The Spurs' Corner Marksmen: Julian Champagnie and Harrison Barnes
(1) Julian Champagnie shooting efficiently from the corners. (2) Harrison Barnes shooting efficiently from the corners as well. (3) What about the other Spurs players from the corners?
When it comes to helping the San Antonio Spurs spread the floor on offense, two players the Spurs are relying heavily on to be threats from the corners are starters Julian Champagnie and Harrison Barnes.
Of the Spurs’ 250 total corner threes attempted this season, Champagnie (60 attempts) and Barnes (50 attempts) have accounted for 44% of the Spurs’ corner three attempts.
It’s not just that the two players take the most corner threes on the team, but they’re also quite efficient when doing so.
Julian Champagnie from the Corners
Here’s Champagnie’s shot profile and shot chart so far this season.
Champagnie is shooting above league average from either corner with 40% accuracy. In terms of frequency of shots from the corners, Champagnie is attempting 23% of his shots from the corners per CleaningTheGlass.com, ranking him in the 81st percentile among wing players.
With Champagnie making 40% of his corner threes, that ranks him in the 47th percentile among other fellow wing players per CTG.
Here’s a few clips of Champagnie drilling threes from the corners, followed by some observations from the tape and what I’ve seen so far this season.
For one, Champagnie has a very fast release on his jump shot. He doesn’t need a lot of space, nor a lot time to get a shot off quickly. Multiple times this season he’s been fouled taking threes because his defender is late closing out and makes contact with him on the shot.
Champagnie often has his hands ready as a target before the shot gets to him. When he does catch the ball, he doesn’t use too much of a dip to get the
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