Her tweet can be found here:
my answer: https://t.co/9SElbR4NrZ pic.twitter.com/e4cDKiIB6c
— Caitlin Cooper (@C2_Cooper) March 15, 2024
I’ll post the transcript for those that can’t access twitter here:
Beginning of tweet:–
1. As a shooter, he typically evades closeouts moving to his right, which requires powering off his left leg. Since returning from injury, he’s attempted 52 step-back threes, half of which have been to his left. Some teams are shading him that direction, as well. Still, not his usual movement pattern.
2. Over his last 16 games, he’s shot 25.6% on 5.1 pull-up 3s per game. The primary way the Pacers have attacked switches and/or advanced to the next action in the Haliburton-era is with blur screens (i.e., ghosting the switch). Without Buddy, they’ve dropped from 3rd in non-contact guard screens per 100 possessions to eleventh. When those screens have been “set,” there isn’t as much momentum or gravitational pull.
3. He’s the best movement shooter among the starters, so he’s filling that role more often (i.e. operating as the stack-screener, maneuvering out of floppy action, etc.) Those aren’t his normal actions/shots, except for when he’s being face-guarded.
4. Sometimes, players just miss.
–End of tweet.
It seems like the pacers are having trouble fitting the role that Buddy Hield filled in for them as well as the spacing he was able to provide for Haliburton like for example in this clip,
https://x.com/C2_Cooper/status/1757944919660900423?s=20
I do think they’re facing a lot of compound issues that are making things seem worse than they are. Looking back at their game against the Mavs, it was the first time an NBA team showed how to beat the mavs’ new post trade deadline roster so I do think the pacers still have *it* (as in I still think they can be a good team without Buddy Hield) but they’re going to need to find a way to fix at least some of these issues if they want to make a splash in the playoffs (assuming they can hold on to the 6th seed which I think they will).
by Fakesantaclaus
28 Comments
if you use a hashtag/pound sign/the thing above the 3 on your keyboard, it makes the text after it a markdown header
Caitlin Cooper’s the best
Slump started before buddy got traded
Well yea. That trade was a head scratcher at the time. This was expected by a lot of us. They will crash and burn in the playoffs and wonder what happened too
A shooting slump? He’s averaging 18/4/11 on 57 ts% (32% from 3) in the last 35 games, thats ain’t a slump
Another big part I think is how physical refs have been letting things play out this last month. Hurts players like Hali I think.
If u can’t explode off the dribble people can get tighter on u on D. Makes sense that he’s struggling to score as easy. Wonder what the before/after is on pullups vs spot ups.
Whenever she’s on podcasts she just runs circles in basketball analysis compared to most. Like imagine her on a show like First Take where the depth they go to is “AD gotta man up!”
This is awesome, had no idea she did film breakdowns too.
I hope Peyton Manning, if he is continuing Kobe’s detail series, gets her on.
TLDR: no cLutCh gENe
Why tf did they trade buddy heild?
He’s a fluke. His shooting motions and mechanics are inconsistent. Stop hyping him up. He’s an average player at best.
They or he rushed back from that hammy.
Watching Haliburton fail to get his last second shot up vs Chicago made me think two things:
1. His stepback is the only move he can make to create his own shot, and with his set shot form its too slow to be able to get it off consistently.
2. Hes hurt so that he cant get his step back off as efficiently.
I want him to succeed but tired of all the “ThEY tRaDEd thE WroNG PG!” Or “tHe KInGs lost tHE trADe!”
I don’t have the time to read through this right now so I won’t dispute any of it, but his numbers have never fully recovered since that injury. Whether there’s anything physically or mentally lingering from it, maybe it’s just a rhythm thing, but there’s been a clear drop off since the hamstring and it’s not just shooting.
> Sometimes, players just miss.
Underrated part of analysis (I’m not being sarcastic)
Common Caitlyn Cooper W
Caitlin Cooper is an elite analyst
#4 can’t possibly be true
God I need more real analysis like this. What’s the Mark Cuban video going off at Skip Bayless and how weak NBA coverage is? Compare it to football with how independent tactics and analysis are, and imo its absolutely hurting the game
Shit I love me some X’s and O’s
This is not a slump. Its a combination of a lot of things but this is who he is.
This is the content i love to see! It makes me wonder – are the pacers the type of team to pay for a klay thompson, if it helps unlock hali (in addition to his injury recovery)
Who the heck is this faux basketball genius
For some reason my brain read this as Caitlin Clark and I was like this is SO out of left field like damn she really watches the NBA though
For those who wants this on the main shows (First Take etc.), it’d be great for non-casuals and actually provide insight to the game, but ratings are (unfortunately) driven by casuals and barbershop talk. People are tuning in to hear Stephen A shout PULL UP FROM 30. Why do you think they let Perkins stay on, while firing a bunch of actually smart people in the summer? Because he’s fat and occasionally says something funny. That’s what ESPN needs.
JJ is doing what Caitlin is doing here on his pod, but he’s not really allowed to bring it to ESPN. At least not to the extent he wants or what some of us could hope for. He’s clashed quite a few times on air and certainly in production meetings, but he wants those juicy dollars at the same time I’m sure.
Jesus she is a genius too? wtf
Also, I think I actually saw Haliburton talking about how he and Hield played together on a podcast. JJ Reddicks maybe? He didn’t seem 100% convinced they would be able to replicate without him
Interesting contrast when someone else says the same thing versus when a media member says this about Buddy/Hali dynamic.
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/kQu2lGNLYi
She’s easily the best analyst. Pacers fans have it good.