Yardbarker: Shane Battier

Trail Blazers gameday: Houston at Portland

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 03:01:00 -0500

Rockets (11-8) at Trail Blazers (12-8)7 p.m. Saturday, Rose GardenTV on CSN (Comcast 37); radio on KXTG (95.5)Houston's probable startersNo.PlayerHt.Pos.Statistics0Aaron Brooks6-0PG17.1 ppg, 5.6 apg1Trevor Ariza6-8SG18.1 ppg, 5.2 rpg31Shane Battier6-8SF8.6 ppg, 3.1 rpg4Luis Scola6-9PF13.9 ppg, 9.4 rpg44Chuck Hayes6-6C5.5 ppg, 6.6 rpgPortland's...

Shane Battier Workout Video

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 02:57:00 -0500

Remember when Shane Battier played for the Grizzlies and it seemed like he was the hardest-working player and the only player that maximized his talent? Well, I caught up with Battier (AKA I filmed him without his knowledge) during his pregame routine before a game against the Warriors in Oakland. It turns out Battier has the most methodical workout (of the players I saw, including T-Mac, whose workout consists of shooting threes from the top of the key).Here's Battier Shooting the Shane ...

Yet Another Post About Tyreke Evans

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:13:13 -0500

More photos » by Rich Pedroncelli - AP 23 days ago: Sacramento Kings guard Tyreke Evans, right, deflects the pass away from Oklahoma City Thunder center Etan Thomas during the first quarter of an NBA basketball game in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) Browse more photos » I consider myself a man of the people. I thought to myself the other day, what are pe...

Top Fantasy Basketball Performers Thursday

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 10:39:05 -0500

Aaron Brooks of Houston had the best night of any player Thursday night scoring 25 points and dishing out 7 assists for Houston in the Rocket’s 111-109 win over the Golden State Warriors. Houston forwards Shane Battier and Carl Landry had great nights. Landry came off Houston’s bench to score 22 points, 13 rebounds and [...]

Behind the Box Score, where the C's and Spurs kept it scrappy

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 10:35:00 -0500

Boston 90, San Antonio 83 Not as exemplary a game as I thought it would be, considering the, um, "veteran status" of most of the particulars. A fun game, at least. I had a blast watching most of it. But I thought the execution was a bit off at times on both ends, and I'm still trying to figure out if that's relative to these teams' usual top-notch play, or just relative to the rest of the league. Not sure why I'm wasting your time by thinking out loud with this stuff...

Houston 102 - Clippers 85 - Back to Normal, Terrible in the Fourth

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:23:47 -0500

More photos » by Mark J. Terrill - AP Browse more photos » A game after playing probably the best fourth quarter in franchise history, the Clippers reverted to form and were unwatchable in the final quarter. Houston doubled them up in the quarter, 26 to 13, and the Clippers went almost 7 minutes without scoring a point at the end. A meaningless Baron Davis three at the end was their only basket in the final ...

Clippers vs. Houston - Game Preview

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 01:31:46 -0500

More photos » by Sue Ogrocki - AP Browse more photos » 2009/2010 NBA Regular Season vs. 8-109-8 Staples Center December 2nd, 2009, 7:30 PM Prime Ticket, 980 AM Probable starters: Baron Davis PG Aaron Brooks Rasual Butler SG Shane Battier Al Thornton SF Trevor Ariza Marcus Camby PF Carl Landry Chris Kaman C Chuck Hayes ...

Game to pay attention to: Mavericks vs. Rockets

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:00:46 -0500

Dallas at Houston The Mavericks played on Tuesday night after three days off, so one would assume that a disjointed start would be followed by a well-rested romp toward the end of Tuesday's game. Especially considering the fact that the opposing Warriors could only dress six players. Instead, the opposite happened. We're still figuring out these Mavericks. These Rockets, too. We've figured out that we can rely on them to work like mad and hustle like heck, but we didn't figure...

Forget Shane Battier, the Suns have their own “No-Stats All-Star”

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:43:56 -0500

Back in February Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and The Blind Side, wrote a special piece for the New York Times entitled “The No-Stats All-Star”. The title wasn’t a knock on the player it featured, former Duke star and ACC player of the Year Shane Battier, rather it was a compliment to his impact on [...]

