technical basketball details etc

heres some numbers from a few years ago not sure where to find the current ones, someone was much better at stepbacks but it wasnt luka lol

Step-Back 3P% (Min. 100 3PA)
1. Steph Curry ......... 47.2%
2. Zach LaVine ........ 36.9
3. Jamal Murray .......36.9
4. James Harden ..... 36.8
5. Dame Lillard .........36.0
6. Luka Doncic ......... 35.7
7. Jayson Tatum ....... 34.6
8. Jordan Clarkson ... 33.3 pic.twitter.com/nsmV9Xw33C

— Kirk Goldsberry (@kirkgoldsberry) May 26, 2021

luka did have his best 3pt shooting year this year 38% compared to 34 for his career but he was prob at least partially just hot, and indeed he was at 32% for the offs

those are some ok percentages but aside from steph theyre not great and more importantly its just the kind of shot that can turn to dust against a good prepared defense an already very difficult shot becomes impossible with a defender in yr face, if you want to take it at the end of the shot clock fine yr already kinda fucked whatever, could also step in and take a long two going towards the basket tho

relatedly in saw a clip of luka taking a catch and shoot three in the finals and it was so bad he just kinda flung it there was no intentional foot work going into the catch he looked confused, his game isnt normal

they also showed him pregame practicing movement catch and shoots where he caught and turned on the move he was miced up telling someone "this is me next year" buddy try the easy ones first why not

start with just moving off ball see what happens

nba tracking data has luka as going 169-421 on step back threes this year which is 40.1%. i don’t see a leaderboard for this stat but obv a big improvement from 2021 and a rate that would’ve been way ahead of everyone in the league aside from steph

in the playoffs this year luka was 38-118 on step back threes which is 32%

in the finals he was 6-28 which is 21%

i don’t think the exact link is working on my phone but if you go to his NBA player page and select “splits” and “shooting” and scroll all the way to “shot type detail” you’ll see it

https://www.nba.com/player/1629029/luka-doncic/

a lot of his game plays off the step back, guys jumping up on him and then he uses that to get in front of the guy and pin him on his back and then he’s going to the rim exactly how he wants etc. you see this happen all the time when he plays. it’s a fine line to where the threat stops being worth it bcuz the shots keep missing but at 40% in the regular season he was far above the red line so to speak. 32% is a diff convo, 21% is not one at all

ah very nice thats a lot of data https://www.nba.com/stats/player/1629029/shooting

it declined from 39% to 34 in the mavs playoff run two years ago which is not that bad but idk i just feel like cant you find a better shot its not only difficult its also static iso offense, i think one reason he does it is compared to how he gets his other buckets its not that tiring