Patrick McDermott - Getty Images
Much has been made of Evan Turner's previously ugly jump shot and the work he did with Hall of Fame shooting coach Herb Magee this summer. Earlier this year our own Derek Bodner analyzed the mechanics of ET's new-look jumper during the pre-season. His form was clearly improving.
Regardless, the mechanics of the [new] jump shot are visible. His balance is good, feet are shoulder width apart, and he goes up straight. His strong hand is at a 90 degree angle and his off hand is on the left hand side of the ball, giving him much better follow through and rotation on his ball.
And Turner was seeing results.
Turner averaged 14.5 points on 44.4% from the field in his two preseason games, shooting 7-15 on jump shots beyond 10 feet, including a three pointer.
Now that we're 10 games into the regular season, has Turner's improved form continued to pay dividends? The early returns say no. Turner's field goal percentage on the season is 47 – up from 43 last season – but let's take a look at the breakdown in shot locations.
At Rim
2011 - 1.5 attempts (65%)
2012 - 2.4 attempts (96%)
3-9 Feet
2011 - 0.9 attempts (37%)
2012 - 0.8 attempts (63%)
10-15 Feet
2011 - 1.2 attempts (38%)
2012 - 1.8 attempts (33%)
16-23 Feet
2011 - 2.7 attempts (37%)
2012 - 3.2 attempts (28%)
Three Pointers
2011 - 0.6 attempts (32%)
2012 - 0.9 attempts (0%)
Small sample size indeed, but thus far Turner's reworked jumper has yet to produce positive results. These numbers may be slightly skewed as it appears Turner is taking more shots off the dribble this year, as opposed to spot up situations.
The good news is, his form does, in fact, look better, which should result in more makes throughout the course of the season. Also, not only has Turner improved on finishes at the rim, both his free throw rate and And1% are up from a year ago. Improvement!
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0 recs | 9 comments
I imagine Evan shooting one-handed, stepping backwards incrementally when he has mastered it from that distance. It’s a shooting drill anyone who has played basketball has done millions of times. Evan just hasn’t gotten it from outside of 10 feet yet. He will, he’s just still working on those balanced one-handers.
Michael Levin - January 13, 2012
This year:
33% of his offense are jump shots are off the dribble, he’s shooting 37.5%. He’s shooting 20% on catch and shoot jumpers.
Last year 30.6 % of his offense was jump shots off the dribble, where he shot 33.8%. He shot 40.1% on catch and shoot jump shots.
I don’t consider this a large enough size to be statistically relevant yet, though. The catch and shoot jumpers on this year is only like 15, whereas it was 137 last year.
Also, one thing that affects this, this year so far 73.3% of his catch and shoot opportunities have been guarded, whereas last year that was only 46.7%. Obviously, a guarded catch and shoot jumper is tougher to hit. He made 45.2% on unguarded catch and shoot jumpers this year. So far this year he’s 0-4.
Again, 4 is incredibly small, and I believe they’ve all been 3’s.
Derek Bodner - January 13, 2012
Damn you and your Synergy.
Jordan Sams - January 13, 2012
So what you’re telling me is ET is still a BUST, right?
/sarcasm
dp - January 13, 2012
This entire post reeks of bust.
jefu - January 13, 2012 via mobile
yep hes a bust!
out of the generally described “worst draft class in the past decade”
if not longer… if you looked at him to be a star out of that class you were already fooling yourself. if he can mimic andre on D with a slightly better shot/drive to the basket, ill be happy. Especially if they dont throw some crazy contract at him.
DaaaBirdsDaBirds - January 13, 2012
wut
Michael Levin - January 13, 2012
It takes time to relearn motor skills
Of course you aren’t going to see major improvements… too early. I used to shoot two handed until I was 16 years old ( don’t fixed it unless it is broken). It took roughly a year to shoot right handed comfortable and 2 years to shoot left handed ( I’m right handed). It wasn’t until the third year when I was sinking shots near 50 percent.
Wait until the end of the year…
BIBTD - January 13, 2012
On one hand (pun intended), there’s no doubt that his jumper is mechanically improved. It clearly looks better.
On the other hand, this column presents an indisputable counterpoint that is rooted in substantial objective analyses. So there’s a missing link, right? Sure, sample size is small and we can all hope that the poor stats will adjust. More likely, I agree that there are bound to be bumps in the road when adjusting the mechanics of something so dependent on “muscle memory.”…just ask any baseball player about adjusting his swing. In the end, only time will tell. But I suspect E.T.’s jumper will phone home and resolve itself nicely.
Blunt Philly Guy - January 14, 2012 via iPhone app
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