Measuring Basketball Shot Quality
One of the complexities of being a basketball coach is measuring shot quality – getting my team to take “good” shots, and making the case against “bad” shots. Although “good” and “bad” are somewhat subjective, there are some shots that are obviously preferred over other shots. For example, layups are always preferred over contested three pointers.
You can communicate shot quality to your players either by rating shots with a quality score, assigning attributes (like “contested”, “uncontested”, etc.) and then showing the real-life outcome from those categories of shots. The screen shot above shows how we score a two point shot using Hoopsalytics – assigning various attributes and a shot quality score.
Once you’ve scored your game using customizable shot types, attributes and a quality score, Hoopsalytics will provide you and your team some great insight into who is taking good shots, and the end-result of your player’s shooting decisions.
And like everything else in Hoopsalytics, all numbers are video-linked to clips of the underlying events.
Note: See this article on how to set up customized analytics for scoring your own games.
How to Measure Shot Quality
Hoopsalytics has a “Shot Analysis” tool, which gives you various views into the shots you and your opponents are taking. For various shot types, attributes of shots, or shot quality scores, you can see the number, frequency, points-per-shot and percentage.
You can view shots based upon any combination of the following filters:
- Range: 2-point, 3-point or both.
- Result: Made, Missed, Fouled or All.
- Segment: Shot Types, Shot Details or Quality Score.
- View: Totals, Frequency, Points-per-shot or Percentage.
To use the Shot Analysis tool, go to the Stats page, select the games you want to analyze, and click on the Shot Analysis tool:
Shot Quality Analysis Examples
I added shot attributes and assigned a quality score to four games from my team last year. Here are some examples.
Frequency of various shot types
Lots of runners and catch-and-shoots. Guess what we’ll be working on in practices going forward.
Points per shot for various shot types
You can see how dribble drives and layups are by far the most effective.
Percentage for Shot Types
Layups are what you’d expect, but I think we could have done better on putbacks. Maybe encourage more kickouts if the putback is contested?
Points per shot by Segment (attributes)
Here we can see how defensive pressure affects shots. Curiously, “wide open” shots did worse, most likely due to the magnitude of wide open 3-point attempts. These could also be late game shots, where both the shooters and the defenders are tired.
Shot Quality Breakdown
Who is taking the best shots? It’s easy to see here. Also, you can see how good shots are more effective when looking at shot quality and points-per-shot.
Shot Quality Summary
There are so many insights you can get when you measure and track your team’s shots. This is a great way to impress upon your players the importance of taking good shots, and the ramifications of taking poor ones. Measuring basketball shot quality is a key to success for any team.
You can start tracking your own team’s shot quality today! Sign up for a free trial of Hoopsalytics. Then let us know what insights and valuable data you have discovered.