Battier to Miss at Least a Week

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 09:00:15 -0500

A muscle pull will have Shane watching from the sidelines for a few days: “Shane Battier will be out for at least a week after a slight muscle pull suffered late in Tuesday’s practice. ‘I was pretty disappointed last night,’ Battier said. ‘I got home and told my wife I’ll see here tomorrow and locked myself in my room. I want to be out here with these guys and playing. I don’t think it’s too severe of a pull … It’s not something I wa...

Graphically Analyzing Shot Data

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 09:44:16 -0500

With our ability to display live stats this season we have seen our database size increase significantly mainly due to the loads of data that we are tracking. One of the items we are now tracking is shot data for every shot taken. For select games we even get an X,Y coordinate of where the shot was taken on the floor. From those coordinates we can get some really interesting data. While the sample size isn't quite as big as we would like, it still makes for an interesting topic.

This topic was touched on by Ken Pomeroy a few years ago, but I thought it would be interesting to revisit and see how the new three point line may have effected things.

The graph below shows FG% on the Y axis and shot distance on the X axis. Pretty self-explanatory, right?

A simple expectation would be that as the shot gets further away from the basket you would expect FG% to drop. The graph above certainly leans toward this trend, but there are exceptions between 11-14 feet and 16-18 feet, otherwise known as the dreaded in-between game.

Think back to your days on the blacktop and the shots you took, lay-ups, free throws, three pointers, right? Maybe for some older than myself, the three point shot was a non-factor (which brings up an interesting discussion of what this graph would have looked like pre-three point shot), but let's focus on apples & apples for now. There is absolutely a drop-off in FG% between those three sets of shots, and one would imagine it is due to a lack of practice, but also there is another factor.

There's no debate that the 16-18 foot shot is the lowest percentage shot in college basketball. On top of the low shooting percentage, the risk for the shot is higher as a few steps back simply offers more reward for a made basket.

A similar debate can be made for the 11-14 foot shot. A closer shot would offer a higher success rate and a higher likelihood of drawing a foul.

So, the graph is pretty, the analysis is pretty intuitive, but what are teams gathering from this type of information? One, if you haven't read this article featuring former Duke forward, Shane Battier, you're missing out on a new way of thinking about basketball.

While we're not breaking this down to a player level yet, teams can still gather quite a bit of information. Simply put, teams should try to make their opponents take more shots in the lower percentage areas.

It starts with pressuring the perimeter and guarding the 3 point shot out to around 25 feet. The pressure on the perimeter might allow an offensive player to get a step around you but as long as you can recover before giving up a lay-up, the risk is acceptable. At the basket, you need significant resistance. This can come in one of two ways, the block shot or the charge. Either can force a player to pull up and take lower percentage shot.

There are multiple ways of doing this but no team does this as well as Duke. The Blue Devils pressure the ball out to half court and are among the ACC leaders in opponents three point percentage every season. To counter this, teams often attack the Blue Devils off the dribble but that's where the Blue Devils next line of defensive resistance is found, the charge. Flop or not, no team has used the charge like Duke has over the past decade. While Duke hasn't been the best example this season, mainly due to lack of perimeter quickness, Duke's opponents' FG% is typically among the best in the conference and nationally.

Getting back to the new three point line, which was moved back from 19'9" to 20'9", Pomeroy's graph (linked above) shows that there is a peak in shooting at the 20 foot mark. Our graph above shows the same peak and a drop-off outside of that by 5-10 percentage points. For this reason, you can certainly see why the change was made by the NCAA.

We can do a lot more with this data, and likely will as time goes by, including breaking the floor into different segments and seeing how shooting percentages are affected by not only distance but also by location on the floor. Look for that sometime in the future.

Have a thought on this analysis? Let us know in the comments section below!

Battier Kept On Shelf Due To Balky Ankle

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:13:29 -0500

The "Associated Press" has reported that Houston Rockets forward Shane Battier will be out of action for at least the next four weeks, due to inflammation in his left foot. Battier underwent surgery in early May to remove some bone spurs in his ankle.

Shane Battier, a Hard Charge Taker

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 00:30:57 -0500

Houston Rocket forward Shane Battier shows you how he takes one for the team. Don't worry, he's careful to protect his "you know what" and lands softly on his "derrier".