from bad shot selection. The lack of good shot
>>>selection is really a team issue, with the team shooting under
>>>43% from the field.
>>
>>I would agree and say it is a team issue.  But when one player is forcing
a
>>large majority of the shots, I can't fault the others.  This may not be
the
>>proper time to bring this up but, here goes.
>>
>>During the last six Celtic losses, Toine has shot 37/126 from the field.
>>That is .294%.  Included in those games have been one 3/15, one 5/22, one
>>8/23 and one 8/29 effort.  I realize that he has it tough, but I think
>>you'll agree that those are not impressive numbers.
>
>A couple points. Problems with shot selection are not just over % made.
They
>also involve things like throwing up the first outside shot that shows,
>interfering with the offensive flow and contributing to the Cs usually low
>number of free throw attempts. One of the nice things about having Anderson
>around is the way he consistantly leads Walker towards the hoop with
passes,
>forcing him to the better shot.
>
>And while saying this is a team issue is true, that does not in any way
>exonerate any of the individuals. Mercer, playing for the same team, rarely
>takes a stupid or forced shot. They may not all go in, but rarely because
of
>the shot selection. The only way the team issue really applies is when
>Walker gets the ball with too little time to set up a good shot. Which, in
>fairness, happened much too often earlier in the season. However, this has
>not been a big problem since Anderson's arrival.
>
>And you can't ignore in this whole thing, the sort of star Walker believes
>he is and expects to be treated (and paid) like. He has the skills to do
>better than shoot 45%, which may be 'reasonable' for a Bruce Bowen but not
>for one of your prime offensive weapons, who expects to get a higher number
>of shots than most of the team and to be paid/treated as if he will convert
>them most of the time.
>Part of his % problems are technique rather than selection -he rushes shots
>and doesn't set up properly or even look at the hoop too much of the time,
>making even bunnies aan adventure too much of the time. He also tends to go
>for the showy play rather than the straightforward one, an understandable
>fault in a young and very talented player, but one that can add unnecessary
>degrees of difficulty to what he attempts.
>
><snip>
>
>-Kim
>Kim Malo
>kmalo19@idt.net
>
>