Welcome to a new series at FB&G where we will take one player on the Lakers’ roster and discuss one specific skill they possess. Sometimes it will be something very subtle, others it will be more straight forward. We’ll try to shed some light on how this skill can help the team in the coming season. First up in our series (or, second up, if you count Roy Hibbert’s boxing out) is Jordan Clarkson and his mid-range jumpshot. Enjoy.
The NBA is an ever changing game. Go watch tape of the 1980’s or early 1990’s and compare it to the version of the game you see today. The game of my youth only bares a slight resemblance to the version played today.
Efficiency is the buzzword of the 2010’s, with teams striving for offensive possessions to end with a shot at the rim, a three point attempt, or a free throw. These are the shots that optimize offensive output so they are the shots sought after.
But every shot cannot come from those places. The NBA halfcourt is 2,350 square feet and the offenses which can threaten defenses from the most amount of that space are going to find themselves the most difficult to defend. And while more and more teams cut out the mid-range shot from their arsenal, the players who can thrive in this area can not only exploit defenses by making the shots opponents are most willing to cede, but they can open up opportunities for their teammates.
Jordan Clarkson is one such player. Here is a simplified shot chart for Clarkson from the games after the all-star break (when he became a key part of the rotation):
As you can see, Clarkson thrived from the mid-range, hitting over 46% of his shots from this zone. His ability to create separation in isolation as well as navigate defenses coming out of the pick and roll as a ball handler gave him the room he needed to get this shot off — and hit it — consistently.
While some who worship at the altar of efficiency might scoff at Clarkson’s willingness to make the mid-range a vital part of his arsenal, he and the Lakers benefit from his skill at knocking down these shots.
Clarkson’s main strength as a player is his quickness and athleticism, allowing him to get to spots on the floor he can thrive from. This mostly creates a defensive strategy where teams lay off him to try and take away his driving lanes and angles. Clarkson, though, uses that space to his advantage by either using a hard dribble to get to defenders back off him into the paint or by creating screening angles that achieve the same purpose. Once that space is created, Clarkson rises up and shoots this shot.
When this shot falls, though, defenses have to start to play him differently and, in that process, opening up different parts of his offensive attack. If defenders feel the need to play him more closely or react more quickly to a potential pull up, Clarkson can turn on the jets to get a step on his man and drive deeper into the paint. If once there, he has the strength, leaping ability, and body control to either finish over or through contact. Further, once he’s able to penetrate to the rim, defenses collapse which creates the types of passing angles that lead to open shots (either kickouts to spot up players or dump-offs to big men) that his teammates can knock down.
We often discuss offensive spacing as a product of three point shooting, but that is only one aspect of how it is created. The idea of offensive “gravity” — where players, simply by being on the floor or by performing an action draw the attention of the defense — has been gaining traction over the years and this is a concept which applies to any part of the court. Big men diving to the rim as roll men in the P&R, post up threats, and high volume/high accuracy three point shooters all tilt the defense in their direction.
The same can be true for accurate mid-range shooters who serve as focal points of their team’s respective attacks. We have seen this historically with players like Dirk and, more recently, LaMarcus Aldridge. The same is true for guards like Chris Paul and Kobe Bryant. I’m not saying Clarkson is the next great mid-range shooter, but should he continue to hit this shot at the clip he did in the 2nd half of last year, teams will start to adjust to him.
None of this is a given, of course, and Clarkson would still do well to improve other aspects of his game — including his three point shooting as well as his ability to be a threat off the ball as a spot-up option or a worker off picks. But, for now, his ability to finish at the rim and from the mid-range look to be a staple of his attack. And, with those skills, especially the latter, the Lakers are sure to benefit.
david h says
darius: this is great stuff. on a personal note, I like Clarkson’s little floater (a la spur’s point guardr) in the lane. he’s got a lot of moves; similar to a young and healthy tony parker; only stronger. this should continue to help him excel in the nba.
can’t wait for more stuff.
Go lakers
Calvin says
Let’s go, JC! I’m really hoping Clarkson can represent the Lakers in the Rio Olympics 2016
Ian says
First, Clarkson is a very good young player that should have a very good NBA career. He’s athletic, a good (not great shooter) and a decent passer. It’s important to remember he was all of those in his rookie season so he should only improve. However, it’s a mistake to aggrandize his mid-range game. Yes, it can open up the offense but in a very inefficient way. For example, if he forced teams to respect his three point shot and then could drive by them when the defender was closing, he would collapse the entire defense, opening up other players, and doing so without hoisting up the most inefficient shot in basketball. Looking at his stats, he would be a better offensive player shooting 3’s instead of midrange shots since he’d actually score more points even shooting a lower percentage; per 100 shots he’d score 92 shooting midrange shots but he’d score 96 from three.
