Scott's not doing that in some nefarious effort to lose the games though, and there's some argument to be made for the mid range shot -- Portland upended Houston because the Rockets were willing to let guys shoot that shot all day in the playoffs.
The '08-'12 Celtics made their offensive living off the mid-range jumper.
Correct. I think a lot of people read "worst shot in basketball" and assume that there's no reason for a team to take that shot, which isn't necessarily true.
There's no reason to never take the shot. You still need proper balance a little bit, but anyway..
Part of the reason the Celtics' offense became absolutely putrid to watch in 2011-2013 was because we didn't shoot 3's. Blame Doc or Ainge, whoever, but if you aren't able to get to the free throw line, you better start shooting 3s. In the Celtics championship season, they had a 3Pr of 25% and a FTr of 35%. By 2013, the Celtics had a 3Pr of 21% (dropping to as low as 17% in some years in between) and a FTr of 26%. Driving to the rim, drawing fouls, and shooting 3s are three of the most efficient ways of scoring in the NBA. The Celtics barely did any of that after the 2010 season, which is the real reason our overall offense completely fell off (not Rondo like some people like to believe). Seeing as our team clearly lacks a ton of players that can draw fouls (Smart, Turner, and Green pretty much being the only guys who can), Stevens has made the right adjustment and turned the Celtics into a 3PT team..at least in this pre-season.
Basically, I wouldn't exactly put the 2008-2013 Celtics on a pedestal for a great offense based off mid-range shooting. That was a pretty tough offense to watch for much of the era because of all the mid-range shooting.