elindholm
edited for content
There's been a lot of talk on this board about how so-and-so isn't a good shooter/scorer because of a low FG%.
If the player is good at driving to the basket or playing in the paint, however, it is important not to overlook two factors:
1. By penetrating into the defense, the player can often set up his teammates for easy scores or enable his teammates to get easy offensive rebounds. Iverson is the classic example of this. A player whose driving skills have to be respected is a more potent offensive weapon than just his FG% would suggest.
2. Also, players who seek out contact draw a lot of fouls. If someone shoots 4-10 but also gets fouled on three other drives, that's more efficient offensively than someone who shoots 5-10 on wide-open attempts but can't beat anyone off the dribble.
Of course, Quentin Richardson has almost no assists and shoots only three free throws per game, so it's possible that neither of these observations applies to him. But i just wanted to make the general point.
If the player is good at driving to the basket or playing in the paint, however, it is important not to overlook two factors:
1. By penetrating into the defense, the player can often set up his teammates for easy scores or enable his teammates to get easy offensive rebounds. Iverson is the classic example of this. A player whose driving skills have to be respected is a more potent offensive weapon than just his FG% would suggest.
2. Also, players who seek out contact draw a lot of fouls. If someone shoots 4-10 but also gets fouled on three other drives, that's more efficient offensively than someone who shoots 5-10 on wide-open attempts but can't beat anyone off the dribble.
Of course, Quentin Richardson has almost no assists and shoots only three free throws per game, so it's possible that neither of these observations applies to him. But i just wanted to make the general point.
