Juxtaposed against the NBA’s hottest shooters of the week, like Kemba Walker, who went for 33, 34 and 35 points, respectively, in his three games, were players who couldn’t buy a bucket. It’s a good thing that Walker stayed lava-hot, because one of his teammates in the backcourt was among the coldest shooters of the week.
Unlike the slumping shooters from last week — which featured two 23-year-olds — the worst shooters of the trailing seven days this time around are all veterans with plenty of experience. PointAfter will analyze those guys with help from interactive data visualizations.
Note: Statistics in this article cover games from March 4-10.
Guard: Jeremy Lin, Charlotte Hornets
Charlotte’s decision to sign Jeremy Lin to a two-year, $4 million deal seemed like one of free agency’s biggest bargains. Unfortunately, the artist formerly known as Linsanity has shot just 40.7 percent from the floor and 31.8 percent from beyond the arc (both the lowest marks since his rookie campaign).
Those struggles continued this week beside Walker’s dominance. J-Lin converted just 25.9 percent of his looks over the course of three games.
The Hornets went 3-0 despite Lin’s slump, which bottomed out with a 1-of-8 shooting performance against the Minnesota Timberwolves on March 7.
Wing: Nick Young, Los Angeles Lakers
Nick “Swaggy P” Young famously tweeted back in August 2014 that he had no tattoos inked on his right arm because it was “strictly for buckets.”
No tats on the right arm Strictly for buckets
— Nick Young (@NickSwagyPYoung) August 15, 2014
Fast-forward one year to August 2015, and news broke that Young’s right arm was freshly inked with a forearm tat.
Young has since posted the worst shooting year of his entire career by converting just 33.9 percent of his shots and only 32.5 percent of his threes (both career lows). Coincidence? We think not.
The cold shooting continued for the USC product this week, as he made four of his 22 shot attempts (18.2 percent).
After three stinker performances, Young couldn’t even get off the bench during Thursday night’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. He received a DNP-CD in LA’s 120-108 loss.
Forward/Center: Ersan Ilyasova, Orlando Magic
Kevin Love of the Cavaliers flirted with this spot this week after going 7-of-28 shooting in three games (25 percent). But while Love struggled, he knocked down 25 of his 26 free throws, so he wasn’t a complete eye sore.
Ersan Ilyasova, meanwhile, missed all six of his three-pointers and finished the week 5-of-25 from the field.
Acquired at the trade deadline as part of the Tobias Harris trade, Ilyasova hasn’t done much in his new threads to warrant sticking around in Orlando beyond this season. At least for now, it seems like he’ll be waived before his non-guaranteed $8.4 million contract can kick in for 2016-17.