Mike Scott is having his best shooting season in 2015-16

Mike Scott has become the preeminent, go-to scorer off the Atlanta Hawks’ bench this season. He is in the midst of his best shooting season as a professional.

In year four in the NBA, it seems that power forward Mike Scott of the Atlanta Hawks has finally been able to become an all-around great scoring force for his basketball team in 2015-16. With his spot in head coach Mike Budenholzer’s bench rotation in jeopardy at the start of the season for many reasons (defense, rebounding, questionable shot selection, his offseason arrest), Scott has responded marvelously with his best shooting season as an NBA player.

In his first 40 games of the 2015-16 NBA season, Mike Scott is boasting career highs in all shooting percentage categories. Scott is shooting better than he ever has from the field (.517), from three (.422), inside the arc on two-point attempts (.582), at the charity stripe (.811), all leading to a career-best effective field goal percentage of .602.

Not only is he shooting the basketball incredibly well, Mike Scott is also playing his most efficient game both on offense and even more impressively defense. Scott has a career-best 117 offensive rating, which just so happens to lead the entire team, three points better than sure-fired All-Star power forward Paul Millsap at 114. Defensively, Scott has a respectable 106 defensive rating, not bad for an undersized power forward that is on all accounts an exponentially better offensive player.

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If one digs a little deeper, one can find that Mike Scotts’ OBPM of .13 and DBPM of -1.7 are also career highs, combining to a BPM of -0.4, another career best. His VORP is better than before at 0.2 and his PER is 16.7, well over a point better than his career average of 15.5 and nearly two points better than the NBA standard of 15.0.

Scott is only 0.9 win shares away from tying his career high of 2.7 set last season. Keep in mind that Scott has only played in 40 games this season, so he should have no problem setting a new benchmark for win shares, offensively, defensively, and overall in 2015-16.

What we’ve seen visually on the court in games from Mike Scott is his ascendance as an all-around rotational big man is that he takes what the opponent’s defense gives him and doesn’t force up tough shots. He’s more inclined to attack the rim than in year’s past and it’s not a guarantee that he will hoist up another three-point shot on the next offensive possession on a made bucket of his from long distance.

On defense it has been a more subtle, albeit promising adjustment. He’s rarely out of position on defense in 2015-16 and he is becoming a better help defender down low in the process. Scott essentially isn’t looking to make the big defensive stop anymore, instead favoring to help Paul Millsap, Al Horford, and Tiago Splitter make it difficult for the Hawks’ opponents to get points in the paint.

Mike Scott had been the lone exception in Mike Budenholzer’s system the last two years, as he was still getting ample playing time despite being a liability on defense. He could always shoot the basketball and that merited playing time in its own right.

Next: Atlanta Hawks win big over Denver Nuggets, 119-105

Scott started to become a more efficient player on offense for the Atlanta Hawks earlier this season and now it seems that it has finally translated to the defensive part of his game. As we look forward deeper into the second half of the season, expect Mike Scott to stay as the go-to scoring threat for the Hawks inside off the Atlanta bench. His ability to make and create his own shot will do wonders for this team as it strives to get back to the Eastern Conference Finals this early summer. Let’s Go Hawks!

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