Sometimes I wonder if NBA players even know about the concept of “efficiency”. The ones who shoot the lowest percentages tend to shoot the highest amount of shots. Now, I know that if you were to command Andre Drummond to shoot fifteen times a game, he would not keep up his insane percentages. However, you could tell Ariza to be a bit more choosy with his shots, and you would probably see him have a more positive impact on the game.
But we know that wouldn’t work. Because shooting a basketball is one of the most fun things in the world. When that ball goes through that net, it’s the same feeling that a Roman spearman gets when piercing an enemy with his pike, or a samurai warrior when he eviscerates endless foes with mighty swings of his blade. Or when that sweaty, pimply nerd in the back of the class can see a bit of Amanda’s thong sticking out from her pants. Or when that same sweaty nerd looks her up on Facebook and prints out her photos for his “personal enjoyment”. It’s that same primal sense of victory. Shooting a basketball is just flat-out awesome and I bet if any one of us were to ever play an NBA game, all we would want to do is shoot a whole lot of jumpshots.
All that taken into consideration, Ariza should shoot as much as he wants.