Stats review: How pull up shooting is influencing the playoff picture

Sportradar takes a look at the league’s top pull up scoring teams as playoff pressure intensifies

It was a hectic week for the teams in the EuroLeague playoff picture as only one, first-place Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul, escaped the double week with a pair of victories. That has added some intrigue to the standings around the Play-In Showdown zone, as 11th-place EA7 Emporio Armani Milan is riding a three-game winning streak to get within one win of tenth place.

While a favorable schedule helped, Milan won its two home games in that stretch by a combined 26 points and notched a coveted road victory in Round 27. It can trace much of that success to its scorching hot shooting off the dribble. On average, teams are making 41% of their midrange shots off the dribble and 32% of their pull-up threes this season, equating to roughly 0.92 points per shot — down just slightly from a year ago.

That provides some perspective on the 1.17 points per pull-up jumper Milan scored in its recent wins. While one might assume that it is based on three-point shooting, Milan made as many twos as threes off the dribble in that stretch, shooting an absurd 69% on midrange shots off the bounce.

The table above lists the top teams this season in points scored per attempt on pull-up jumpers and the percentage of a team’s total attempts those shots have accounted for. With the league average for all possessions rising to a sparkling 1.01 points per possession in recent weeks, it is worth noting that several teams are actually boosting their efficiency with what is considered, historically, to be an inefficient shot.

Milan has pushed up against that threshold thanks in large part to the work of Armoni Brooks and Marko Guduric, who have both shot the three at a very high level off the dribble this year. Their shooting and the defensive attention it commands is a big reason the club has risen to lead all teams in pick-and-roll efficiency this season.

For Zalgiris Kaunas, the growth of Sylvain Francisco has been key. After scoring only 0.89 points per pull-up jumper two years ago, Francisco averaged 1.04 points per attempt a year ago — still short of the stellar 1.11 per attempt he’s averaged this year. Doing much of his damage from beyond the arc, he’s become one of the most dynamic scorers off the dribble in the EuroLeague with Maodo Lo and Nigel Williams-Goss making shots steadily as secondary ball handlers.

Tyler Dorsey ranks second in points scored on pull-up jumpers this season, behind only Glynn Watson of LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne, to propel Olympiacos Piraeus here. He is one of five EuroLeague players shooting over 50% on a high volume of midrange pull-ups this season, joining Antonio Blakeney and Elijah Bryant of Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv, McKinley Wright of Dubai Basketball, and reigning MVP Kendrick Nunn of Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens.

While the parity in the EuroLeague flattens many curves as teams endeavor to find a competitive advantage, there is a notable gap in how consistently they score from the perimeter off the dribble.