Miami head coach Erik Spoelstra noticed something about Chris Bosh’s post up game, and he has advanced stats to thank for it. (TrueHoop)
Data from Synergy tells us that Bosh did, in fact, perform better on the right side of the court last season with Toronto, especially in isolation situations. When Bosh attacked from the left in isolation, he scored 59 points on his 80 tries — and that includes free throws, not just field goal attempts. Synergy calculates his efficiency on left-side isolations to be .738 points per play, which ranked 43rd among 48 qualifiers last season. Not so good.
But on the right side, he was much more effective. He scored 86 points on 86 right-side isolations, nearly 25 percent better than on the left side. And on post-ups? Bosh was better from the right side as well, though the contrast is not quite as dramatic as it is for isolations.
“If you look at the numbers, he’s pretty consistent, he’s a little better on the right side, but not by a glaring amount,” Spoelstra said. “It just allowed us to be a little bit more consistent for everybody else to know where we are starting the offense.”
What does Bosh have to say?
“Stats are stats, man,” Bosh laughed. “I couldn’t say anything. I was like, ‘I can post up over there [on the left side].’ They said, ‘Well, this says you can, but it’s not the same [as the right side].'”
Bosh obliged.
“I didn’t fight it. I like getting the ball in the post, so to keep that going, I just said ‘Coach, that’s fine.’”
Teams use advanced stats to differing degrees. Houston’s GM Daryl Morey has long been known as one of the foremost users in advanced stats in the NBA. But this is the first time that I’ve heard of a specific example of a coach admitting that advanced stats have altered his game plan or approach.
It was only a matter of time, really. The NBA is a cutthroat league and if there’s an edge to be exploited, you better believe that coaches will catch on.
