The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA, and more. Participate here To have it delivered to you via email every morning.
Last week on The Whiteboard, I started the annual offensive exercise checking each team’s offensive style using the same NBA offensive style charts I’ve been building over the past years – check out Part 1 (Timberwolves, Hornets, Warriors, Pacers, Pistons, Thunder) and Part 2 ( Lakers, Rockets, Tottenham, Jazz, Caves, Knicks, Blazers).
Today, we’ll look at a few other teams with similar attacking patterns but first, a brief summary of what these charts are and how to read them.
These charts are not It is meant to assess whether a crime is good or bad. They are designed to help illustrate how teams are working towards the goal of trying to put the ball into the basket. Each team’s attack is evaluated on four stylistic shades.
ball movement It is measured by each team’s average touch time, from NBA player tracking statistics. A lower average touch time means that the ball is moving from one player to the next more quickly.
player movement It is measured by a combination of various NBA.com tracking stats and works out to the average distance traveled per 24 seconds of offensive possession.
Speed Measured by average offensive possession length of UnpredictableA more accurate representation of how fast a team is working compared to a traditional pace.
Shot selection Measured by the MoreyBall percentage – in this case the percentage of the team’s real shooting chances that came over the edge, from the free-throw line, or on a 3-pointer. It’s a general metric but captures something about how committed each team is to shots that are, on average, the most efficient.
In the graphs below, you will see a line indicating each team’s attack. As the line moves away from the center of the graph on each axis, you see more of that stylistic feature. For example, the shot selection (by default) shows a more efficient shot selection the further away you are from the center.
Here are some other combinations of similar offensive tactics we’ve seen this season.
NBA Offensive Style: Everyone Runs
These three teams all rated above the 50th percentile in speed and player movement but well below the 50th percentile in both ball movement and shot selection. In each case, the style is heavily curved by certain content creators who are in control of the ball and are very active in the mid-range. In the case of The Bulls, it was DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, Devin Booker and Chris Paul of The Suns and Ja Morant and Dillon Brooks of the Memphis Grizzlies.
Interestingly, these three teams were above average in efficiency, and the Grizzlies and Suns were among the best in the NBA. When you have someone like Morant or Paul who can squeeze efficiency out of those areas, and surround them with sort of mobile shooters who can take advantage of pockets of space moving around them, it makes for a very effective attack. Having LaVine and Ball healthy all season, and finding out about DeRozan, the Bulls could very well have made the Bulls in the top five as well this season.
Offensive NBA Style: Everyone Runs Around (But Only in the Mid Zone)
These two teams are adaptations of the aforementioned combination of teams, essentially slowing down their attacking pace. These teams also did not have the same level of initiators and core innovators as the Bulls, Grizzlies or Suns, which is one reason why their proficiency has fallen so much. Style and talent work hand in hand and it’s a lot like two mid-attack teams that haven’t been able to make use of any stylistic elements to make up for those shortcomings.
NBA Offensive Style: Everyone Runs
The Magic and the Bucks were remarkably similar, using a lot of speed, a lot of off-ball movement and an effective overall shot selection. Ball movement is relatively low due to the amount of time the ball has spent in the hands of a few core creators – Giannis Antetokounmue, Giroud Holiday and Chris Middleton for Bucks, Markel Fultz, Cole Anthony and Galen Suggs for Magic. Obviously, the difference in score – Bucks’ third best attack, and 29th best magic attack – has to do with the quality of these creators.
Tomorrow we’ll look at the final group of teams, many of which don’t come together cleanly. Be sure to Subscribe to Whiteboard So you don’t miss anything.
Other NBA Stories:
The 2021-22 NBA regular season came and went and Luke Anton combed the numbers to find the players who captained each team in total, and which teams had the most and least dunks this season.
The Nets’ season ended after an ugly 4-0 sweep of the Celtics chiefs. What can Brooklyn do to strengthen their roster this season?
Chris Herring’s Blood in the Garden is a well-researched work that captures Nick’s tenacity in the ’90s in all its brutal glory.
When the 76ers suddenly find themselves on dangerous ground, All eyes on James Harden.
The Utah Jazz don’t do much to help themselves, but the Dallas Mavericks do just that strangle them in this chain.
[ad_2]
