Shot Location and Success

Here's the stuff I mentioned earlier in the week. Shot volume and field goal percentage by location, broken down by quality of opponent. First, the percentage of field goal attempts from each of the five locations provided by Hoopdata:

Opponent	at rim	3-9 feet	10-15 feet	16-23 feet	3PTA
under .500	28.8%	11.8%	5.8%	29.7%	23.9%
over .500	30.2%	12.1%	5.6%	30.6%	21.4%

The main item of note is that the Hawks take far fewer three-point shots against teams above .500. Since the Hawks are 4th in the league in three-point shooting but just 13th in offensive efficiency, not getting those shots up is a big deal. Not for the first time, Michael Cunningham is onto something.

Fewer three-point attempts doesn't entirely explain* the Hawks scoring 15.6 fewer points per 100 possessions against opponents with winning records. The slight upticks in shot attempts from the two lowest percentage areas (3-9 and 16-23 feet) are exaggerated by how rarely the Hawks have been making those low-percentage shots. Here's the teams eFG% from each location:

Opponent	at rim	3-9 feet	10-15 feet	16-23 feet	3PTA
under .500	60.9%	45.1%	40.8%	39%	60.6%
over .500	59.8%	32.7%	47.1%	32.6%	55.6%

The inability to make the high-percentage shots (at the rim and beyond the arc) is also an obvious hindrance to scoring efficiently against better opponents. Don't let that 47% shooting from 10-15 feet against opponents over .500 get you too excited. That's a sample of just 68 shots over 15 games.

*Nor does their shooting numbers. As shown previously, the Hawks rebound far fewer of their misses against better opponents.