Interesting Look at Tennessee’s Offense

[sportsnut624]

I searched and haven’t seen this posted so I apologize if I’ve missed it. I found this article on Twitter and thought it provides a solid analytics based look at our offense. It’s a long article but seems like a fair look at the offense. My biggest takeaway from it is that we have spent too much time in a duel “big” lineup and should continue on focusing on JJJ playing majority of minutes at the 4 with either pons or fulky at the 5. Analytics don’t always tell the whole story but the numbers definitely seems to go with what we’ve seen this year.

Tennessee is obsessed with the mid-range jumper. Is this a problem in 2021?

 

[DonDiego]

I'll buy it.

 

[BruisedOrange]

Fascinating! Thank you, sportsnut624!

I was surprised the stats confirmed my eyes. Too many fall away jumpers from 4-10 feet that create no opportunity to get to the foul line, and we seem to miss quite a few. It's as if the guys have grown up practicing on softer rims, and expect those pillow-like fall aways to roll into the net. Not many swishes.

Let's start watching how many minutes that small lineup gets, as we head toward tourney time, and if free throw attempts go up or down when they're in.

 

[ndubvols]

I think part of it is we’re getting bad midrange jumpers. A lot of these are fadeaways or dribble drive pull-ups.

It seems in the past we ran a lot of curl action for a quick open pull-up in the mid post or easy assist on the dump off. I haven’t seen this much, which is a bit confusing since you’d think Keon and Jaden would be well suited for this. We saw it once or twice in one of the games last week with Keon and led to a fulky dunk.

 

[Special Ed]

Looks like firing Jeremy Pruitt was bad for our basketball team.

 

[zjcvols]

Impossible. I have been told if we hit shots our offense is good and that the actual quality of the shots themselves is fine because our offensive system is great!

 

[zjcvols]

This is coaching malpractice when you have Jaden Springer.

Among the 347 teams playing Division I basketball this winter, only ten teams have fewer overall possessions developing from a ball screen, per Synergy. In fact, Tennessee has the second-lowest usage of ball screens among all power conference teams, with only Purdue being lower.

 

[cncchris33]

This is predominantly due to the fact that we cannot get shots at the rim. Fulk and Pons are responsible for a lot of those fadeaway jumpers from outside 5 feet because they cannot power their way to the basket. Trying to run the offense thru the post with this team is a fool’s errand. It can’t work, which is why you have seen us sporadically (not nearly enough) try to push the pace to steal baskets in transition at the rim or using those opportunities to draw fouls and get to the line. When we lay back, abandon the faster tempo and fastbreak opportunities, and try to settle into a halfcourt offense, you see us struggle, especially when we can’t hit from outside. Teams just pack the paint and dare us to shoot.

 

[zjcvols]

This is predominantly due to the fact that we cannot get shots at the rim. Fulk and Pons are responsible for a lot of those fadeaway jumpers from outside 5 feet because they cannot power their way to the basket. Trying to run the offense thru the post with this team is a fool’s errand. It can’t work, which is why you have seen us sporadically (not nearly enough) try to push the pace to steal baskets in transition at the rim or using those opportunities to draw fouls and get to the line. When we lay back, abandon the faster tempo and fastbreak opportunities, and try to settle into a halfcourt offense, you see us struggle, especially when we can’t hit from outside. Teams just pack the paint and dare us to shoot.

Yes but why can’t we get to the rim? Because the offense doesn’t do a good enough job creating those shots. Like Will posted we run fewer ball screens than almost anyone in the country (bottom 10 in D1). And we don’t have a true post scorer that can get shots at the rim like you mentioned. So we don’t get good shots.

We actually shoot the ball decent from from outside (134th in 3P%) but because we don’t run ball screens to create better spacing and we don’t emphasize shooting the 3 enough (271th in 3PA/FGA) we get these bad mid range shots that hinder the offense.

