What they do well, perhaps better than any other team in the NBA outside of Miami, is generate quality shots, with a deep, talented roster capable of consistently converting them. Fortunately for them, a team’s ability to put the ball through the hoop is the single-most important facet in basketball, accounting for
40 percent of a team’s success by Oliver’s estimation.
The Spurs rank second in effective field-goal percentage, another one of those new-fangled stats that accounts for the extra value of 3-pointers compared to 2-point shots. Their 53.7 percentage trails only the Heat, which leads with a scorching 56.4.
Broken down into more traditional measures, the Spurs are:
2nd in overall shooting (48.8 percent)
4th in 2-point shooting (52.0)
1st in 3-point shooting (39.1)
3rd in the restricted area (65.3)
(For reference, Miami — which meets the Spurs Thursday at the AT&T Center — ranks first in every category but 3-point shooting, where they’re 10th.)
Yet another measure of the Spurs’ ability to generate great looks, courtesy of NBA.com and SportVU: 73.9 percent of their jump shots are uncontested, trailing only Miami (75.6), Atlanta (75.4) and Philadelphia (75.3), and well above the league average of 69.1.
You’ll note that Atlanta and Philadelphia are both coached by Popovich disciples, further proof that the Spurs’ approach works. (
Said Sixers coach Brett Brown of the system he learned in San Antonio: “The Spurs were so interesting because they created a hybrid of classic NBA pick-and-roll basketball, along with European motion, along with speed. And that’s the perfect world. I lived it, and breathed it, and saw it grow.”)
