The dependence of three-point shooters
The game of basketball in the National Basketball Association is continuously evolving, and the most current trend has seen the NBA turning into a three-point shooter’s league. Teams are shooting record numbers of three-point shots, and the best teams are, for the most part, in the top half of the league in three-pointers. In this article, Kirk Goldsberry examines the role of the three-point shooter on a basketball team and all the external factors that go into his performance outside of just his shooting ability. In particular, Goldsberry looks at two players – Vince Carter and Mario Chalmers – who saw big changes in the teams around them (Carter switched teams from Dallas to Memphis, and Chalmers saw his best teammate, LeBron James, leave his Miami team) and their resulting drop in performance. Both Carter and Chalmers suffered significant drops in three-point shots made and three-point shooting percentage, and Goldsberry argues that these two didn’t simply forget how to shoot – rather, the change in environment in Carter’s case and the loss of one of the best players in the league in Chalmers’ greatly hurt their ability to get open shots.
Central to Kirk Goldberry’s argument is this: “although one guy gets credit for every made 3-pointer, the truth is that the majority of long-range shots come as a result of some combination of teamwork.” Going further with this point, one can say that there is a power imbalance in the dynamic of a basketball team, and the three-point shooters are inevitably dependent on the stars of the team to attract the attention of the defenders and create open shots. Thinking in terms of nodes and arcs, these shooters would not be in a position of power – rather, the superstars who these shooters depend upon (in Mario Chalmers’ case, Lebron James, for example) are in positions of power with a high degree, and removing them is extremely detrimental to the group, as James’ departure was for Chalmers’ three-point shooting accuracy. Conversely, the removal of the nodes corresponding to the shooters from the team wouldn’t break up the whole graph, due to their dependence on these superstars for their success.
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