 

[zjcvols]

Really the main lesson is this: the midrange shot isn’t a good shot, don’t emphasize it and shoot at the rim and 3’s.

 

[kckempf]

I searched and haven’t seen this posted so I apologize if I’ve missed it. I found this article on Twitter and thought it provides a solid analytics based look at our offense. It’s a long article but seems like a fair look at the offense. My biggest takeaway from it is that we have spent too much time in a duel “big” lineup and should continue on focusing on JJJ playing majority of minutes at the 4 with either pons or fulky at the 5. Analytics don’t always tell the whole story but the numbers definitely seems to go with what we’ve seen this year.

Tennessee is obsessed with the mid-range jumper. Is this a problem in 2021?

I'm not as worried about the proliferation of mid-range jumpers, since that alone isn't the problem. The big problem with the mid-range jumpers is that we're not open when we attempt them. That's mostly from Fulkerson's suffering this year.

If everybody's healthy I absolutely agree that the SmallVol lineup is the best way to go. I called it the Death Lineup after the first Kentucky game, before Pons and JJJ had to sit and rest their ailments. Fulkerson showed a flash of his play from last year against South Carolina and I think if we take some pressure off him he can continue to do so. That adds some appeal to the small lineup. The Fulk/Pons lineups are only going to work going forward if Pons continues to stay hot from beyond the arc and we find more ways to invert the offense and get Johnson posted up against a guard.

 

[Vol49er]

This is predominantly due to the fact that we cannot get shots at the rim. Fulk and Pons are responsible for a lot of those fadeaway jumpers from outside 5 feet because they cannot power their way to the basket. Trying to run the offense thru the post with this team is a fool’s errand. It can’t work, which is why you have seen us sporadically (not nearly enough) try to push the pace to steal baskets in transition at the rim or using those opportunities to draw fouls and get to the line. When we lay back, abandon the faster tempo and fastbreak opportunities, and try to settle into a halfcourt offense, you see us struggle, especially when we can’t hit from outside. Teams just pack the paint and dare us to shoot.

That has magnified the issue, sure, but as the article says, taking a huge percentage of your shots in the mid-range (rather than at the rim or from 3) has long been a staple of Barnes' offenses. I think we need to get away from the philosophy

 

[cncchris33]

Yes but why can’t we get to the rim? Because the offense doesn’t do a good enough job creating those shots. Like Will posted we run fewer ball screens than almost anyone in the country (bottom 10 in D1). And we don’t have a true post scorer that can get shots at the rim like you mentioned. So we don’t get good shots.

We actually shoot the ball decent from from outside (134th in 3P%) but because we don’t run ball screens to create better spacing and we don’t emphasize shooting the 3 enough (271th in 3PA/FGA) we get these bad mid range shots that hinder the offense.

We don’t get looks at the rim because we have non-traditional post players playing largely out of position. They aren’t strong enough, skilled enough, or big enough to back their man down on the post. So they settle for jumpers, hook shots, and fadeaways. Those account for a large portion of our midrange shots.

I agree that the midrange shot between 12 feet and the 3-pt line is a low percentage/low reward look. Bailey is bad about taking one step in from the 3-pt line and shooting that shot. Keon has done it a few times, recently.

 

[cncchris33]

That has magnified the issue, sure, but as the article says, taking a huge percentage of your shots in the mid-range (rather than at the rim or from 3) has long been a staple of Barnes' offenses. I think we need to get away from the philosophy

I don’t disagree. We just don’t have the personnel to do that inside, right now. I’m all for more pick and roll, screen drives, and motion that leads to lobs or open looks cutting to the basket. You won’t get an argument from me.

 

[Vol49er]

I don’t disagree. We just don’t have the personnel to do that inside, right now. I’m all for more pick and roll, screen drives, and motion that leads to lobs or open looks cutting to the basket. You won’t get an argument from me.

