A curious statistic is making its way across social media that connects four Houston Rockets players in a not-so-good way. Here\u2019s a list of the worst layup FG% in the NBA over the last 5 seasons (min. 600 layup attempts)<\/p>\n
So who\u2019s on the list? Fred VanVleet, Clint Capela, and Tari Eason are all here. But each guy has a reason to be around. That figure provides some valuable context, but it doesn\u2019t capture the full story.
Maybe VanVleet\u2019s choice is the least surprising of all. He\u2019s only 6\u2019 so when he gets to the hoop, he\u2019s going against a lot of taller defenders. He doesn\u2019t finish at the rim with his athleticism. Instead, he\u2019s driving to contested layups over shot blockers. But the point is, he\u2019s ready to assault the paint even if it\u2019s at a lower rate of conversion. It causes defenses to collapse, opening up possibilities for his teammates. Finishing percentage is only a small part of his overall offensive value. He\u2019s still one of the top playmakers and one of the better volume 3-point shooters in the game.
Of the names on the list, Eason and his athleticism is the most surprising one. He\u2019s relentless and high-energy, so he\u2019s often throwing up off-balance shots in traffic. He presses the issue, he gets up the floor before the defense is set, and he produces turnovers. Those hard fouls can lead to some tough layups. But he\u2019s a net positive due to his superb defense, rebounding, and ability to create additional possessions.
The biggest surprise could be the inclusion of Capela. He\u2019s a traditional big man, dunks it and finishes at the rim, so you\u2019d assume a much greater layup percentage. The number shows that he takes a lot of his non-dunk attempts in heavy contact or tough putback scenarios after offensive rebounds and not clean receptions in the pick-and-roll. However, Capela\u2019s inclusion does make more sense when you factor in his age.
So really, this ranking just proves you can\u2019t put someone in a box with one stat. VanVleet, Eason, and Capela all have trouble finishing layups, but they bring different ingredients that have helped make them vital pieces to the Rockets\u2019 roster and winning culture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A curious statistic is making its way across social media that connects four Houston Rockets players in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[7,69741,292,194,4066,6,211,9782],"class_list":["post-789768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston-rockets","tag-basketball","tag-by-the-numbers","tag-houston","tag-houston-rockets","tag-houstonrockets","tag-nba","tag-rockets","tag-rockets-analysis"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116941180322113214","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=789768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}