The question today comes from Travis Dockwich. I don’t know a lot about him. I don’t remember how I received this question. Maybe I didn’t. Maybe I made it up.
But the question is as follows:
"Mat,Travis Dockwich
I am a fan of yours, but I am a fan of many things. You rank just behind Tillman Fertitta and just ahead of vegan bacon bits. I believe in giving people their flowers while you can.
The thing that really [redacted]es me off is when an NBA player misses a shot. I just feel like that shouldn’t happen. I haven’t watched NCAA basketball in a while, but ChatGPT tells me the average field goal percentage in college is around 77%.
I haven’t seen the league approach that since the 90s when things were better probably, so it seems players get worse in the NBA. Is that okay? Should we all be okay with this? If so, how do I tell myself it’s okay when an NBA player misses a shot? Why is this happening to me?
Respond.
"
Hi, Travis. ChatGPT is wrong. College field goal percentage is closer to 12 percent, so you’re kind of running with misinformation here. Secondly, I have provided you with further information by saying the field goal percentage is 12 percent. You’re on ChatGPT though, so apparently that’s what you want.
Unfortunately, Travis, I have gone through every NBA season on record as diligently as I could. Took hours, called in help, locked myself in my car briefly for unrelated reasons, and as it turns out every NBA season that has ever happened has contained a missed shot. And not just one, multiple.
This includes the 90s. For example, here is a box score from the 90s. In the 90s, people missed shots too. I’m sorry, but this is true.
I haven’t checked every game in history, but I’ve checked a whole bunch. All of them have had missed shots. This might make you sad. And I’m sorry.
Just going to put a break in here for Travis to grab a water
Cool.
Now that I’ve been nice, Travis I’m going to tell you that making a basketball shot in the NBA is very hard. In the end, you may just have to get over yourself.
Hell, shooting a basketball is very hard. I used to play a whole bunch. One summer, I locked in my free throws. So I’d just shoot those, then think “omg I’m getting good at shooting.” I think I was around 80 percent, which for me was remarkable. That was one summer out of my 38-year life.
Unfortunately, mimicking game shots is much harder. Dribbling up then shooting a free-throw or taking a pass you throw to yourself and then shooting, suddenly there’s more variation. Getting into your form, if you even have a shooting form, gets a lot more difficult when you don’t have a Curry-type handle or taking a LeBron-accurate pass coming to you. You’re making adjustments to your body while trying to get up a shot as you would in a game.
But then you start locking this all together. Not just taking shots from one spot, but moving around the court. And maybe moving yourself while shooting. And maybe jumping while shooting. Everything takes microadjustments, in-moment reflexes, a best attempt rather than an easily recreated motion.
Then you add teammates. A lot of them probably want to shoot too. Instead of just looking for your shot, you might be following a play to run for someone else, realize the defense is broken, and suddenly a light that was red is suddenly green. How quickly can your mindset shift? Or are you strong enough mentally as an NBA player to be ready for both?
Oh, and there are defenders. These are people on the court who are trying to make you do everything you don’t want to do or nothing at all. If you’re good at something, they know. And they’re trying to take it away. That’s the entire point of basketball. It’s two-sided.
And while you can practice with people trying to stop you, once you get into a game, it’s different. People play harder, everything moves faster, your brain may not be ready for the intensity. It takes a lot of experience to get the game to slow down.
And if you get really, really good? Like one of the best in the league? Then the other team is going to be focusing on you. Your reward from all the hard work is getting the best defender, the best shot from the team across the floor. It becomes a point of pride to make you look bad, make you miss.
Shooting in an NBA game is hard. It’s hard to do it before you get in the NBA. It’s even harder once you arrive.
But let’s go back to free-throws with a decade-old anecdote
I would like you to look at this picture of the 2012-2013 Los Angeles Lakers’ free-throw percentage. You might remember they were quite bad. But the picture is interesting because it also lists individual players’ free-throw percentages during practice compared to what they were during games.
The amazing anecdote is that in Lakers’ practice that season, Dwight Howard shot 82 percent from the line on a sample of over 1500 free-throw attempts. In actual games, he made less than half.
In fact, everyone on the team had a worse free throw percentage in game versus practice. It’s cool seeing that Steve Nash had a free throw percentage of 97 in practice, but yeah. Everyone takes a hit. Across the board.
Take a shot, easily repeatable in practice, one you’ve taken thousands of times in your life, maybe the shot you’ve taken most in your life. In a sterile environment, the results will be one thing. Add in game fatigue, both mentally and physically, and the much more intense environment… everyone is going to take a hit. That ranges from one of the greatest free-throw shooters of all time in Steve Nash to the other end of the spectrum in Dwight Howard.
No matter what kind of shot you find yourself taking in an NBA game, whether that’s a field goal in the flow of the game or a free throw that you’ve taken over and over, the fact it’s in an NBA game is going to make you miss more.
Okay. So shooting is hard, but is missing okay?
Unfortunately, no.