Ray of Sunshine--Bledsoe's 3pt shooting

Just wanted to attempt to provide a little ray of sunshine in the midst of an otherwise disappointing season:

Bledsoe is, so far, having one of his best shooting seasons ever which is going a little under the radar: 39% from three on 4.5 attempts per game. (I am currently unaware what % of his threes are catch-and-shoot...)

Apart from our significant coaching-based woes leading to ineffective offensive and defensive schemes... and the losing that will always accompany a terrible bench... if Bledsoe can maintain that kind of shooting, we are one solid (consistent...) 3&D player away from fielding some nice spacing to surround Zion and Adams in the starting five. :drink: :drink: :al2:

The problem is he's not attempting enough of them. If we could get Lonzo and Bledsoe to swap their three point attempt numbers we'd be in better shape. The starting guards for Utah attempt between 7 to 8 three point shots a game, with a slightly higher average. The only one on our team attempting that number of three pointers is Ball who is shooting a measly 28%

^All true. And surrounding defensive juggernaught and rim threat Golbert and superstar Mitchell, there is definitely a reason Utah is an elite team right now.

You mentioned Catch and Shoot in your opening post so I just thought I'd give some context.

Bledsoe is, somehow, shooting only 31.8% on catch and shoot attempts, of which he takes 3 a game.

What's really inflating his 3pt% so far this year is that he's shooting an absolutely wild 64.3% on pull-up threes :hihi: only 1.1 of them per game, but that kind of percentage is doing hard work to rectify the appalling C&S numbers. For some reason he's just been all-time efficient on pull up 3s so far this year, admittedly on fairly low volume.

godamnit... pull-ups are obviously not ideal for floor spacing, and Ingram is the one we want with the ball and pulling up at the end of shot clocks... so that means Bledsoe isn't really spacing the floor and teams know it; you have to run plays/picks for him him or let him dribble/iso to get his pull-ups...

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Originally Posted by SoCal4Pels

godamnit... pull-ups are obviously not ideal for floor spacing, and Ingram is the one we want with the ball and pulling up at the end of shot clocks... so that means Bledsoe isn't really spacing the floor and teams know it; you have to run plays/picks for him him or let him dribble/iso to get his pull-ups...

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The thing about pullups is that they are actually great for spacing if the person is a high volume threat on them.

Take someone like Lillard or Curry. The reason they can stretch the defense far more than someone like PJ Tucker who is an elite corner C&S guy is that if Curry/Lillard have the ball in their hands you've got to guard them at 30 feet or else they can just pullup and murder you. That threat spaces more than any other kind of shooting can, because nobody spots up from that deep. Of course that often draws the big out in a high PnR (the Blazers sometimes start running the PnR so high for Lillard that the big ends up having to come up to the screen outside of the 3pt line lmao) so far that the paint ends up completely clear.

The issue for Bledsoe is that not only is he not known as a super shooter, and therefore he doesn't draw that kind of defensive attention, but the sample size is too small for it to really warp defenses either. Someone like Curry's 30 foot pullup is deadly because if he's on, he'll take 10 of them. You have to guard that. Bledsoe's only taking 1 a game, so even if he shot 100% on that nobody would care.

^Indeed, but also, BI and Zion are our stars who we want pounding the rock the majority of the time, like Lillard and Curry are for their respective teams. If Bledsoe is the one dribbling that means BI is relegated to being the c&s guy, which he can do, but wastes his talents.

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Originally Posted by SoCal4Pels

^Indeed, but also, BI and Zion are our stars who we want pounding the rock the majority of the time, like Lillard and Curry are for their respective teams. If Bledsoe is the one dribbling that means BI is relegated to being the c&s guy, which he can do, but wastes his talents.

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Oh I agree that in the long run you really want Zion and Ingram having a lot of on-ball reps. I've said elsewhere I think Zion's ceiling involves him operating as a ballhandler for stretches to maximise his gravity and his very solid passing, and we already know what Ingram can do on-ball. Neither of them, I think, are CP3 style all-game initiators but there's room there.

What would be really optimal - and other people have said this before, Shamit Dua being one example - is having our usual point guard being a real pullup dynamo. He used Lillard as an example, because of how much easier it would make the game for Zion, but it doesn't have to be Lillard. Hell, Kira projects as a good enough shooter: maybe he ends up being a legitimately positive pullup guy and then where would we be?

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Originally Posted by SoCal4Pels

^Indeed, but also, BI and Zion are our stars who we want pounding the rock the majority of the time, like Lillard and Curry are for their respective teams. If Bledsoe is the one dribbling that means BI is relegated to being the c&s guy, which he can do, but wastes his talents.

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More pullup madness started by one Kevin Lowe 2017 article during Warriors/Steph Curry hey day, and rehashed by a couple writer nerds since then.

Pullups are not what draw big out on a PnR consistently. That is only a situational thing. It's the least efficient and most difficult shot, so most defenses will allow you to shoot that without destroying the integrity of their defense. Especially if they lack the personnel for it.

What will space the floor is a dynamic player or guard that is a penetration threat, and a threat to score on all 3 levels. Defenses absolutely do NOT what any player wreaking havoc in their paint. If you were a Hornets fan during their best season in New Orleans in 2007/08, you'll recall how the Spurs blitzed Chris Paul that entire 2nd round series on every PnR and sometimes as soon as he crossed half court. He was absolutely not a 3 point pull up threat at that point in his career. At all. That opened the floor for David West and Peja. And it really opened space for lobs to Tyson Chandler.

But we come back to the same conclusion that Kira seems like the perfect fit since he seems to have the ability to score on all 3 levels and has demonstrated a nice passing ability.

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

You mentioned Catch and Shoot in your opening post so I just thought I'd give some context.

Bledsoe is, somehow, shooting only 31.8% on catch and shoot attempts, of which he takes 3 a game.

What's really inflating his 3pt% so far this year is that he's shooting an absolutely wild 64.3% on pull-up threes :hihi: only 1.1 of them per game, but that kind of percentage is doing hard work to rectify the appalling C&S numbers. For some reason he's just been all-time efficient on pull up 3s so far this year, admittedly on fairly low volume.

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We knew Bled was a much better off the dribble than C&S guy coming in, but this gif still applies in terms of his efficiency

https://78.media.tumblr.com/3c859f6c...5254o1_400.gif