The Trail Blazers Are Terrible at Generating High-Value Shots

The offensive productivity of an NBA team is often be measured by defined indicators of efficiency and effectiveness. How many corner threes do they take and make? How many shots do they attempt and convert at the rim? How about free throws? These three categories yield the highest value per shot with the best success rates for the given value.

If you want to understand the offensive woes of the Portland Trail Blazers, take a look at where they rank in each of those categories.

As you can see the Blazers reside in the league basement at the corner-three positions, worst in the league from the left corner. The Blazers generate plenty of opportunities in the paint, but fall woefully short at converting them, falling almost 20 percent behind the league-leading Cleveland Cavaliers (72 percent!).

Free throws are the one shining beacon on the Blazers hill. Thank you, Damian Lillard.

The Blazers really can’t go anywhere but up in the three-point and paint categories. If you’re looking for hope this is certainly a prime growth opportunity. But how much of the season has to go by before we can claim with certainty that this is who the Blazers are as opposed to who they aren’t?