Hickory-High: Offensive Geometry

Ian Levy looks at how NBA offenses distribute possessions, the results won't surprise regular Hawks watchers but the accompanying radar graph is a nice way of looking at the problem:

In these graphs we also see examples of teams struggling to find success both because of an inefficient balance, and an inability to exploit specific opportunities. The Hawks had some terrific offensive options at their disposal this season. They had strong spot up shooting from Kirk Hinrich, Willie Green, Joe Johnson, Jeff Teague and Marvin Williams. They also had two strong ball handlers in the pick-and-roll in Johnson and Teague. The performance of Teague was particularly impressive, averaging 0.93 points per possession in the pick-and-roll, well above the league average. Unfortunately 29.7% of their possessions in our data set went to Josh Smith in either isolations, spot-ups or post ups. Smith was an atrocious spot up shooter, scoring just 0.81 points per possession, well below the league average of 0.94. He was right around average on post ups and isolations, but again, nearly a third of the Hawks’ offensive possessions were being used on some of their least efficient outcomes.

The two most efficient outcomes for the Hawks during the 2011-12 season were Josh Smith cutting and Joe Johnson spotting up. The four least efficient outcomes were Josh Smith in isolation, Joe Johnson as pick-and-roll ballhandler, Jeff Teague in isolation and Josh Smith spotting up.