Doc to Sheed: Cut the 3s

Posted by Zach Lowe on Nov 19, 2009 43197 commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F2009%2F11%2F19%2Fdoc-to-sheed-cut-the-3s%2FDoc+to+Sheed%3A+Cut+the+3s2009-11-19+13%3A49%3A44Zach+Lowehttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F%3Fp%3D4319

Well, for those of you who have been waiting, it finally happened: Doc told Sheed to maybe think twice about the occasional three-pointer. Frank Dell’Apa has the most interesting tidbit of all the game stories from yesterday’s win over Golden State:

The Celtics have become 3-point happy at the wrong times this season. Coach Doc Rivers finally stepped in, telling Rasheed Wallace to limit the threes, during the final quarter of last night’s 109-95 win over Golden State.

“I got on him, and I rarely do, about the threes,’’ Rivers said of Wallace. “Because even though he was wide open, it’s really tough. I mean, he was wide open and he took two, but we had just taken two quick ones. But he’s got an incredibly high basketball IQ. He’s been phenomenal in the locker room. So, I’m just happy to have him.’’

Sheed’s taking 10 three-pointers per 36 minutes, an unprecedented rate for a rotation player. (In NBA history, only Dee Brown has played 500 minutes or more in a season and jacked that many threes on a per-minute basis, according to Basketball Reference). He has made 26 of them—31 percent. That is not good enough.

As some commenters have mentioned, Sheed is not jacking ‘Toine-esque threes even though he’s taking them at a rate even ‘Toine never reached. These are not off-the-dribble bombs taken outside the flow of the offense. I’ll bet if you watched all 70 of Sheed’s threes this season, you’d find his feet were set on 68 of them.

But not all of Sheed’s threes are equally good looks. I’ve been surprised by his willingness to shoot them even with a defender essentially in his face or within a foot or two of him on a close out. If you watch those threes, Sheed’s release is (out of necessity) a bit quicker than it is when he has a second longer to line up the shot.

And I’ll bet his percentage on those quicker shots is disastrously low. Someone with access to a film service like Synergy should take a quick look at those 70 threes and test out that theory.