Celtics generate more 'wide open' shots than almost every other team

https://celticswire.usatoday.com/2018/11/12/celtics-generate-more-wide-open-shots-than-almost-every-other-team/








Celtics generate more 'wide open' shots than almost every other team



By: Moke Hamilton | November 12, 2018 10:27 pm



The Celtics might have trouble winning games and their offense may have some poor metrics, but there’s at least one category in which they lead pretty much every other team in the NBA—their generation of ‘wide open’ shots.

We got a hold of the fact from Reddit user shorodei, who got the stats right off of NBA.com.


In short, the Celtics are getting 24.7 wide open shot attempts per game, and that ranks second in the league to only the Milwaukee Bucks, the team that happens to be chasing the Raptors for the best record in the Eastern Conference. The Bucks, for reference sake, at averaging 24.8 wide open looks per game, which is basically the same amount.

By definition, “wide open” means that the nearest defender was at least six feet away at the time the shot was attempted, so this metric can be used to conclude one thing that’s a positive for Brad Stevens’ team: they’re getting good looks at the basket. It also stands to reason that they’re finding the open man on the offensive end, because the Celtics aren’t necessarily playing the worst defensive teams in the league every night, so their frequency of open shots can’t simply be explained by porous defenses.

What makes this all really interesting, though, is the fact that despite attempting pretty much the most wide open shots per game, the Celtics are knocking those shots down at a clip of just 44.8 percent—14th in the league. The Warriors are tops in that category, as they hit their open looks 52.9 percent of the time. The Lakers rank second, but they’re separated from the Warriors by a wide gap—they knock down just 46.6 percent of their open looks.

At the end of the day, these advanced statistics help us understand the game a little better, and in this instance, could provide fans of the Celtics with a tad bit of a reason to be optimistic about the team, despite their slow start.



bob
MY NOTE:  Excerpt from another article:

"When a team creates open looks, it’s fair to assume they will eventually land. That’s the case with the Celtics, who are shooting 42.1 percent on their attempts when the nearest defender is at least four feet away. Almost half of their made field goals have been unguarded.

It’s a huge component of their offense and one of the reasons why they have the best offensive rating in the Eastern Conference (113.1) since November 13." (italics mine).

An awful start to the season, but we're getting our rhythm now. It's Brad's schemes that are getting us these open looks. We just gotta knock down our open shots.



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