I saw that a lot in the game vs NY. I don't know why he's taking so many threes. Maybe he thinks it's preseason and he wants to test out his range. I hope he doesn't do that in the regular season =\

I think most of the untapped potential in Sully lies in that 3 point shot.  It will open up his entire game, and give him one offensive weapon that he can rely on against just about any competition.

With his relative lack of length and athleticism, he has to have a strong face up game, if he ever wants to be more than a role player, and in todays NBA, stretch 4s are such a prized commodity.

So, I love this.  He is a hard worker, and already had good range on his shot (he shot 40% from the college 3 his sophomore year), so I feel like this is a good thing to focus on developing.

I saw that a lot in the game vs NY. I don't know why he's taking so many threes. Maybe he thinks it's preseason and he wants to test out his range. I hope he doesn't do that in the regular season =\

yeah i thought maybe it was just like a weird thing but then I read Stevens' is yelling at them if they dont shoot the open three's. IDK - i think i'd be ok w that strategy for other players but not sully.

lots of 3's seems pitino-esque,college-esque its making me nervous!

and yeah I think individually if Sully becomes a consistent 3 point threat it'd be good for his career, but I'm not sure that would really help this team right now, given they have few other legit down low offensive presence type players.

He did shoot a pretty nice 40% (16 for 40) from 3 his last year at Ohio State. Better than Olynyk, who I think a lot of people would be okay with shooting the 3.

If I want to read wayyyyy too much into things I'll say, look at the difference between his Freshman and Sophomore years.  Roughly the same amount of shot attempts, the same ppg.  Difference was Freshman year he went 3-12 for 3, Sophomore year he went 16-40.  He wasn't making the shot, his range wasn't there yet, so he didn't take a lot of shots from deep, kept it smart. Worked on his shot, improved his range, the shots were falling, so then upped the amount of attempts from 3.   

Really though, don't know how Brad Stevens will fair in the NBA, but he doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would let guys take shots (or at least a lot of shots) if they didn't make sense statistically.  Definitely not worried about Antoine 2.0 here.

Quote from: cons on October 11, 2013, 10:43:54 AM

but i would think Sully's biggest value to the team is to be where the true high % shots are - from right next to the hoop.

I'm not optimistic about his ability to be a reliable finisher around the basket. He's surely crafty, but he doesn't have any particular size, length, or lift to write home about.

For what it's worth, he shot .300 from 3-10 feet, and .667 from within 3 feet (both were drawn from nontrivial sample sizes). Which to me means that unless he's getting an open layup or a dunk, he's not very good in getting close shots off.

  Different websites have slightly different numbers, but from hoopdata that .667 would be slightly above average for rotation-level power forwards. Also, you'll find that it's fairly common to see largish fluctuations in those 3-10 foot jumpers for many players. It's probably not a *tiny* sample size, but if he took 1 such shot a game then 1 more made shot a month would have pushed him close to 40% on those 3-10 footers.

Quote from: kozlodoev on October 11, 2013, 10:59:00 AM

Quote from: cons on October 11, 2013, 10:43:54 AM

but i would think Sully's biggest value to the team is to be where the true high % shots are - from right next to the hoop.

I'm not optimistic about his ability to be a reliable finisher around the basket. He's surely crafty, but he doesn't have any particular size, length, or lift to write home about.

For what it's worth, he shot .300 from 3-10 feet, and .667 from within 3 feet (both were drawn from nontrivial sample sizes). Which to me means that unless he's getting an open layup or a dunk, he's not very good in getting close shots off.

  Different websites have slightly different numbers, but from hoopdata that .667 would be slightly above average for rotation-level power forwards. Also, you'll find that it's fairly common to see largish fluctuations in those 3-10 foot jumpers for many players. It's probably not a *tiny* sample size, but if he took 1 such shot a game then 1 more made shot a month would have pushed him close to 40% on those 3-10 footers.

The sample size is 40+ 3-9 ft shots total, it's not a lot but enough to draw some inference.

But yes, fair enough, the data shows two things: (1) inside shots may be Sullinger's best weapon, relative to other shots (though I don't think there's enough data for conclusive evidence on long jumpers), and (2) when he comes to inside shots, he's pretty much average.

I'll stipulate that his % assisted for close shots is lower than the average, so he works for some of these. Yet, I can't see a player who was on par with the league average as a credible long-term threat.

Quote from: manl_lui on October 11, 2013, 10:46:21 AM

I saw that a lot in the game vs NY. I don't know why he's taking so many threes. Maybe he thinks it's preseason and he wants to test out his range. I hope he doesn't do that in the regular season =\

lots of 3's seems pitino-esque,college-esque its making me nervous!

THIS!!!