Season Wrap-Up: Spurs reserves shooting the basketball
What stands out from the San Antonio Spurs players shooting the basketball off the bench?
Before we dive into how the San Antonio Spurs players off the bench shot the ball this season, here’s the other two parts of the Season Wrap-Up series if you’d like to catch up:
For this analysis, we’ll look at five players off the bench for the Spurs who played in 61 or more games - Blake Wesley, Malaki Branham, Keldon Johnson, Cedi Osman, Zach Collins.
Keldon Johnson
What stands out from Johnson’s shot chart?
More wide open 3PT looks - Just like most of his teammates, Johnson saw more wide open looks this past season due to the attention Victor Wembanyama draws from the defense. Johnson made 37% of his wide open threes, an improvement in accuracy from last season, but defenses still left him wide open for 46% of his attempts. Johnson’s shot distribution elsewhere was pretty similar to last season.
Zach Collins
What stands out from Collins’ shot chart?
3PT accuracy - Collins struggled from three for most of the season, but he bounced back strongly in the final two months of the season, shooting over 41% in both March and April. Collins’ early struggles from outside created a lack of spacing in the starting unit, and because of that, he was moved to the bench in early December as Wemby became the full-time five.
Wide Open 3s Increase - Just like Keldon and his other teammates, Collins saw a surge in more of his 3s being left wide open due to the decision of defenses to leave him open from three so they can have an extra big near the paint for Wemby. If Collins can shoot over 40% to begin next season like he did to end this season, then defenses may change their approach to how they guard him on their scouting report.
Malaki Branham
What stands out from Branham’s shot chart?
Improvement in 3PT accuracy - Branham shot over 34% from three this season, and 37% on wide open 3s. While shooting 34.7% is an improvement, it’s still not a percentage that will make defenses change their scouting report, which is why Branham saw over 70% of his 3s attempted wide open. One hope for Branham was the months of December, February, and April, where he shot over 37% from distance.
More dunk/layup range shots than floaters - While less than half of Branham’s shots are attempted in the paint, one positive number in his shot selection was seeing more dunk/layup attempt looks than floaters range shots. That’s a reversal of his paint attempts from last season.
Blake Wesley
What stands out from Wesley’s shot chart?
More paint looks - Wesley increased his percentage of shots in the paint by 11% this past season compared to his rookie year. One of the areas where he took shots from was the mid-range, where a season ago he took 40 non-paint twos, and this season, he took just 13. He was also very aggressive when he did attack, where 51% of his paint attempts came in the dunk/layup range. He often tried to end his drives with dunks, and finishing with dunks helped his accuracy near the rim. He made 59% of his looks at the rim, compared to last season when he only made 43% of his looks near the rim.
Still left wide open from three - Wesley doesn’t attempt many threes, but going into the offseason, that will continue to be a shot he’ll need to improve, with 75% of his 3PT attempts being left wide open.
Cedi Osman
What stands out from Osman’s shot chart?
Efficient outside - While Osman does have data from last season with Cleveland, I didn’t want to compare since he was new to the Spurs, with new teammates in San Antonio. Off the bench, Osman was the Spurs’ most accurate 3PT shooter once Doug McDermott was traded this season. He made 39% of his threes and 41% of his wide open 3s. The fact that Osman shot 41% on wide open 3s and yet 73% of his looks were wide open makes you wonder what the number is for a defense to be scared of a player to not leave them wide open from three.
Efficient at the rim - If he wasn’t taking threes, Osman was instead either putting the ball on the floor and driving, or finishing on the break. Osman was looks for layup/dunk attempts, where he made 74% of his looks near the rim.