Atlanta Hawks: Trading Taurean Prince Would Be a Big Mistake
The Skill-set of Mr. Prince
Taurean Prince is ultra athletic and a solid rebounder. He is a dynamite finisher at the rim, but his best attribute is shooting. He’s one of the more effective young volume catch and shoot players in the NBA.
Even though Prince has missed 21 games, he’s still averaging 14 points per game as he did last season. Even though his three-point percentage is down from 38.5 to 36 percent, his field goal percentage is higher. The reason his field goal percent is up, is Taurean has increased his two point percentage from 46.1 to 51.4 percent.
Taurean has increased his two point shooting percentage, from every distance this season. He has improved from 39 percent to 41.2 percent from three to ten feet away from the basket. He had an even bigger increase from ten to 16 feet, improving from 35.5 to 42.4 percent.
Taurean Prince saw his third highest two point shooting increase from the rim to three feet out. He improved their from 61 percent to 70.5 percent shooting in that area.
The largest increase in Prince’s two point shooting came from the mid range area of 16 feet to just inside the three-point line. He has impressively improved from 23 percent to 44.4 percent from mid range.
Many new school analytics based coaches and general managers, dislike the mid-range shot. Call me old school but I still believe the mid-range shot is very effective, when taken with the proper shot selection.
I believe the reason why the mid range shot is considered inefficient, is due players tendency to take contested mid range shots. I also think players don’t practice the shot anymore as they would rather have the glory of making a dunk or a shot from downtown, making the mid range shot a lost art.
A player with the ability of Taurean Prince to make mid range shots can be a big help, when a team is struggling from three-point range as a whole.
The negative on Taurean Prince has been his defense, but Prince has been noticeably more aggressive on that end of the court this season. This is reflected in the fact that his fouls per 100 possessions have increased from 3.3 to 4.7. If he can continue to be aggressive, it should eventually result in more respect from the officials.