DeMarcus Cousins: Has Outside Shot Hurt Inside Game?

DeMarcus Cousins is stretching the floor for the Sacramento Kings, but how has his outside shot impacted his inside game?

DeMarcus Cousins is already the league’s best center and the 25-year-old only continues to evolve and develop. This season Cousins’ most publicized development has been the introduction of a three-point shot, which has helped Boogie to a career-best 26.1 points per game.

However, Cousins additional range has led to a decrease in rebounding and field goal percentage, which has caused some analysts to question whether or not the three-point shot is hurting his game.

Cousins is capable of hitting the three, but as one of the games most dominant low-post options, many people believe that Cousins is best served down on the block. While the dip in field goal percentage may seem to support that, a deeper look at the numbers shows that Cousins’ efficiency hasn’t decreased as much as we might believe.

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In fact, adding that extra range has the potential to improve Cousins’ production and effectiveness. And while we might assume that three-point shooting is taking away from Cousins’ post game, that’s not the case at all.

DeMarcus has been stepping out more often this season, but it hasn’t resulted in a decrease in post-up attempts. In fact, with the extra floor spacing on the Kings’ roster this season, Cousins’ post play has been better than ever.

Last season Cousins averaged 6.3 post-up attempts per game, which resulted in 5.2 points at 56 percent. But this season Boogie has upped those numbers. So far, Cousins has averaged 6.4 post-up attempts for 5.8 points per game, on an improved 61.2 percent.

From the numbers, it’s obvious that the three-point shooting hasn’t impacted Cousins’ post-up game at all — because they are entirely separate — but there is an aspect of his inside game that has been affected: his driving game.

Cousins is the league leader in drives from the center position, and his face-up game may be even more important than his post-up game. Last season Cousins averaged 4.9 drives per game and shot 51.7 percent. But with the runway extending to the three-point line this season, Boogie’s field goal percentage on the drive has been hurt.

While stepping out further has enabled him to drive more, his success off the dribble has been heavily linked to his shooting percentage from deep.

On the season, Cousins is averaging 6.5 drives on 45.1 percent, but his efficiency on the drive has been dependent on him making threes. It makes perfect sense – when you’re shooting well, opponents close out harder which enables Cousins to take full advantage of his skill on the drive and get into the paint.

But when the shot isn’t falling defenders can sag off and block the lane.

In Cousins’ worst shooting month this season (December), he shot 23.7 percent from three, to go with a woeful 33.3 percent on 4.8 drives. However, in Cousins’ best shooting month (November) — when Boogie averaged 33 percent from three — he managed a whopping 8.6 drives per game on 45.5 percent.

With his outside shot and his drive game working together, Cousins was able to manage an incredible 30.5 points per game in November on 45.4 percent shooting. While 45.4 percent isn’t an impressive field goal percentage for a big man, Cousins was much more efficient than his traditional field goal numbers suggest.

Cousins field goal percentages may be down, but his overall efficiency hasn’t been hurt as much as you would assume. Boogie’s true shooting percentage has only seen a less than 1 percent drop off, from 54.5 percent last season to 53.6 percent this season.

For those that aren’t aware, true shooting percentage is a statistic that intends to quantify more accurately a player’s shooting efficiency by taking into consideration points scored from three-pointers, field goals, and free throws, to get a measure of points scored on each shooting attempt.

The reason behind Cousins maintaining his true shooting percentage has been a shift in shot selection. Boogie is taking more threes this season, but it hasn’t hurt his efficiency much because he is taking fewer long twos.

Statistically speaking, the long two is the least efficient shot in basketball and Cousins only hit 38 percent from 16 feet or further last year. To put things into perspective, hitting 38 percent on deep twos is equivalent to shooting 25 percent from deep.

If it weren’t for the fact that Cousins is taking two more jump shots per game, his 33.6 percent from three would have led to a true shooting increase.

With the shift in shot selection, Cousins true shooting percentage should eventually go up — but that hasn’t been the case yet. There is one key reason behind that, though, and that is Cousins’ poor production in December.

In December, DeMarcus went 9-of-38 from three (23.7 percent) from deep, and there were some questions about whether or not he was fully healthy throughout that stretch.

However, December has been the only month that Cousins true shooting percentage has been lower that his averages last season. In November, it was 57 percent, and in January, it is at 59.1 percent so far.

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As long as Cousins can continue to hit better than 25 percent, his true shooting efficiency should increase from  last season, meaning that the three ball hasn’t hurt Cousins’ game at all; it’s only made it better.