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2065583, you're just parroting conventional wisdom.
Posted by Guinness, Tue Nov-06-12 02:01 PM
you have no idea what the actual numbers are.
much was made of how lebron took less threes last season. and it was true -- he took one less per 36 minutes than the previous year and two less than he usually averaged in cleveland. this is where your knowledge of facts ends.
from an efficiency standpoint, lebron should have been shooting more threes, not less. in 2010-2011, his points per shot attempt from the left side of the three point circle were equivalent to his points per shot attempt at the rim. these were his most effective spots for scoring, and where he was dominant.
look. click the pts/shots tab.
http://vorped.com/bball/index.php/player/shotchart/837-LeBron-James/season/2010-2011-REG
in 2012, he did indeed proportionally take a few more midrange jumpers--but was actually slightly worse from most areas than in the prior year. the areas where he improved most were finishing right around the rim and slightly along the baseline.
http://vorped.com/bball/index.php/player/shotchart/837-LeBron-James/season/2011-2012-REG
so while lebron's field goal percentage might have benefited from taking less threes, his true shooting percentage was just about the same as it had been for the previous three years.
http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/j/jamesle01.html
to sum things up:
lebron did not get better at scoring midrange shots last season.
lebron did not improve by taking less threes.
lebron was equally good as he had been for threes years in a row, just in a slightly different way. in fact, his offensive rating was lower last season than when he was in cleveland.
by the way, those patterns held for the playoffs, too. he was more efficient shooting threes from the left side than he was in any midrange area. but he absolutely destroyed people be getting into the paint at will -- in fact, he averaged twice as many points-per-attempt in the paint as from the midrange.
http://vorped.com/bball/index.php/player/shotchart/837-LeBron-James/season/2011-2012-POST
i hope you appreciate me going through all this trouble to prove you wrong.
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