Antoine's FG% issues

["hironaka@xxxxxxxxx"<hironaka@xxxxxxxxx>]

Despite the slow start Antoine Walker's 2-point FG% 
stands at .470FG% (55-117), so far after 10 games.

This helps confirm certain impressionistic observations 
made by fans, namely that Walker:

1) has eliminated categories of FG attempts that used to 
lead to gang blocks, like the nifty but futile one-on-one 
drives that start out from the 3-point line. 

2) seems to have stopped lobbing up hand grenade style 
shots.

2b) actually looks at the rim before releasing most shots.

The last point is the most notable. Walker has to fully 
lock his eyes onto the rim before he shoots, even if its 
for a fraction of a second. 

But Antoine still rushes a lot of spin lay-ins and 
reverse lay-ins. I don't care if he had the greatest 
natural shooting skill (and he's not bad) he'd still 
finish no better than 40% unless he locks onto the rim. 
Ultimately, he'd not a great jumper and he has the short 
arms, so the fundamentals have to be there.

Plus Antoine's drives are open season for a body foul, 
and every defender knows this. They'll also smack down 
hard on top of the ball, it rarely makes it out of his 
hands on many so-called "blocked shots". 

But these are judgement calls, its not like he's 
completely getting screwed by the refs.

It seems fairly easy to draw contact on your hands, the 
way they gang maul him. Just conceal more of the ball 
with your offhand or something. Sometimes I get the 
feeling he's not trying to draw contact, because he 
doesn't have the hang-time to pull it off.

You take the average NBA guy, not just a Paul Pierce but 
say Mercer when he was with us, and put him in the same 
situation (driving a lane with help defense closing onto 
him too late). 

Watching plays like that develop, you can pretty much 
expect how it will end: namely, at worst, with two shots 
at the line. For Walker its a no call and awkward shot or 
rejection following a body slam. That's partly his fault 
too.

Walker's best season previously inside the 3-point line 
was .440 (.439 actually) in 2001. 

Then he regressed last year, which raised all kinds of 
dilemmas. After all, his shot selection SEEMED better yet 
it seemingly wasn't helping. Does this guy just suck? Is 
he a 23ppg player trapped in the body of 12 ppg player?

Maybe this year, he'll stay up above .470 like the Bird 
in some of his MVP and playoff glory seasons. 

You can nitpick, but every other aspect of Walker's game 
has been neatly sorted out over these past years, or was 
already at a high enough level. 

There's a myth that he hasn't improved his game, because 
one thing (FG%) stays the same.

To wit, these days I even feel more confident when he's 
at the FT line than when Pierce is there these days.

+++

Basically, we need all three things to come together at 
home on Wednesday against the Showtime Nets. We need a 
perfect game at the jungle.

We need Pierce to hit better than 20% on treys like he's 
been doing so far, while also doing the same things he 
picked up over the summer (like his improved passing). We 
need him to take Jefferson, or whomever he guards, as a 
personal challenge.

We need Walker to have a fourth straight solid shooting 
game. 

And most importantly we need the support guys to show 
they are capable of hitting open shots this year, if 
that's truly possible. 

Its not just shooting from distance, like Delk and 
Shammond. I'd also like to see Battie and Baker less 
shaky on 17-footers facing the basket. 

Those are shots that should go down, with no questions 
asked. But Battie looked horrible as a shooter Saturday. 
And Baker looks tentative taking that easy shot, and 
seems more happy to turn it down.

And BTW, center is one of several statistical positions 
of strength relative to the Nets this year, although the 
Nets are clearly the stronger team until proven 
otherwise. Mutombo is averaging 1.3 blocks I believe, and 
shooting 38% from the field.

In fact, all three Nets offseason acquisitions (Mutombo, 
Rogers and Childs) thankfully have been statistical busts 
to date, not to mention moving on court like ones (busts).

Mr Exec-of-the-Year couldn't find Jason Kidd any backup 
help or a quality big man. That could end up 
meaning "arrivaderci Kidd" this summer, bada bing and 
bada boom. 

If its provable in any way, we need to show the Nets that 
this is a better shooting team than the one they faced in 
the playoffs. Remember, we beat Philly with Walker and 
Pierce held to 35 points combined and a ton of turnovers. 

Every once in awhile everything does come together, and 
we'll need that kind of night on Wednesday. The crowd 
should be great. The game preparation should be pretty 
solid, given the preparation time (the Nets play tonight).

Joe H.


p.s. After that its onto the Hawks twin bill, but hey, 
Lon Kruger is still the coach and Atlanta is a crap 
sports town. The Hawks could bring in three 20 point 
scoring averages to that game (Glenn Dog, Shareef and 
Terry), not to mention a guy averaging 4 blocks a game in 
Theo Ratliff and a couple of other big 2-guards hitting 
over 47% from the field. Note: game previews seem fine as 
long as they are more than 24 hours before the fact. 
That's why I'm cramming all this in ahead of time. This 
should be an interesting week. 


















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