The 2019 Spurs had the 3rd best half-court offense despite mid-range/post-up focus

[Im Still Ballin]

It's crazy to think about it. Nobody shot more mid-range jumpers than DeRozan; nobody posted up more than Aldridge. No team attempted more post-ups and mid-range shots; no team attempted fewer threes, free throws, and shots at the rim combined.

And yet? The 3rd best half-court offense.

San Antonio surrounded DeMar and LaMarcus with tremendous shooters and willing cutters. A team that's willing to play together, make the extra passes, communicate, set screens, move off the ball, and trust each other. Incredible shooting from everywhere regardless of shot distribution. Extremely low turnover rate too.

San Antonio's secret was having a coach who was allowed to actually coach. Same goes for Miami with Spoelstra. Most of them are too scared to coach like it's college.

They could've made the Conference Finals if they had a respectable defense. Took Denver to 7, who took Portland to 7. Perhaps they overachieved by taking the higher-seeded Nuggets to an elimination game...

Those KD/Kyrie Brooklyn teams were doing some odd shit as well. Taking crazy amounts of mid-range shots and having an elite offense because of it.

[999Guy]

And they actually convinced Rudy Gay to stop shooting for the first time in his career which made him a really unique and useful player. He played defense too.

17 Spurs around Kawhi were playing old ass Gasol, David Lee, no 3's parker, Jonathon Simmons, Aldridge, and WINNING, a lot around Kawhi. They had a unique little offense there. Very inside 3 based.

Now it's getting into disaster territory though. Playing this weird haired positionless guy Sohan, not starting Tre Jones, their second-best overall player, they have a nightmare squad full of terrible losers outside Jones and Wemby and their playstyle is aids.

Pop had probably the best 3point shooter outside GS in Bertans and utterly ruined him and killed his confidence in the end of the Kawhi era, Pop can do some unique shit offensively but he definitely can go overboard as we see now. Pitiful horrible offense.

[Proctor]

Now we're talking. Great thread.



Aldridge was a workhorse, FIBA Patty, wild offensive weapons like Bellinelli, Forbes and Bertans. Rudy Gay was sensational. That was a beautiful team.

[Proctor]

I could watch that interior passing from Gasol to Aldridge all day. Good luck finding a more aesthetic 50

[Im Still Ballin]

And they actually convinced Rudy Gay to stop shooting for the first time in his career which made him a really unique and useful player. He played defense too.

17 Spurs around Kawhi were playing old ass Gasol, David Lee, no 3's parker, Jonathon Simmons, Aldridge, and WINNING, a lot around Kawhi. They had a unique little offense there. Very inside 3 based.

Now it's getting into disaster territory though. Playing this weird haired positionless guy Sohan, not starting Tre Jones, their second-best overall player, they have a nightmare squad full of terrible losers outside Jones and Wemby and their playstyle is aids.

Pop had probably the best 3point shooter outside GS in Bertans and utterly ruined him and killed his confidence in the end of the Kawhi era, Pop can do some unique shit offensively but he definitely can go overboard as we see now. Pitiful horrible offense.

Yes, indeed. I hope the Spurs figure it all out in the next few years.

Now we're talking. Great thread.



Aldridge was a workhorse, FIBA Patty, wild offensive weapons like Bellinelli, Forbes and Bertans. Rudy Gay was sensational. That was a beautiful team.

I could watch that interior passing from Gasol to Aldridge all day. Good luck finding a more aesthetic 50

Fundamentals! How basketball is supposed to be played.

[Im Still Ballin]

Some great Thinking Basketball videos advocating for the mid-range shot:

[warriorfan]

It's crazy to think about it. Nobody shot more mid-range jumpers than DeRozan; nobody posted up more than Aldridge. No team attempted more post-ups and mid-range shots; no team attempted fewer threes, free throws, and shots at the rim combined.

And yet? The 3rd best half-court offense.

San Antonio surrounded DeMar and LaMarcus with tremendous shooters and willing cutters. A team that's willing to play together, make the extra passes, communicate, set screens, move off the ball, and trust each other. Incredible shooting from everywhere regardless of shot distribution. Extremely low turnover rate too.

San Antonio's secret was having a coach who was allowed to actually coach. Same goes for Miami with Spoelstra. Most of them are too scared to coach like it's college.

They could've made the Conference Finals if they had a respectable defense. Took Denver to 7, who took Portland to 7. Perhaps they overachieved by taking the higher-seeded Nuggets to an elimination game...

Those KD/Kyrie Brooklyn teams were doing some odd shit as well. Taking crazy amounts of mid-range shots and having an elite offense because of it.

They simply had the personal for it. Successful teams build around a certain philosophy or change it depending on what players they have. This shows a good point that it wasn’t just analytics that killed mid range and post game, but it was also the fact that there was a sharp decline in players who were capable of having a legit mid range of post game. They go hand in hand. I don’t think anyone except the biggest stat nerds will recognize that mid range still has its place in todays game during tight half court sets and especially in playoff series vs tough defenses.

[ILLsmak]

Being able to do something with the ball is good, too, but the triangle post is a great place to focus your attack. If youre shooting mids with nobody under rim or moving like team usa that’s when it’s bad. Just like i got this j! Even mj and kobe didnt take those shots.

You can move the triangle inward toward the ft line if d is too zoney as well. Its no wonder the best passer is a big now. In a lot of ways it always should have been in a set offense.

-Smak

[red1]

scoring is everything and the mid-range shot is always there


derozan was signing 25-million/yr contracts off that one skill alone. literally that one skill at first - he added the rest of his offensive game later.

[red1]

great post OP