https://youtu.be/grju22di-Os
Ever since the first primitive sporting contest where a caveman named Gorg threw a rock between two tree trunks, mankind has recorded and analyzed statistics for his sports. It’s simply in our nature to keep track of stats for any pursuit where later analysis of those stats could be useful, and even for pursuits where the stats are meaningless and we just want to keep stats for the sake of keeping stats. There’s a reason we know the score of the first-ever basketball game. It’s not because the players wanted to know who won. It’s because stats are awesome.
That is why I was overcome with feelings when I loaded up Mikal Bridges’ basketball-reference page in search of workable material that could serve as the inspiration for this video description. In case you missed it, Bridges is on the cusp of the 50/40/90 club, with his 54% field goal shooting, his 43% three-point shooting, and his 84% free throw shooting. And this is while being the fourth-leading scorer on the team, not exactly a small accomplishment for a high-powered offense like the Suns’.
I’ll admit that there’s a huge gulf between shooting 84% on free throws and shooting 90% on free throws. The 6% gap looks small, but shooting accuracy is a bell curve, and it gets harder and harder to improve past a certain point. I actually don’t know if it is a bell curve, nor do I know what a bell curve even is, but it beefs up my “real NBA analyst” credentials so I’m going with it. Basically, what I’m saying is that Bridges would need to ignore every other facet of his game that he’s looking to improve, and practice nothing but free throws for an entire off-season in order to have a chance of hitting 90%. And while he’s doing that, he’d have to be careful that his other skills didn’t deteriorate to the point where he missed out on the 50/40/90 club by way of one of the other percentages.
It’s because of my stupid monkey brain and its unbreakable obsession with statistics that my #1 priority for Bridges is for him to improve his chances at reaching some arbitrary statistical threshold. I don’t care about his playmaking, or his handles, or his defense (not like DownToBuck has ever cared about defense in the past, nor will DownToBuck ever care about defense in the future). I only care about his free throws.