That’s the part that’s often overlooked, an average three point shot is often better than a good midrange shot.
Jordan says
Ian, I get what you are saying but it also is important to be effective from mid range because they use the pick and roll around the top of the free throw line. If he has the mid range threat coming off the screen the help defender must come over the screen leaving for an easy mismatch to the hoop or a possible bounce pass to the roller. Threes are important and he will be even better this year but for a point guard the mid range game can be deadly for mismatches
Craig W. says
With the game moving to increasing the importance of the 3pt shot, we often forget that the game is more than three point shooting. Yes, we need 3pt shooters, but if all our players are deficient in the mid-range shot we can be more easily defended. We fans frequently see the bandwagon, but fail to recognize the complexity of offense and how it works together with the defense. This is a chess game, not a checkers game – there is a great deal of difference, and I am not putting down checkers.
mud says
i like Jordan, i’m very hopeful that he becomes a first rate NBA player. he’s already close to that, he just needs to continue to have consistently good play. he seems to be the kind of guy that would do just that.
i think i’ll say this again, just because everybody loves their pet statements. no Lakers fan can celebrate or feel good about being correct about disasters that befall the Lakers. the very definition of the word “fan” demands this. for this reason, i know everyone(Lakers fan) is pulling more for Jordan and every other Lakers member(including Byron)’s success more than they are hoping to be right and the smartest person on the internet. period.
KL says
Mastering the art of the mid-range can definitely open JC’s game. Remember #24? He made things look easy with his midrange. You don’t know how he’ll attack you during his prime. It’s all about mind games.
arliepro says
Hope he’s strong enough to finish through contact more this year. I’d like to see him make “and-1s” a staple in his stat line.
Robert says
Clarkson has clearly been our biggest success of the last 3 years. As noted in above, Clarkson has a very good medium ranged game. It is interesting that this is the part of the game that he excels at, because many consider this area of the court to be the worst shot in basketball. While I do not fully agree, this is brought up consistently when speaking about Byron. However, some of this criticism is valid and it comes back to the ability to use of data and stats in the management of your team. The Lakers were ranked 113th out of 122 professional sports teams in the use of such data in a recent poll.
The attached link discusses mid range jumpers, and the use of an_lytics, amongst a few other things. The article is brutal. A couple of excerpts:
“This is a team that went out and acquired Lou Williams to add to Kobe Bryant and Nick Young. Because, as anyone in analytics will tell you—you can never take too many mid-range jumpers.”
“But what he did is willfully go out and put a team that’s a travesty on paper. And they have enough personality disorders between them to make Sigmund Freud himself roll over in his grave.”
https://www.todaysfastbreak.com/nba-west/pacific/los-angeles-lakers/latest-interview-explains-why-jim-buss-flunked-chemistry/
The article concludes with this:
“When Buss starts doing things that make a lick of sense an_lytically or in the broader sense of the “eye test” he can start lecturing about such things.”
Darius Soriano says
“This is a team that went out and acquired Lou Williams to add to Kobe Bryant and Nick Young. Because, as anyone in analytics will tell you—you can never take too many mid-range jumpers.”
—
It’s interesting the author of that post would include Lou Williams in that group since Lou took nearly six 3-pointers a game last season — tied for 16th in the league — while taking half that amount from mid-range. Williams does take a fair amount of mid-range shots, but he took roughly 27% of his total from midrange last year. Meanwhile, nearly 44% of Kobe’s total shots last year were from that distance. Nick Young was at 33% of his shots. As a comparison to efficiency darlings, Steph Curry took 21% of his shots from midrange and James Harden took 19% of his shots from that distance. So, Williams is higher than them, but also more comparable to them (at least Curry) than he was to Kobe & Young.
These are numbers easily found at NBA.com/Stats. I just did it in 15 minutes. Probably easier to just look up this information than block quote a guy who supports an argument you make nearly every time you come to this site. Would probably make you more credible too.
Robert says
Darius: Kobe, Young, Clarkson, and Williams all shoot a fairly large volume of shots and they do so while hoisting a fairly large percentage of that from outside the restricted area, yet inside of 3 point territory. Having 4 guys like this is not putting together players who are complimentary of one another, in my opinion. Further, having 4 guys like this does not help create an environment where our 2 new young guys can thrive. Let’s see what happens when the games start, but I am questioning whether we are going to be known for ball movement.
Craig W. says
Again,
Increasing the % of 3pt shots on the Lakers is probably a good thing. However, harping on the 3pt shot and ignoring the fact that the mid-range shot has a real place in any efficient NBA offense wouldn’t seem to be prudent. Mike D. certainly ‘blew up’ to concept that the 3pt shot couldn’t be a primary weapon, but none of the really successful offenses in the NBA use the 3pt shot exclusively.
