Egalitarian Offense?
Today we take a look at how New York's shot distribution is impacting their results.
Good morning! How nice is it to have two days off? I’m certainly not complaining, and I’m guessing the Knicks aren’t either.
Egalitarian Offense?
Today’s topic comes to us from reader Jimmy P, who wrote the following in response to yesterday’s Portland game recap:
Notable to me: the balanced distribution of shots. OG had 15, Hart had 15, Towns had 13, Bridges had 15 and Brunson had 19.
Not gonna lie, Jimmy…this didn’t register for me until you brought it up. Shot distribution is one of those things I tend to notice when something is out of whack in one direction (for instance, KAT’s three single-digit shot attempt games in the last three weeks) or another (like Jalen Brunson’s 29 shot attempts the game after Christmas). But shot distribution nights like what we saw in Portland don’t usually register for me.
Perhaps they should.
This question inspired me to take a look at some of the notable shot diets from this season and look into whether there was any correlation between more evenly distributed shot diets and better performance.
I started by looking at the shot totals of the three “normal” starters who don’t always see a ton of looks, OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart. In doing so, I found a couple of interesting results:
This season, the Knicks are 7-0 when Anunoby attempts at least 14 shots. On the flip side, they are 3-4 when his shot attempts are in the single digits, and even that record is a misnomer. One of those three wins came when OG played just 22 minutes in a blowout win against Utah, while another came when he suffered an injury five minutes into the Landry Shamet game vs Miami.
There’s no similar correlation with Bridges, although there is an odd sweet spot with him in that the Knicks are 10-3 in games he takes between 12 and 15 shots.
12 is the magic number for Josh Hart, with New York going 7-1 in the eight games he has at least that many attempts. Even more important, however, are his threes. The Knicks are 14-4 when Hart fires away at least four times from long range, but just 6-5 when he attempts three or fewer.
Turning now to the two stars, here’s where things get really interesting:
