The three point contest on All-Star Saturday brings 6 of the best three point shooters in the NBA (and one of the best shooters in the history of the game, depending on who you believe), and I think this contest is the perfect chance to break down some shooting forms.

Despite every shooter in the NBA having a different shooting form, there are four basic things that should be the same (and that are the same among the best shooters in the NBA). They are the hands, the lower body, the follow through, and the landing.  I thought it would be interesting to put these shooters side by side, and break down their shots at these four points.

The Hands

Hand positioning – Hand positioning is key because this is where your rotation comes from (maybe my favorite part of the three point contest is watching the competitors shoot the money ball.  Seeing the almost perfect rotation is fun to watch).  Rotation is important on your shot because this is what helps a shooter get some good bounces.  I am sure everyone has heard of the saying “shooters roll.”  Well if you think about it, this is only said about good shooters, and this is because they put the proper rotation on the ball.

As you can see, all of the players hand positioning is basically the same.  You have the right hand right in the middle of the basketball, and the left on the side, supporting it. Cook’s form is a little funky (he takes his left hand off the ball super-early), but he still has his right hand in the center of the basketball, so it works.   The only shooter who doesn’t have the right hand positioning is Channing Frye.  His left hand is too much on top of the basketball, and his right isn’t in the center of the ball.  The result can be seen in Frye’s rotation.  Instead of the perfect end over end rotation you usually see, Frye’s balls have a side-winding type of rotation, with the ball going end over end, but it also spins from right to left.

Release Point – Now everyone’s release points here are different, but that is ok as long as the hands are in the right spots.  I just thought it was interesting to look at how the taller guys (Danilo Gallinari and Channing Frye) have higher release points.  This helps get their shots off, because if they keep it high, nobody contesting the shot would ever be able to block it.

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There wasn’t any real game-time action to breakdown due to All-Star weekend, so I thought it would be fun to look at a couple different things, and dedicate one post per day of the weekend.  Today we are going to look at the Rookie-Sophomore game, and tomorrow we are going to be looking at All-Star Saturday night and the actual game itself.

Kevin Love has been known as a good outlet passer for a while now, and I guess this reputation started when in college:

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Both games yesterday kind of stunk, with neither really being close late.  And now that we are at the All-Star break, there isn’t really much to talk about.  That doesn’t mean there isn’t any great basketball posts out there.  Today, the site Basketball Free For All did a great post on the League’s Best Shooters.  Here is a little taste:

Discussions of great shooters ultimately lead to a few questions. Who is the better shooter now? Who has been the better shooter over the course of their career? And how does the better of the two shooters stack up against some of the other historically great shooters of the three point era? And what can we learn about the players from looking at the numbers?

Ray Allen versus Steve Nash

They are often referred to as natural shooters ostensibly because they have some innate abilities that allow them to shoot the ball at an exceptional clip. But that is only part of the story. Both Ray and Steve are renowned for their work ethic and their practice routines. Allen routinely knocks down 247 out of 250 shots before every game and credits a lot of his practice work ethic to his college coach at UConn, Jim Calhoun. Nash credits his work ethic during practices and the offseason as one of the primary reasons he was even able to be successful in the League, as he wasn’t blessed with extraordinary athleticism or size that is normally a prerequisite for NBA hopefuls.

Check it out.  Real, real good stuff.

Last night the Minnesota Timberwolves and Charlotte Bobcats were locked in a tight game.  The Timberwolves were up 1 with under 10 seconds left, and they were able to get the shot they want (a Boris Diaw 21 footer), however the rebound bounces off two Timberwolves and heads out of bounds.  This is where Cory Brewer does something you are taught not to do in high school:

He save the ball under his own basket.  Now, you can’t knock the hustle that Corey Brewer shows here, but there are other options he has.  Instead of throwing it blindly underneath his own he could throw it away from the basket, into the corner (where there was a teammate).  With around 5 seconds left, he can also just heave it as far as he can down the court and hope that time runs out (I understand this might have been difficult to do based on his body position).

His final option is eating the basketball and taking it out of bounds with him.  Now that doesn’t sound like a smart idea, but think about it, would you rather set up your defense to try to get another stop or would you rather keep the ball in bounds as two of your teammates are falling out of bounds?  By eating the basketball and going out of bounds with it, he is putting his team in a better position to win.

Now, here is another example.  This is from the Nets-Celtics game last week:

The ball gets saved by Devin Harris as he is going out of bounds.  By saving the ball on his own end like that, he is basically taking himself out of the play, and the Celtics are able to use this to get a wide open back-breaking jump shot..

Ever since the return of Kevin Martin, the Kings record has taken a bit of a nose-dive.  This has lead to many people to say that Evans & Martin will not be able to work together.  I think that is crazy.  You put a great shooter (Kevin Martin) with a guy who can get to the hoop (Tyreke Evans), and it should work.  In the closing moments of the 4th quarter and the start of overtime, you started to see how these two playing together can work.

Tyreke Evans Dominates Late In The 4th

The biggest effect Tyreke Evans and Kevin Martin being on the court at the same time has on opponents is on the defensive end.  Defenses have to figure out how to cover both Kevin Martin and Tyreke Evans.  The Knicks really struggled with it last night.  This is what allowed Evans to go off late in the game:

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When you have two of the best coaches in the history of the NBA going up against each other, you know there is going to be some good Xs and Os stuff to look at.  Turns out, they didn’t disappoint.

Spurs’ Pick & Roll

I know what you are thinking.  A pick and roll?  How is that good play calling?  Well, let’s take a closer look to see how good it is:

Tony Parker gets the pick, not from Tim Duncan, but from Antonio McDyess.  Tim Duncan, as you can see is setting up on the low block.  The purpose of this play is to isolate Duncan’s defender, Pau Gasol.

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At halftime of the Celtics-Magic game, it looked like Boston was pulling away turning this game into a blowout.  The Celtics had just outscored the Magic by 10 points in the second quarter, and they went into halftime with an 11 point lead.  The Magic came out in the third quarter, and the game did turn into a blowout, just the other way around.  The Magic outscored the Celtics in the third 36 to 11.  Lets look at how they did it:

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The title is pretty self-explanatory, but if you are someone who is pretty good with stats, and you want to write about it, I am looking for someone to do a weekly stats column.  I already put out some feelers (posted on Twitter), but if you are interested, shoot me an e-mail over at sebastian@nbaplaybook.com

Yeah, the title was an excuse just to post that video. Anyway, after Nazr Mohammed’s bucket with 1:38 left cut the lead to 1, the Bobcats were looking to get a stop to get a chance to win the game:

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I usually try to keep the Nets away from NBAPlaybook.com.  For one, they are an awful team who gets blown out a lot, so there aren’t too many “key possessions.”  Also, along with Mark Ginocchio, I co-run the Nets Truehoop Network blog NetsAreScorching, so most of my Nets stuff goes over there.  The Nets’ game last night against Detroit showed us some things that I want to talk about here.

“The Nets have the talent, why aren’t they winning any games?”  Being the blogger that talks about the Nets, I hear a variation of this question at least once a day.  Whenever I am asked, I give a generic answer that involves “Injuries, them being young, and the fact that they don’t have a real coach.”  You know what though, those are just excuses.  When the Nets played the Pistons (a team that I think the Nets are equal with in terms of talent), you saw the real reason.  They don’t execute late, while other teams do.

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