Fair enough, though if we do increase our percentage our shots at the rim, I hope that comes primarily from drives to the basket by players like Keon and Josiah, rather than Yves and John putting their heads down and trying to bully their way to the basket, something they are not great at

 

[cncchris33]

Fair enough, though if we do increase our percentage our shots at the rim, I hope that comes primarily from drives to the basket by players like Keon and Josiah, rather than Yves and John putting their heads down and trying to bully their way to the basket, something they are not great at

Oh, no doubt. There is a reason those two settle for jumpers and fadeaways.

 

[b_gann]

I think part of it is we’re getting bad midrange jumpers. A lot of these are fadeaways or dribble drive pull-ups.

It seems in the past we ran a lot of curl action for a quick open pull-up in the mid post or easy assist on the dump off. I haven’t seen this much, which is a bit confusing since you’d think Keon and Jaden would be well suited for this. We saw it once or twice in one of the games last week with Keon and led to a fulky dunk.

This ^ It's almost incredible the rate at which Fulk and Pons hit those fadeaway turnaround J's from the middle of the paint. I agree we need to see more of the small lineup. Surrounding Springer and Keon with shooters and running high pick and roll should create better looks for us across the board.

 

[djohnnyg]

What about this team is actually "good?" Seems we are just not a good team. We have won some games though so I don't know.

 

[Vol49er]

What about this team is actually "good?" Seems we are just not a good team. We have won some games though so I don't know.

If this is a legitimate question, Tennessee's defense still ranks at an elite level even with recent poor performances (5th in defensive efficiency from Pomeroy). A lot of this comes from being really good at turning over the opponent. The offense is a different story. Very hot and cold, we are certainly capable of having nights where we can bury the opponent in points, but just as likely (if not more) to have a night where we are ice cold. Having everybody healthy in March is going to have a huge impact, especially now that its looking like we're going to have a tougher first round matchup than we were hoping for

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

If this is a legitimate question, Tennessee's defense still ranks at an elite level even with recent poor performances (5th in defensive efficiency from Pomeroy). A lot of this comes from being really good at turning over the opponent. The offense is a different story. Very hot and cold, we are certainly capable of having nights where we can bury the opponent in points, but just as likely (if not more) to have a night where we are ice cold. Having everybody healthy in March is going to have a huge impact, especially now that its looking like we're going to have a tougher first round matchup than we were hoping for

The defense has been pretty effective at keeping opponents from running away during TN’s scoring droughts. If those droughts could be minimized then TN can play with anybody.

 

[b_gann]

This is coaching malpractice when you have Jaden Springer.

Agree! He's one of the best in the country at getting in the lane. I'd have many a possession starting with a Pons/Fulk/JJJ screen up top w/ Keon or Springer as the ball handler. Bailey or Vescovi on the drive side wing to either shoot it or attack on a closeout if the D collapses on the drive...

 

[franklinboy]

Yes but why can’t we get to the rim? Because the offense doesn’t do a good enough job creating those shots. Like Will posted we run fewer ball screens than almost anyone in the country (bottom 10 in D1). And we don’t have a true post scorer that can get shots at the rim like you mentioned. So we don’t get good shots.

We actually shoot the ball decent from from outside (134th in 3P%) but because we don’t run ball screens to create better spacing and we don’t emphasize shooting the 3 enough (271th in 3PA/FGA) we get these bad mid range shots that hinder the offense.

You know if Barnes would play the big guy Plavsic and maybe Annisike it would help Fulky n Pons with getting a lil breather during the games....people look you can't have the same 2 post guys Fulky n Pons playing the whole game literally battling SEC big men who are bigger than what Tennessee has in the 4,5 positions n then their backups are just as big...i mean Barnes needs to let these other 4,5 guys play more to rest Fulky n Pons !

 

[volinexile17]

Last year it was Fulky who made the offense work. If he can get to and finish around the basket, our offense will be much better. Until he gets healthy or steps up his game, this team will be hot and cold.