Phil Jackson Was Wrong, But We Already Knew That

At the time the Bulls (16th this season in 3-Point Attempt Rate) were up 2-1 on the Cavaliers (2nd), the Wizards (28th) were up 2-1 on the Hawks (4th), the Clippers (3rd) were up 2-1 on the Rockets (1st), and the Grizzlies (29th) were up 2-1 on the Warriors (7th).

Now, Jackson probably hasn’t heard of 3-Point Attempt Rate because that would mean having given in to the tyranny of “advanced” statistics, but he generally understood that the good 3-point shooting teams were losing to the bad 3-point shooting teams.

This year the average playoff team ranked 13th in 3-Point Attempt Rate, while the average non-playoff team ranked 18th.

The trend becomes more pronounced when you look only at second round playoff teams, and even more pronounced when you look at the four teams (whether the fourth is the Rockets or the Clippers) that made the Conference Finals.

Importantly, the metric being used here is 3-Point Attempt Rate, measuring what percentage of a team’s shots are 3-pointers.

And even if a team doesn’t shoot them well, they’ll still get more points from their bad 3-pointers than almost as bad mid-range jumpers.

Remember that next time you decry Chuck’s ramblings that the Warriors are a jump-shooting team they’re not, they’re the best defensive team, and they’re still the favorite to win the title or lament that Phil Jackson is in charge of a team it’s the Knicks, the worst-managed franchise in all of sports.