Nearing the Finish...

I'm making slow progress on analyzing the statistics I've found on bleacherreport, nba.com and other sources on the Internet. It is easy to find correlation of team success to three-point shooting, but difficult to prove causation based on how many other factors the game is affected by (superstar talent, defense, coaching etc.)

On another note, Troy Daniels who I mentioned earlier on this blog for his three-point shooting success on the D-league team that shoots more threes than anyone else, had success tonight after being inserted into the Rockets lineup when Chandler Parsons fouled out in OT of Game 3 at Portland in the first round of the playoffs. Jeremy Lin lost the ball on a broken possession, recovered it, and kicked it to Daniels who hit a three with 11 seconds left to put the Rockets up 3. A small, singular moment in time, not much evidence for anything, but good to see someone who dedicates themselves so much to their craft rewarded.

Winding Down

Hey Internet world! I have had minimal progress recently, although it seems to me while watching the NBA season wind down that more and more teams are relying on the three, for better or from worse. Traditional pound it inside teams, such as Memphis, are struggling with no perimeter shooting.

That aside, my next step will be researching through statistics website exactly how much three-point shooting volume and percentage contribute to overall team winning percentage. I will be doing this for the next few weeks and compiling my evidence in preparation for making my presentation for my English class in just over a month. 

My other step will be to use my findings to propose a new strategy for offensive, a target number of threes to shoot per game, and a rough outline of how to achieve that in this new era of three-point shooting, guard-oriented basketball.

Photo Credit: Creative Commons/Fotopedia

http://www.fotopedia.com/search?q=basketball%20three-pointer&human_license=reuse_commercial_modify

Some new media

I have set up a Pinterest in order to better consolidate the material I am finding. The website can be found here: http://www.pinterest.com/jshapiro252/the-role-of-3-point-shooting-in-basketball/.

I also published an article in the sports spread of the Campanile (Palo Alto High School's newspaper) on the topic of three-point shooting and the different teams who are pushing the envelope. One of those teams happened to be the Paly Girls Varsity Basketball Team just this last season. With both seniors on the team out with ACL tears, a team of mostly underclassmen and sharpshooters was able to advance to CCS semi-finals by having incredible efficiency from behind the three-point line. At one point in the season they ranked 1st in California for threes made per game and 2nd in the country.

Please check into my Pinterest periodically as I will be updating it with more information, articles and videos I find as I continue to research this interesting topic.

Until next time...

Photo credit: bleacherreport

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1602329-how-the-three-point-shot-has-changed-nba-playoff-basketball

Project Week Something or other...

It's been a while...but I'm back Internet world. While I have forgotten to submit my blog posts multiple successive times, I have been making quiet progress on my project. One of the most promising articles supporting my point is this here: http://grantland.com/features/nba-dleague-rgv-vipers-houston-rockets-future-of-basketball/

It tells the story of the NBA D-League's Rio Grande Valley Vipers, who shoot more threes than anybody in the D-League or the NBA...by far. Their offensive efficiency rating is off the charts, and it is not uncommon for one of their players to shoot 17 threes in one game. He averages 14 attempts! Some would say this is unheard of, but he makes over 5 of those attempts, for a field goal percentage of 41%. An incredible efficiency.

The Vipers have been to the D-League Finals for the last three years and won the last two. Teams are still reluctant to go all the way to the pure three-point shooting theory, but is this proof it would work in the NBA?

http://www.fotopedia.com/search?q=basketball&human_license=reuse_commercial_modify

Three Week Mark

I have not done much tangible work in the last week or two. However, I have been working on developing my ideas on what types of strategies I will test for as well as what programs and research I will need to present my findings. Discovered this week that the Paly girls basketball team is among the best at three-point shooting, which has allowed a largely underclass team to be doing well right now. Just another one of the many examples of the power of the three point shot if used correctly. I continue to practice it to improve my own game. I play on an NJB team (National Junior Basketball) and the ability to shoot from range is something we are lacking and something I am hoping to change. The team we lost to last week had one great shooter who hit about three threes in the least two minutes to seal our fate.

Project Decision

I decided on my topic finally. I've been a basketball player and fan my whole life, but have noticed a flaw in the way the game has been played: not enough three-pointers. It might be time to re-examine "traditional basketball strategy." Case and point: tonight Carmelo Anthony hit 6-11 three pointers on the way to scoring 62 points! I have a hunch that the more 3-pointers the better, even if basketball traditionalists say it is destroying the game. The best teams in the NBA are the ones that shoot the most threes: Miami, Golden State, San Antonio. Sure, there are many other factors in play (namely LeBron James and/or Tim Duncan) but I believe a team's performance behind the arc has a lot to do with it. We will see! I plan on examining the different s
trategies heavy three-point shooting teams use and whether or not basketball has really been played wrong for the last 5 or 10 years.