Blazers’ Covington Among NBA’s Worst Shooters to Start 2020-21

On offense, Trail Blazers newcomer Robert Covington is off to a rough start to his tenure in Portland. The former Rockets forward is shooting 30.3 percent from the field, 27.8 percent from beyond the arc, and producing just 6.5 points per game. The first two figures in that set represent career-lows for Covington.

Through 15 games, Covington was identified by Bleacher Report’s Dan Favale as one of the 10 worst shooters in the NBA to start the season. Favale’s list utilized a statistical outlook labelled “Total Shot Value Added” to put together the rankings.

Before we get to Covington’s place in the rankings, here is how the formula works:

This specific approach will measure how much value a player has added—or, in this case, not added—on mid-range jumpers, corner threes and above-the-break triples relative to the rest of the league.

To get there, we’ve come up with the average points generated per shot from all three areas. We’ve then mined every player’s average points generated per shot from those areas, subtracted the leaguewide average and multiplied the difference by the number of field-goal attempts from each range to help account for volume.

Covington finished at No. 8 on the list with a total shot value added rating of -19.53. Favale pointed to Covington’s struggles from the corner inside his analysis.

Though nearly 60 percent of Covington’s long-range looks have qualified as open (defender between four and six feet away) or wide-open (defender six-plus feet away), he’s downing just 29.2 percent (19-of-65) of his above-the-break triples. His efficiency from the corners is somehow even worse, checking in at 21.4 percent (3-of-14).

This should normalize. Probably. Maybe.

The Blazers acquired Covington from the Rockets in prior to the 2020 NBA Draft in exchange for package that included Trevor Ariza and two first-round picks.

You can read the complete list from Favale at Bleacher Report.