Washington Wizards: Who’s the best at shooting contested shots?
The Washington Wizards had one of the best offensive seasons the team has had in years. A lot of that is due to some players shooting incredibly impressive percentages, but some of it might also come from players making tough shots.
Many coaches in the NBA will frown upon their players taking closely defended shots. They’ll argue with a defender nearby, the chances of that shot going in drop dramatically, and that the best option may be to make an extra pass and hope for a better look.
Some big men, on the other hand, almost strictly take closely defended shots, especially if they generate their offense from the post. But it’s worth noting that some NBA players are able to hit contested shots with decent percentages, and that a defender standing within 0-2 feet of them doesn’t actually affect their shot as much as it does other players.
For instance, both Kemba Walker and Damian Lillard shot over 40 percent from three-point range with a guy within two feet of them. That percentage, though on a slightly smaller sample size, is better than what some shooters make throughout the entire season.
However, most players can’t be Kemba Walker or Damian Lillard. Some should most definitely steer clear of taking bad closely defended shots. On the Washington Wizards, that person last year was Andrew Nicholson.
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According to NBA.com, 23.4 percent of Nicholson’s shots during the 2016-17 season were closely defended. On those shots, Nicholson had a 16.7 field goal percentage. That’s the worst combination of attempts versus makes on closely defended shots on the entire Wizards team. Not a single player with 15 or more attempts had a worse field goal percentage than 16.7 percent on contested shots.
The second-worst was Trey Burke at 35.5 percent and just 12.2 percent frequency. Nicholson is no longer on the Wizards, so they won’t have to worry about his inefficiency on contested shots for the next season.
One player that makes a living shooting closely defended shots is Marcin Gortat. During the 2016-17 season, Gortat took 168 field goal attempts while being closely defended. On those 168 attempts, he shot 56 percent. He only took these shots with a 25.3 percent frequency, but with over half of those shots going in, it might actually make sense for Gortat to continue to bump around in the paint and take shots over defenders.
It’s no surprise that Ian Mahinmi and Marcin Gortat lead the league in attempts and frequency on closely defended shots, since those guys spend the most time in the paint. A more interesting stat is who takes the most contested threes on the team.
The good news for Scott Brooks is that his team doesn’t take a lot of contested shots from beyond the arc. Last season, the Wizards only took 19 closely contested threes. As a team, they only made three of those shots. That’s a pretty horrid shooting percentage. Most of those shot attempts came from Bradley Beal, who took seven attempts and made just one.
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If that number teaches us anything, it’s that the Washington Wizards don’t possess many elite three-point shooters who can get their shot off no matter what. This tends to fit with the players they have on their team. While Beal and Otto Porter Jr. are both fantastic catch-and-shoot players, they both need to develop their ability to create space and get a shot off without the help of their teammates.