Stan Van Gundy is tinkering in his first season as their head coach. Despite having a top-seven offense, their spacing isn't anywhere near optimal with Steven Adams and Eric Bledsoe in the starting lineup. They have the second-worst defense in the league, per CTG. He barely gets to the line, but the dramatic uptick in percentage is a strong indicator that his shooting improvements are sustainable overall. 1, up from 58 percent through the first five weeks. As for whether he can give the proper shooting support to Williamson and Ingram, the Pelicans are scoring 120.6 points per 100 possessions when those three share the floor, which would rank as the best offensive rating in the league and in the 94th percentile among all three-player combinations who've played at least 15 possessions together, per Cleaning the Glass.īall still isn't a threat to score, really, from anywhere inside the arc with any sort of efficiency or volume, but he's shooting 86 percent from the free-throw line since Feb. Ball hasn't just improved his 3-point shooting he's become an actual marksman.Īs such, the long-term equation has potentially changed for the Pelicans, who are outscoring opponents by 12.2 points per 100 possessions when Ball, who ranks 12th overall in ESPN's Real Plus-Minus, is on the floor. ![]() These are some of the best shooters in the world. If you lower the attempts baseline to 6.5 per game, the list of guys over 45 percent expands to Jamal Murray, George, LaVine and Joe Harris. That is the highest percentage in the league at that volume over that span. Since the start of February, he has been throwing flames: 45.9 percent from 3 on 8.1 attempts per game. Remember, those numbers include Ball's dreadful start to the season. As of Tuesday, March 2, there are 10 players in the league shooting at least 39 percent from 3 on at least 7.5 attempts per game. It was reported that New Orleans previously gauged Golden State's interest in Ball. The wind seemed to be blowing in the direction of the Pelicans cutting ties with him sooner rather than later. He was shooting 30 percent from 3 and 39 percent overall. Through the first five weeks of this season, Ball didn't look good. ![]() Does he make sense as an increasingly off-ball player next to Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram? Was last season's 3-point-shooting surge a fluke? The New Orleans Pelicans didn't sign him to a rookie extension this past offseason, choosing to gather more intel before he becomes a restricted free agent this summer. With the NBA trade deadline less than a month away, Lonzo Ball is one of the most interesting names to watch.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |