Scoring vs. Shooting

[ajarnlance]

Excuse my ignorance but I'm pretty new to basketball. What is the difference between 'shooting' and 'scoring' on the player bio?

[fgtr3]

In short you can think of scoring as shot tendency and shooting as how good they are at it.

Please note that shooting tendencies also affect total scoring, but that's not really the question.

A high scoring low shooting player is an inefficient chucker (Josh Smith, Brandon Jennings would be some examples). They'll get you points but do it at a high 30%/low 40% in FG%. In this game you can definitely come across guys who shoot mid or even low 30's in FG%, which at that point they're just a liability.

A low scoring high shooting player is an efficient but limited offensive player. These can be catch and shoot type guys like Mike Miller and Shane Battier, or they can be high FG% centers like DeAndre Jordan or Steven Adams.

Both can be useful.

[ajarnlance]

Thanks. So a low scoring player would be more likely to pass?

[Qrashman]

in simple terms, yeah.

Here's some real life examples:

Devonte Graham: He averaged 19 points per game, which was good for Top 40 in the league. But he shot 38% FG, which is really bad. He'd probably have an 8-9 in scoring but maybe a 5 in shooting. Will score a lot of points, but inefficiently. Still can make for a good player though. There's a lot to take into account.
https://www.basketball-reference.com/pl ... ade01.html

OG Anunoby: Averaged 10 points per game. Shot 51% FG. Good shooter, but took half as many shots as Graham. In fact, Graham attempted more 3 pointers per game than Anunoby did total shots per game. He may have a 4-5 in scoring but an 8 in shooting.
https://www.basketball-reference.com/pl ... oog01.html

There's a lot to take into account. If you have nobody on your team higher than a 4 in scoring, then that 4 is going to take the most shots. If you have two 10s and an 8, that 8 is not going to take as many shots as he would on another team where he would be the highest scoring rating on the team.