Since the 2013 NBA finals ended, much has been written about floor spacing and how important it is to NBA offenses. People look at the 3-point specialists of both the Spurs and Heat and talk about how these players are vital to spreading out a defense, making these shooters critical to their teams success.
With the Pelicans busy offseason of acquiring both Jrue Holiday and Tyreke Evans to pair with Eric Gordon (and to a lesser extent, Austin Rivers, Brian Roberts and Pierre Jackson), three attacking guards, there is a growing concern over the Pelicans floor spacing. Before, and even after, the Anthony Morrow signing the concern was the team doesnt have enough outside shooting to play the attractive and successful style of basketball we saw in the Finals.
Holiday, Evans and Gordon are all rim-attacking guards; when they are on the court together, who, other than Ryan Anderson, will receive the kickout passes once defenses collapse? When all three are out there with Anthony Davis (or Greg Steimsma or Jeff Withey . . . or Greg Oden), the paint will be too crowded for to have them drive into the paint! There is only one ball for three ball-handling guards! And on and on.
But its all a myth for a multitude of reasons.
Before going any further I want you to get the notion that 3-point shooters are not the only way to spread out a defense. Sure it absolutely helps we saw that in the finals but there are other ways to achieve effective results. John Schuhmann has a great piece about how the Heats floor spacing is really effective because of how they position their bigs. After pointing out that the Heats deep shooters werent hurting the Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals, Schumann says,
