So far this year, Doncic and Young are the only two players who spend more than a third of their off-ball time 35 or more feet away. But there is a distinction to be made between what might be called “productive standing” and taking oneself out of the play. Now, players can still be a threat when they aren’t “active.” Curry and Damian Lillard just need to be somewhere in the offensive frontcourt. These players have the ball so much, are so responsible for their teams’ respective shot creation and work so hard to do so, that they don’t have much to offer when they do give the ball up. This is perhaps best illustrated by the two players with the highest Time of Possession Percentage in the league: Luka Doncic (in possession 49.87 percent of the time he is on offense) and Trae Young (47.1 percent). A possible downside of squeezing every possible bit of offense creation from a single star, as some teams do, is that there is very little in the way of latent threat left for the defense to account for. Even when they aren’t part of the primary action the offense is running, they should be on the defense’s mind. Part of the power of having a Kevin Durant or Steph Curry on the floor is that the defense is forced to account for and react to their movements off the ball as much as their actions with it. Similar to the idea of using the threat of the floater to force defensive reaction, but not overly relying on the floater as a primary weapon, there is perhaps too much of a good thing with running offense through a heliocentric star. The offense wants to take this shot - run this bluff - often enough to sow that confusion, but not so often that they are left taking a huge proportion of their shots from low percentage areas. Forcing that decision in a moment of uncertainty is why the bluff has power. Even if on aggregate the percentages suggest making him hit the runner over and over again, if he makes one or two, there is enough doubt that by leaving him completely uncontested, the shot is going from a marginally bad and lower than average efficiency shot to becoming marginally above average. However, just knowing that, in this case, Darius Garland will take that shot, now defenses have a decision to make. Players on the perimeter stay attached to shooters and dare the player to run smack into one of the best rim protectors in the league. Have the big drop and wall up in front of the rim. If the guard is never going to shoot this floater, the defense has it easy. Much as in poker, bluffing is a vital part of offensive repertoire.
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