Basketball Statistics Blog

BASKETBALL Statistics, News, Video Clips & Photos eBA BLOG

Coach's Digest: Are the FG% going down ?

08/26/07

Coach's Digest: Are the FG% going down ?

11:55:50 am, Categories: Coach's Digest, Statistics, Formulas

Coach's Digest: Are the FG% values going down ?

"... Are the FG% values going down ? From the values we studied at the last eBA 113 Basketball Statistics Analysis Course, corresponding to the archives since 1988, we can see that the FG% values are declining...
Is this due to better defenses, or to players entering the league lacking shooting fundamentals ?
Maybe this had something to do with the declining efficiency and productivity ? ..."

1 - It's a combination of both reasons mentioned: defenses are better, or at least more complex than they used to be, and teams are more willing to sacrifice shooting from some players if those players are excellent defenders. But also more and more players are entering the professional leagues lacking the fundamentals of shooting.

2 - Overall FG% is declining primarily because more 3 pointers have been taken annually: despite more attempts the overall 3 points FG% has increased.

3 - But looking at Scoring FG% ( combining 2 pointers, 3 pointers, and Free Throws ) rather than overall FG%, the European leagues has had similar Scoring FG%s of 50.3% (in 98-99) to 53.4% (in 84-85), as it was years ago.

4 - New rule changes like hand checking, had opened up offenses and also the players take more high-risk, high-reward shots, so we can't say that shooting itself is worse.

You must be logged in to read or post a comment. Register

tags: basketball ~ coach's digest ~ basketball analysis ~ statistics