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Statophile, Volume 10 – Livin’ On A Prayer

A quick statistical recap of the first 41 games and some comparison to last year's squad.

We’re half way there…

A quick statistical recap of the first 41 games and some comparison to last year’s squad.

Tommy whispers “Baby, it’s okay, someday”

It will be okay, someday. If we’re smart about hoarding our cap space, trading for picks, moving one dimension players and having a ping pong ball fall our way (current simulations give us a 7.2% chance at the #1 pick). Too bad New Jersey didn’t mortgage their future with Carmelo – making them better this year and leap frogging us in the standings. But I digress.

How are we doing after 41 games?

Surprise! It’s not pretty.

We need to take more 3s, but do we have the shooters?


While not a dramatic change, we’re taking less threes and its negatively impacting our effective FG%. We rank 24th in 3 point attempts, but perhaps for good reason – we’re dead last in 3pt field goal percentage.

But we’re kind to our opponents


Over 50% of our opponents’ shots are in highly efficient zones: “At Rim” (with 64.1% FG%) and 3 pointers (with 56.0% eFG%).

A few takeaways:

  • The Raptors are the second worst team at forcing long 2s (22.1% of opponent’s shots)
  • We allow the third highest effective FG%: 52.3%
  • We allow opponents to take highest percentage of their shots at the rim (32.1%)
  • Bargnani has taken 87% more midrange 2s and 37% more long 2s, while not taking any more shot attempts at the rim and 12% less threes.
  • Thankfully, Bargnani is getting to the line 69% more often than a year ago.
  • Kleiza shoots 22% of our 3 point attempts, yet only makes 29.4% of them.

Questions? Email me: tomliston@gmail.com or find me on Twitter.

Sources: basketball-reference.com and hoopdata.com.