I realize it is hard to be nuanced when you are trying to make a specific point, but after you have repeated that same point a number of times on the blog, it might do to broaden your explanation.
Darius Soriano says
Further, having 4 guys like this does not help create an environment where our 2 new young guys can thrive.
—
If Kobe is shooting mid-range jumpers out of post ups where extra defensive attention is drawn, I think that can help the young players since, as I wrote above regarding “gravity” (as well as a post I linked to last week discussing “chuckers”) the extra defensive attention those guys draw does, in fact, help teammates.
Regarding Young, I was down on him, so I’m not going comment on him. Lou Williams and Clarkson have both shown they can be decent to good shot creators for teammates based on their total skill sets.
No one is going to argue the mid-range shot, in high volume over the entire roster or as a product of an offense which tries to generate that specific shot is a great idea. I think some of that is coaching, though. Under the coach you railed against every day two seasons ago. mid-range shots by this team were down in general and there was an uptick in 3 point shots. The current coach, however, has ran an offense which frequently targets this shot as a fine result. The players, in general, will adjust their games based on the scheme they’re in.
So, while we can talk the front office acquiring players, it is still on the coach to put them in a good position to succeed by veering them towards shots which maximize offensive output. If the argument from there is to just pass the buck onto the FO again for hiring the coach, I’m not necessarily going to agree with that since individuals are still responsible for their own actions. Is some of it on the FO? Of course, they hired this dude. But now that the dude has control of the schemes and how to deploy the players, he should be judged like it.
Getting back to my earlier point, the post on Clarkson’s mid-range shot discusses him specifically and how these shots can aid the offense. The same can, theoretically, be true for the other players should they also shoot them at a good efficiency.
mud says
there’s nothing wrong with mid-range shots, if the player tends to make them. the best shots are the ones that the players can hit with regularity, regardless of what number crunchers might say. taking 3s is great, if the players can hit them.
Anonymous says
Robert – that was a pretty damning article about Buss. The best thing you can say about that piece was at least he didn’t wear a baseball cap in the accompanying picture.
I agree the off season moves weren’t particularly great moves in that Hibbert, Williams and Bass are just average players. In my mind Jim failed with Aldridge and couldn’t do what he has done for the past two years — fill the roster on the cheap. If you recall Jeanie had just ripped him in an ESPN article that she indeed had him on a timer in regards to his promise. Jim filled the roster with vets who were available and could play extended minutes should the Kobe and the kids not be able to.
Calvin says
I think I remember Clarkson saying last season that Nash pointed out the importance of making mid-range jumpers, so he worked on that shot. It’s all about context and what the defense is giving you. If the spacing of Byron’s offense is designed to give you more open looks and separation from mid-range, then that’s the shot you have to make. I noticed in the 2nd half of the season that Clarkson runs the high pick and roll, uses his speed to get closer to the rim, then takes what the defense gives him. Oftentimes, there’s a rim protector so he creates separation and goes for the pull-up mid-range jumper. It’s a good shot.
Robert says
Darius: Yes – I did rail against that coach, but to give MD the benefit of the doubt, he was asked to coach guys like DH, Pau, Kaman, Antawn, and Hill – none of whom were “his type of guy” (roster/coach mismatch). And yes Jim did hire Byron – but that does not absolve Byron as you indicate. I have already said he is a caretaker. Our main focus should be development of the youngsters. I do not think the overall situation is set up to maximize that. Whether that is because we have the wrong roster, or the wrong coach, or both, it is not the best situation.
Anonymous: Yes – that was a good picture of Jim. Mike Brown is actually wearing the hat. He is also wearing a big smile. He must have just been told that he is getting a very long vacation with pay.
mud/Craig: Ironically – I am hardly a 3pt type of guy. I am old school – as in have a big man who is destined for the wall and build around that. However, we should not have redundant players. A 3 point specialist or some front line post up offense is sorely needed. We should have either dumped Young or not signed Williams. Having both of them along with Kobe and an upstart scorer in the form of Clarkson, and their simply aren’t enough shots. Good thing we have Hibbert I guess : )
rr: You are being told you were wrong – even though you were right. That sounds like a compliment. It is somewhat like being told you are lucky by someone else at the poker table.
anon says
Nice write up Darius. Too bad the FO ax grinders suck the life out of this site. Boot them and the site will thrive.
Darius Soriano says
anon,
Some fans will always find something to complain about. Even the Lakers’ teams who ended up winning the title had fans, throughout the season, making bold statements about things they didn’t like.
The team not winning lately only makes these voices louder. A lot of it is just the type of noise that fills sports talk radio airwaves. I try to ignore most it, but can be better about that.