8/55 from 3 over the last 3 games.
That's 14.5%
Pledger chose the absolute worst time to go cold from deep.
Not true.
The worst time might have been during the stretch without Buddy when Pledger was red-hot. If he goes cold then, we might lose another game or two, and we might not have Danced at all.
Pledger had WAY too many of those kinds of games in his career. That's how I will remember him. He had a few really good games that we don't win without him shooting it good, but more often than not it was like last Friday. Always hoped he would turn into a Michael Neal type guy, one that you just counted on to make most of his open 3s. Just never happened on a consistent basis.
Pledger had WAY too many of those kinds of games in his career. That's how I will remember him. He had a few really good games that we don't win without him shooting it good, but more often than not it was like last Friday. Always hoped he would turn into a Michael Neal type guy, one that you just counted on to make most of his open 3s. Just never happened on a consistent basis.
That may be how you remember it, but the stats suggest that's not really how it happened.
Neal shot 37.5% from behind the line for his two seasons, while Pledger shot 36.9 over the course of his four seasons. Couldn't be much closer.
Neal
2006-42.4
2007-31.0
Career-37.5
Pledger
2010-33.8
2011-35.0
2012-41.6
2013-36.4
Career-36.9
Over his final two seasons, which might be the only fair way to compare, Pledger outshot Neal from deep -- 38.8 to 37.5.
I'm not saying Pledger didn't have off-games -- of course he did -- but if he'd had as many as you recall him having, there's no way his numbers would stack up that well against Neal.
Either Neal wasn't as good as you remember him being, or Pledger was better than you're giving him credit for.
Those stats can be skewed though. Don't really have a dog in the fight but I would be curious to know what variance is in those numbers.
Those stats can be skewed though. Don't really have a dog in the fight but I would be curious to know what variance is in those numbers.
Shooter A can have 6 games of 0/6, 6/11, 4/6, 3/5, 2/8, 1/4 and just shot 16/40 = 40%, but had several awful shootings nights <26% and several very good nights >50%.
Shooter B can have 6 games of 2/5, 2/6, 2/6, 3/7, 3/7, 4/9 and just shot 16/40, 40%, as well, and never had a great night >44%, never had a bad night <33%.
I will say it seemed pledger was more of shooter A. Boy did he have some games where he just filled it up, but also had some where you wondered if he was mentally ready to play that game.
Just trying to open the conversation.