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Shane Battier is one of the smartest players in the NBA, and you can see it in action by looking at his shot chart.
by idoh 14y ago
Shane Battier is one of the smartest players in the NBA, and you can see it in action by looking at his shot chart.
- wisty 14y agoThere's a massive (old) article on Battier - http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/magazine/15Battier-t.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/magazine/15Battier-t.html?... Apparently, he's such a good team player (picking good positions, herding opponents into weak positions, doing things which are bad for his stats but good for the team) that he can almost shut down Kobe. OK, Kobe still scores a lot when he's guarded by Battier, but only because Kobe always gets the ball. He'll memorize every one of those heat maps (along with every other dataset his coach can get him), and use that knowledge to mess up his opponent's attacks.
- idoh 14y agoGreat article! "Battier’s game is a weird combination of obvious weaknesses and nearly invisible strengths."