Tom Haberstroh of HoopData went in-depth in assessing shot distribution trends in the NBA. The most interesting thing is that, through roughly 15 games at least, there’s no discernible difference between the long-range shot (16-23 feet) percentage of a power forward compared to a point guard, shooting guard, or small forward. Haberstroh’s article, complete with shot selection graphs for outliers Rajon Rondo, Kobe Bryant, Wilson Chandler, Andrei Kirilenko, and Channing Frye, starts like this:
Basketball is a game defined by movement. The players cut, jump, and weave throughout the court. The ball darts, soars, and bounces continually off of fingertips. The possession alternates, the tempo fluctuates, and the score see-saws. The rulebook even prohibits sloth. Basketball is a fluid game and yet, the sport continues to tie itself to the five conventional positions: point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward, and center.
Traditionally, the basketball player’s position is dictated by the player’s size as opposed to skill. In general, point guards are short, centers are tall and the rest file accordingly. Aside from the point guard, each position features an increasingly nebulous skill set. Taller players are becoming more athletic and in turn, those positional lines are becoming more blurred. Moreover, some box score statistics correlate with a specific position as point guards tend to rack up assists and centers typically fill up the block column. But thanks to Hoopdata, there are other ways to quantify the composition of each position rather than looking at height and box score statistics.
With Hoopdata’s shot location information at hand, we can go beyond the standard 2FG/3FG comparison and examine the shot profiles of different positions. Which position features the biggest mid-range game? Do small forwards take more long-range jumpers than power forwards? Which positions are most similar in their shot profile?
