This has bugged me for a while. The box score has three shooting percentages: FG%, 3P% and FT%. Two of them measure one kind of shot. FG% doesn’t. It lumps twos and threes together, even though threes already get their own column.

The box score already solves this for rebounds. You get OREB, DREB and the total REB. Shooting is the odd one out: FG is the total, but only 3P gets broken out. Adding 2PM, 2PA and 2P% would just make shooting work the same way as rebounding, and you’d still keep FG%.

It’s basically a leftover from before the three-point line. When the NBA added it in 1979, they tacked 3P columns onto FG% instead of rethinking it. With how many threes teams take now, FG% says more about shot selection than shooting. A guard who’s great from deep can have a worse FG% than a center who only dunks, and stuff like 50/40/90 punishes the guys who take the most threes.

Before you all crucify me: yes, I know eFG% and TS% exist, and they’re better for overall efficiency. But they mash everything into one number. 2P% shows you the split. And it’s not new data. Basketball-Reference already lists it.

Is there a good reason not to add it next to FG%? What am I missing / what do you all think?

Been working on this for a while. It tries to predict when the strike is coming and if it landed.
Eventually creates a fighter profile which tells about the traits of the fighter. Long way to go but this a working first version.

Week 5 of the NFL has dropped and isn't it about time we show special teams the love/hate it deserves?