Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Who's the NBA's most Euro-style Big?

The stereotypical European big man is a tall guy (6'10'' or taller, generally) who likes to step out and take threes rather than fight for baskets inside.

I combined shooting data from nba.com/stats with height data from basketball reference to try and find the players in the NBA who, at 6'10'' or taller, take the most shots from outside of 20 feet.



Findings (for data - click here

  • There are 15 players who are 6'10'' or taller and take more than 40% of their total shots from outside of 20 feet. 
  • 7 of 15 are, in fact, European
  • It makes a defenders job a lot easier when you know where the players are going to be - Channing Frye only takes 4% of his total shots at the rim. Dirk only takes 8% of his shots at the rim.
  • On average this season throughout the league, players who are 6'10'' or taller take 12% of their shots from 20+ feet, and 42% of their shots from inside of 5 feet. Thus the players on the list above are very much a unique group. 
Winner

Steve Novak of the Utah Jazz wins this award and it's not even close. He takes a whopping 77% of his total shots from 20+ feet (while making 59% thus far this season) and has not attempted a single shot from inside of 5 feet. Congratulations Steve!

Steve Novak putting doing his "Discount Double Check" (actually).
Austin Rivers does not approve...

Stats queried on nba.com/stats

No comments:

Post a Comment