nesli Starting Rotation
Joined: 25 Jun 2005 Posts: 276
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Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 3:32 pm Post subject: Good article on past national squads |
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Quote: | . Olympic Shot Distribution: Building on the shot issue, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at shot distribution by Team USA per Olympics/World Championships and put it next to the player's true shooting percentage to see what we can learn:
(For reference, FGA/G is shots per game, TFG% is true shooting percentage, which measures basically points per shot and accounts for threes and free throws, and %-Team FGA is percentage of team's total shots. A fuller explanation of true shooting percentage can be found at Kevin Pelton's Sonics site, which is a great resource to peruse).
2004 Olympic Team
Player FGA/G FG% TFG% PPG %-Team FGA
Iverson 11.3 0.378 0.515 13.8 15.9
Duncan 8.4 0.567 0.622 12.9 11.9
Marbury 8.9 0.423 0.529 10.5 12.6
Marion 8.1 0.531 0.581 9.9 11.3
Odom 6.4 0.569 0.605 9.3 8.9
Boozer 4.1 0.625 0.662 7.6 5.7
Wade 6.9 0.382 0.445 7.3 9.8
Jefferson 7.1 0.321 0.411 6.8 9.9
James 4.1 0.594 0.654 5.4 5.8
Stoudemire 2.1 0.563 0.564 2.8 2.8
Anthony 4.1 0.251 0.294 2.4 4.9
Okafor 1.1 0 0 0 0.01
As can be seen, the 2004 team was a guard heavy scoring team and the guards were not terribly efficient compared to the big men. You also have to wonder why Jefferson was playing over LeBron (probably defense) and why Odom didn't get more shots. You wonder if Odom's belated invitation to try for the 2008 team was a result of reviewing his solid stats from 2004.
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1992 Olympic Team
Player FGA/PG FG% TFG% PPG %-Total FGA
Barkley 10.4 0.711 0.762 18.1 13.1
Jordan 14.1 0.451 0.491 14.9 17.7
Malone 7.8 0.645 0.684 13.1 7.8
Mullin 7.9 0.619 0.745 12.9 9.9
Drexler 8.1 0.578 0.614 10.5 10.1
Ewing 6.6 0.623 0.633 9.5 8.3
Pippen 5.9 0.596 0.672 9.1 7.4
D. Robinson 5.9 0.574 0.616 9.1 7.4
Bird 6.1 0.521 0.639 8.4 7.5
M. Johnson 5.1 0.567 0.698 8.1 4.7
Laettner 2.5 0.451 0.659 4.8 3.1
Stockton 2.1 0.501 0.591 2.8 1.3
The originals were also a very efficient team save for one thing, Jordan was actually a drag on the offense. He took more shots per game than any pro in the Olympics/World Championships but he didn't shoot very well (even worse than Iverson). Really the team was driven by the power forwards, Malone and Barkley with an assist by Mullin, who was deadly accurate.
In sum, it seems that a nice recipe for success is starting with a couple of bulls in the post who can score at will and then having an automatic shooter at the 3-point line. Of course, the international players have improved and now defending the perimeter is also a key factor. Still, it's pretty clear that a player like Iverson has no role on such a team unless he's willing to be a role player off the bench. Of course, you wonder whether Kobe, Carmelo, or Arenas also fit in well to this type of offense. Really, the building blocks of the team at this point should be Brand, Howard, and Jamison, and if doubled they'll give it to Pierce and Redd. |
http://www.hoopsanalyst.com/ot.htm
guess who was the biggest ballhog |
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