I don’t get why shouldn’t count as shots.
Well for one it’s bc players know they make their numbers worse so the stars push them off on other guys on the team. For two, they’re not really possessions so having them count as such isn’t informative.
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If you possess the ball, it’s a possession. There’s no rule that I know of that gives a minimum time you have to have the ball for it to count as a possession.
If you want to create some extra category for heaves, fine. It’s still a shot, and if it goes in the points still count and the FG% goes up.
The point of the game is to score more points, not worry about personal stats.
players’ salaries can depend (obviously not in a huge way, but in some small part) on their FG%, so they’re not going to take those shots, even though it’d be marginally better for the team. it’s one of those things where the player incentives don’t align with the team incentives, but solely because of how that shot will be stripped of context in contract negotiations (i.e. it’ll be treated as if they just missed a regular 3 pointer). remove that, and their goals align once again.
if there was something my boss measured and based my pay even in some small way on and taking a moonshot made that number worse 95% of the time, I don’t think I’d do it?
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NBA ← pretty high-level hoops league.
I like this idea. If you’re throwing the ball full court at the rim as the clock expires it should be in the stat books, but it should be free and not count against you. They could tag it as a free throw… oh wait, that won’t work… I guess stick with heave.
I totally get why players don’t do it. I just respect players who try anyway a lot more. Apparently, Ivey’s done it twice and Cade has done it once this season. Neither made their heaves.
And, since, apparently, there is some site out there that tracks heaves, any decent agent should have that ready to bring up in negotiations if a team is trying to save a few dollars by bringing up FG and 3-PT%
It’s the same principal as the football player who, at the end of the game can score a TD, but knows it’s more important to keep the ball and run the clock out, so they go down.
I just think it’s funny that they want to “test” it! They know exactly what the change would be down to the thousandth decimal! These shots are tracked! You can quantify it right now! What’s getting “tested”?
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The impact of a rule change on the behavior of the players.
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It’s not a rule change, it’s a book-keeping alteration.
Do you think the frequency of clock-beating full court heaves will change if they decided to not call it a shot attempt? Guys will still try to win.
Semantics. And yes, the players are concerned about their stats to the extent that they don’t attempt shots at the buzzer. Players aren’t holding on to the ball down 2 with a second left in the fourth quarter. They absolutely are holding the ball at the first quarter buzzer in the interest of their stats.
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That’s not backed up by facts though - look at who attempts the most heaves, it’s almost exclusively the teams starting and backup point guards. Trae Yound lead the NBA last year.
As someone who only casually watches the NBA… almost certainly, right? As someone who basically only watches college basketball… I always find it bizarre that they don’t take try these shots at the end of halves and quarters.
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We have 18 teams and are still in a league called the Big Ten, so I guess I’ve seen equally nonsensical things happen as not calling a shot a shot.
I can’t recall the last NBA game I watched where I asked myself why a guy didn’t chuck the ball
It absolutely happens. I can’t tell you how many times I watch games where players wait until a second after the buzzer sounds to launch their heaves so that it doesn’t affect their FG%. I don’t know why fans wouldn’t want players incentivized to take those shots.
Do I wish they took those shots anyway? Of course. But many don’t. And the NBA should encourage those shots to be taken. So how do they do it? Make sure it doesn’t affect the player’s bottom line when their FG% and 3pt% drops because they took a shot that has a 1% chance of going in and a 99% chance of negatively affecting their stats.
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Yeah, this is exactly what I’m talking about. The half-hearted dribble, buzzer, fake heave.
I don’t think it is a particularly big deal, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t funny.
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You could do a separate category for when the shot is from the other half of the court.
I’ll just say this - for about 15 years consecutively, the number of heaves in an NBA season has been flat.
That number is about 90 total heaves MORE than 20 years ago. And over 100 more than 25 years ago.
I guess I’m saying is that watching with our eyes is one think but there is no statistical evidence that players are attempting less of then since shot-tracking started sometime in the Jordan era. So if players are avoiding these shots for statistical/contractual reasons, they’ve been doing so since, literally, the start of documented history of the shot.
the first time I remember reading about it (waiting a nanosecond after the buzzer to shoot it so it doesn’t count) was in a michael lewis profile of shane battier when he was on the rockets, so can confirm it’s been at least 13 years! I definitely don’t think it’s a new thing.
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