NBA Shot Charts for Every Team Pre-COVID-19
Using ggplot2 to figure out where teams were taking shots during the 2020 season before the pandemic
The NBA is coming back.
At least, for a little while. We’ll see how well they hold up in the Orlando bubble surrounded by a pandemic hot zone.
But enough of the sadness. Let’s talk actual basketball. It feels like forever since live NBA action. The last games were played on March 11, but that might as well have been a year ago. I’m not even sure I remember how sweet a Luka step-back looks.
Do you?
To re-familiarize yourself with the NBA before play restarts, you should probably rewatch games on League Pass. But if you’re more of a nerdy fan like me, you can also dig into the data.
That’s what I did here. Using the nbastatr and ggplot2 packages in R, I made charts that describe where NBA teams were taking shots. Light blue indicates a team took fewer shots in that area. Deep purple means they took a high percentage of their shots from that area.
Let’s skip the repartee and dive straight into the charts, shall we?
