Yeah agreed. Mike Smith and Chaundee Brown had a couple of good open looks they knocked down from the baseline off of inbounds plays against Ohio State in the second half which seemed like big buckets in those moments.

It's also worth considering the second-order effects of taking certain 2PJs. If a player blows by a defender at the arc and goes to the rim every time, the help defender knows to hang back. But if the player takes short jumpers sometimes, it could make him more efficient at the rim too because the defender doesn't know where he will shoot. 

*looks at Eli Brooks*

You would love watching Villanova play. Collin Gillespie is a master of the two foot jump stop in the paint 

I feel like people take floaters mostly because they're harder to block, thereby increasing the chance of a Kobe assist.

Thanks for posting exactly what I’ve been thinking for the past couple days.

Don’t tell Rutgers that.

I'm not sure Brian ever implies a causal relationship.  But yes, I think that's something you need basketball analysts/coaches for -- watching the game and understanding whether the players are looking for 2PJS too much, or if they're struggling to get efficient shots and getting forced to settle for them.

There's also teams that have success looking for 2PJS, I think in the NBA there's always a couple of playoff teams that thrive off of taking those shots that NBA defenses allow because they're so focused on denying paint points and threes.

it's a little of both. if you settle for a 2pj early in the shot clock you will tend to bring down your o-ratings. would be nice to tease out how many of those are coming early vs late in the shot clock. even a "bad" shot with 2s on the clock is better waiting to find something better.

And Langford and Henry. Those are the 2 guys I immediately thought of looking at MSU’s numbers.

I think the bolded statement is true regardless.  Whether or not a team is forced into 2PJS or is looking for them, either way they won't be able to hit numbers like 1.3+ points per possession.

1. "Gers?" Ugh.  

2. That's just the eFG on the 2 point jumpers.  Their offense is #61 on KenPom, which isn't great (11th-best in the B1G), but it puts them between Kansas and Tennessee, so when paired with a strong defense it makes them a tournament team, albeit one that plays some ugly games.  

I agree with this.  Certain players will make certain 2 point jumpers a part of their game because it can help the rest of the offensive plays, and they may be shots that the defense gives you.  I bet Zak Irvin ended up with a pretty good percentage on his 18-ft jumpers at the top of the key.  That shot seemed near-automatic late in his career, even when his 3pt shot was broken. The good thing about that shot is he practiced it, so he was always shooting from about the same distance.  I think 3s go in at a fairly high rate because they're all from about the same distance, so the muscle memory on that shot is strong.  Conversely, 2pt jumpers are shot from a variety of different distances, and there are differences in both launch velocity and angle.  

Think of it like a pitcher throwing a changeup.  There are a few pitchers that can throw an excellent changeup, and pair it with a strong fastball to become outstanding pitchers (Trevor Hoffman, for example).  For others, yeah, it's maybe his 3rd or 4th best pitch, but throwing it about 5-10% of the time can make his other pitches more effective if the other team isn't sure what they're getting.  You're still going to throw your best pitch over 50% of the time, but even Mariano Rivera threw something other than a cutter once in a while.  You just have to practice it enough so that you're throwing a decent enough pitch instead of a meatball.

A player having a decent midrange game will discourage hard closeouts on 3s and make those shots better, and it will draw defenders out to more closely defend 15 foot jumpers, opening up driving and passing lanes to the paint.  

Agreed - if you never take midrange twos, you become a lot easier to defend because you've effectively given away about 2/5ths of the half-court area that your squad has to guard.  To paraphrase Robert Downey's character in Tropic Thunder, "You never go full Morey" 

Long twos are "bad" shots in a vacuum but in context they have their role and sometimes you have to take what the defense gives you.  Since we're still a football school(?), I'll use a gridiron analogy -your basic off-tackle dives can be useful to set-up play-action bombs, but a) if you are abjectly terrible at off-tackle runs or b) you keep going to those basic plays or c) all of the above (cf, 27 for 27, sorry y'all), then they are in fact symptomatic of a bad offense.

Speaking of Rip, the Pistons with Vinnie, Dumars and Laimbeer were the prototypical 2PJ offense, which is why they won so many games with defense and rebounds.

Agreed. It’s the idea of being a “three level” scorer. The ability to take and make 2point jumpers when needed makes it tougher for the opposing defense to take away something. If you’re not a threat at all to make a 2point jumper, then teams have a chance to run you off the 3 point line and pack the paint if they have rim protecting big/s. With that being said, a mid range jumper is always going to be analytically the worst shot you can take. However, that doesn’t mean you should never take them.

I think Michigan does a fantastic job of knowing when to take them and also who should be taking them. Also, OSU is an example of a great statistical offense that takes and makes a fair amount of mid range jumpers. Liddell and Walker in particular are very good at them. In the case of both of those players, especially Liddell, I believe their ability to make midrange jumpers at a fairly high clip makes them tougher overall to guard.

Still think it's true for college as opposed to the NBA where it's much more likely you can include a brilliant midrange shooter as an important piece of your offense. 

Also, Rip Hamilton