McLemore’s Percentages Dropped
Ben McLemore gets knocked for shooting poor percentages and having an inconsistent jump shot. The field goal percentage of 42.9% and 71.8% free throw percentage last year were down numbers, but did the injuries play a factor? According to Fox Sports, McLemore had a sore back on January 5th, 2016 and a sore wrist on February 1st, 2016. Were these injuries bothering him for a while before he admitted to them and throwing off his shooting? Nobody really knows, but Mister McLemore himself.
My colleague Rafe Wong wrote a great piece describing McLemore’s shot further here if you care to read about it. I’ll just mention a few shooting stats that if McLemore attacks these areas more his offensive effectiveness would tick up. According to Basketball-Reference, he is a career 67.0% shooter from 0-2 feet from the basket, but he only takes 22.5% of his field goal attempts in that area. On corner 3 pointers, he shoots a career 40.0% but only takes 33.8% of his 3 pointers from the corners. The Kings need to find ways to let McLemore attack the basket more and shoot corner 3 pointers.
Next up: Still Young and Defense