We welcome back special guest Art Rondeau to talk tanking and shooting in the NBA. Tune in!
Hosts
- Special Guest: Art Rondeau (@artrondeau)
- Andres Alvarez (@nerdnumbers)
- Produced by Brian Foster (@boxscorebrian)
Sources
You can watch us live at twitch.tv/nerdnumbers; we usually go Wednesday at 9:30 pm EST. Follow us on Twitter, and we'll keep you posted!
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You can download the show direct here.
Video Show
Sorry to be confusing. We recorded this show right before Thanksgiving. I had family vacation, so I did not get show notes written last week. We then decided to just keep "schedule as usual" on this week's show. So here are last week's show notes. Remember, if you subscribe to our iTunes, Stitcher, or YouTube channels, you always get the shows right as they come out!
Last Week on Lost
We talk Kyle Kuzma on the Lakers (thanks JGunterBrett) and relate it to Landry Fields on the Knicks. As always, Carmelo Anthony is to blame!
Of course, as we have Art on the show, we talk a lot about how we're more interested in the psychology of "programming" players to play than the math of "Advanced Stats."
We discuss a lot of ways tiny things impact player performances, particularly psychological priming. A great book on this subject is Drunk Tank Pink (I mistakenly call it Dunk Tank Pink on the show.)
Around the NBA
We talk the Kings overperforming expectations and why they'd be silly to fire Dave Joerger.
Art has proposed changing the draft lottery model before. We think it's way too early for the Kings to think about tanking. That said, we do think if the NBA insists on keeping the draft around, it makes sense to incentivize winning not losing.
We briefly talk the Jazz's woes. Namely, they have some top bigs in the NBA, but their backcourt and bench are wanting. And, we manage to relate it to Carmelo Anthony with the Knicks!
Player Shooting
We discuss LeBron James' free throw shooting. Art says it has to do with balance and has a major flaw, namely, that he keeps stepping over the line. He is not alone in his observation. A few days after we recorded the show, Rob Perez tweeted the following:
The saga continues.
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) November 25, 2018
You’ll see here during 1st of 2 LeBron free throws, LeBron steps over line again. Misses. No violation given.
Is then approached by Ken Mauer. The action pauses as the two converse and LeBron inquires
Next free throw, he does not fall forward. Misses again. pic.twitter.com/V9FgvWb3OY
It's hard to want to "fix" players with above average free throw shooting. But as we often note, the scoreboard doesn't care where the points come from. Art's work with Allan Houston, for instance, may have helped an 84% free throw shooter turn into a close to 90% free throw shooter for the remainder of his career. At 74% free throw shooting for his career, LeBron James has a lot of improvement he could have. And if his goal is to end his career atop the NBA points leaders, it couldn't hurt, right?
DeAndre Jordan's free throw shooting is the best it's ever been by far in Dallas. Art has a theory as to why.
Art talks Markelle Fultz's shooting. He has an interesting strategy to help. What if Fultz copied Hal Greer and took a jumper from the free throw line? Greer was a career 80% free throw shooter after all!
We talk Ben Simmons shooting and how telling players their splits can have negative effects.
I ask Art if he thinks free throw shooting is fundamentally broken in the NBA. I'm not sure if Art agrees, but he doesn't disagree!
We couldn't avoid talking about the world chess championship. Excellently we talk the psychology of a top player spending too much timing thinking about the right move.