How Long Can A Defense Stay in a Zone?

[Jimgolf]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

No one said that EVERY shot that these teams take will be low quality shots. The case that is being made is that teams who normally play with a shot clock are far more apt to take low quality opportunities, if you wish to quantify it, let's say 30% of the time, when playing a game that does not have a shot clock. Against a solid opponent that could be just enough to lose.

The argument is also being made that these teams lose concentration on defense when having to defend for longer than half a minute and give up easy scores.

You have not been able to counter either point.

You are making a statistical argument with made-up statistics that are difficult to counter. I haven't seen any studies about shooting precentages with or without shot clock for the same sample audience, so you can say whatever you want, I suppose.

However, your point is really only valid if efficient shooting is the paramount goal for basketball teams. This really ignores the effect that the shot clock has on defense. Teams that play good fundamental defense are rewarded by the clock in that they only have to play defense for a maximum of 35 seconds.

New York has the shot clock, while New Jersey does not. NJ games seem to be more about the coaches' skills while NY games seem to be more about players' skills, as players have to make decisions for themselves and not just follow patterned offenses until the defense falls asleep.

For what it's worth, NY has a 35 second clock but most shots are taken with more than 15 seconds left on the clock.

A different point that is important in larger schools is that the NCAA uses a shot clock and playing with a shot clock prepares the players better for the next level. In NY and NJ where upwards of 100 players each year go on to D1 basketball, this may be more important than in those areas where D1 level players are rare. This is one reason that NY has had the shot clock and used NCAA rules for girls games for quite some time.