Elhassan: Blazers have 3 of NBA’s top-24 midrange shooters
(AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Amin Elhassan of ESPN.com’s NBA insider section published an article today looking at the NBA’s best midrange shooters.
The premise of the article is that NBA teams are trying more than ever to take away the three-point shot and shots at the rim, because of the value of those shots.
With teams with elite defenses, such as the Bulls and Pacers, surrendering the midrange jumper, making those long-twos has become the best weapon to attack those teams.
Elhassan crunched the numbers and showed that Portland has three of the league’s top-24 midrange shooters by field goal percentage, among players that have taken at least 20 midrange jumpers.
Long twos are considered shots that are beyond 16-feet but in front of the three-point line.
Mo Williams, Wesley Matthews and Damian Lillard all made the cut.
Top midrange shooters for 2013-14
*minimum 20 2-point attempts
Player Team Long 2-point FGM FGA FG% 3-point FGM FGA FG% Jared Sullinger BOS 14 24 58.33 16 51 31.37 Gerald Green PHX 18 31 58.06 48 130 36.92 Jordan Farmar LAL 14 25 56.00 22 56 39.29 Jared Dudley LAC 23 42 54.76 25 73 34.25 Andrea Bargnani NYK 32 60 53.33 21 62 33.87 Klay Thompson GSW 36 69 52.17 71 151 47.02 Jamal Crawford LAC 37 71 52.11 41 116 35.34 J.J. Redick LAC 30 58 51.72 33 92 35.87 Chris Paul LAC 34 66 51.52 24 77 31.17 Mo Williams POR 28 55 50.91 18 49 36.73 Ryan Anderson NOP 13 26 50.00 37 74 50.00 Xavier Henry LAL 12 24 50.00 16 33 48.48 Avery Bradley BOS 58 118 49.15 19 55 34.55 Andrew Nicholson ORL 21 43 48.84 12 35 34.29 Goran Dragic PHX 17 35 48.57 18 58 31.03 Paul George IND 39 81 48.15 58 135 42.96 Wesley Matthews POR 12 25 48.00 56 114 49.12 Dirk Nowitzki DAL 47 99 47.47 32 76 42.11 Stephen Curry GSW 38 81 46.91 57 133 42.86 Damian Lillard POR 21 45 46.67 62 146 42.47 Jarrett Jack CLE 31 68 45.59 19 47 40.43 Kyle Korver ATL 15 33 45.45 46 88 52.27 Arron Afflalo ORL 39 86 45.35 47 114 41.23 Martell Webster WAS 9 20 45.00 47 114 41.23
In addition to the three Blazers listed above, LaMarcus Aldridge is the highest volume midrange shooter in the NBA. He has taken 271 midrange jumpers according to NBA.com, 70 more than the next closest player, Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki. He is shooting midrange shots at a respectable 43 percent.
He’s shooting above average from three of the five long-two spots on the floor. He’s shooting below league average from only one spot of the floor on long twos.
Shotchart from NBA.com’s media stat’s site.
Terry Stotts has said throughout the season that his team is a good jump-shooting team and Elhassan’s piece just shows how much of an asset their shooting has been.
The L.A. Clippers are the only team that has more players in the top-24 with four. No other team has more than two.
Elhassan also looks at the best midrange shooters over the past two seasons. Read the rest here.
Erik Gundersen
Erik Gundersen is the Trail Blazers beat reporter for The Columbian. He's a graduate of the Allen School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon in addition earning a degree in Spanish. He's covered the NBA for four seasons. You can also occasionally find his work on ESPN.com's NBA section for their TrueCities series. He also fist-bumped with Kanye West once. Follow @BlazerBanter on twitter for more Blazers and NBA news.