Shot Selection

Shot selection is one of the toughest aspects of offense to teach in basketball. Often, a coach will instruct a player to take a better shot and they will interpret it as the coach telling them they don't want them to be a scoring threat. That is not the case at all, as the coach is simply trying to get that player to take a higher percentage shot within the framework of the team's offense and in alignment with that player's skillset. However difficult it may be to teach, defining shot selection and hunting great shots each possession are absolute keys to having a successful offense. 

When a team has poor shot selection, it often leads to the following:

• Poor shot selection is contagious. One bad shot by a teammate, often leads to another bad shot by a different teammate.

• When a teammate takes a bad shot or makes a selfish play, it greatly impacts team morale in a negative way. Poor shot selection is often deflating for a team and it diminishes the level of connectedness a team needs to succeed on the court.

• A bad shot is as good as a turnover on offense. Poor shot selection leads to an "empty" possession.

• Taking a bad shot puts more stress on the defense to rotate back quickly on defense, guard at a disadvantage in transition, and amplifies the pressure to get stops every possession when we're struggling to score on offense.

• When a team has multiple players that have poor shot selection, it kills the offense. Offensive actions don't have a chance to create openings in the defense, players often get stuck standing around watching the ball handler create for himself, and players aren't permitted the opportunity to make the necessary reads to create better scoring opportunities. 

Conversely, when a team has great shot selection, it often leads to the following:

• Great shot selection is contagious. If a player is willing to pass up a good shot to pass to a teammate for a great shot, that teammate is much more willing to return the favor in a later possession.

• Sharing the ball and working to get a great shot every possession increases team morale, creates excitement while playing, and builds our collective confidence. Teams that have great shot selection are more connected as a team and play that way on both ends of the floor.

• Hunting great shots encourages quick ball movement, which in turn creates more dominoes to attack. Working to get a great shot puts more stress on the defense overall and helps us better exploit errors they make in their rotations.

• Great shot selection leads to higher percentage shooters. If you take higher percentage shots, your shooting percentage should follow.

• Hunting great shots puts more value on each offensive possession we have. The more value each possession holds to our team, the better chance we have at having a high offensive rating. 

• Great shot selection plays into the strengths of the players on our team and leads to more effective individual and collective play.

Some key points in teaching shot selection:

1. Focusing on taking great shots does not mean we are discouraging our players from being aggressive on offense. In fact, we want them to be aggressive within the framework of good team offensive basketball and according to their strengths as an individual player.

2. Shot selection, and how we judge if a shot attempt is great, varies from player to player. For example, if a player is an excellent slasher and finisher around the rim, but shoots a lower percentage from beyond the arc, a three point attempt from that player may not be judged as good as a shot as someone who shoots a high percentage from 3. 

3. Time and score should dictate how we judge shot selection. A great shot earlier in the game may not be a great shot towards the end of a game considering the score of the game and time left on the clock.

4. If an opponent is in the midst of a run or if we are struggling through a scoring drought, it is even more important to hunt a Gold Medal Shot to change the momentum of the game in that moment. Settling for tough shots in these situations only lengthens an opponent's run or our offensive drought. 

5. In some cases, shot selection may also be determined by an opponent's strengths or weaknesses. If there is a weakness we want to exploit, but may emphasize hunting certain shots more than we would in another game. 

There are four ways in which we judge out shot selection on offense:

1. Gold Medal Shots

2. Silver Medal Shots

3. Bronze Medal Shots

4. No Medal Shots

Silver Medal Shots are solid shots that we are content with taking during the course of the game. Most Silver Medal Shots are generally also R.O.B. shots.

Some examples of Silver Medal Shots include:

• Slightly contested dunk or lay-up in the NBA restricted area

• Slightly contested catch and shoot threes from a high percentage shooter (generally, shooters that make more than 34% of their 3 point attempts)

• Open catch and shoot threes from a mid-level percentage shooter (generally, shooters that make between 30-34% of their 3 point attempts)

• Open off the dribble threes from a high percentage shooter (generally, shooters that make more than 34% of their off the dribble 3 point attempts)

• Open floaters or runners inside the lane

• Open catch and shoot or one dribble pull-up shots in the mid-range from players effective at shooting these shots

As with Gold Medal Shots, time and score does dictate whether shots are quality or not. 

Bronze Medal Shots are ones in which we must try not to settle for. Really, the only appropriate time to take a bronze medal shot is at the end of a quarter or late in the shot clock if we don't have a better option.

Some example of Bronze Medal Shots:

• Moderately contested catch and shoot or off the dribble three point shots from effective shooters

• Open catch and shoot or off the dribble threes from low percentage shooters (generally, shooters that shoot worse than 29% from the 3 point line)

• Slightly contested mid-range jump shots or floaters in the lane

• Moderately contested lay-ups or dunks in the NBA restricted area

• Any shot taken by a player who has not shown to shoot an effective percentage from that area

• Any other shot that is slightly or moderately contested

No Medal Shots are bad shots. They are the best way to get pulled out of a game as a player. We need to avoid No Medal Shots at all times and we must hold each other accountable to not taking bad shots.

Some examples of No Medal Shots include:

• Any shot that is heavily contested, from any spot on the floor

• Any shots where a shooter has to shoot over multiple defenders

• Whenever we miss an extra pass to a teammate and take a moderately to highly contested shot in a possession

• Not understanding time and score and shooting a shot that doesn't fit that situation (such as taking a three when we are up by 4 with less than 20 seconds left on the clock)

• Going one on one and playing isolation basketball