Is the switch from Spalding to Wilson to blame for shooting slumps?
The league average field goal percentage is down in the NBA so far this season. Paul George, and many others, have a theory as to why.
Athletes are creatures of habit and even the slightest change can interrupt their entire flow. That’s why it was surprising to see that the league had opted to change the official manufacturer of the basketball.
Wilson, who manufactured the basketballs for the league from 1946 until 1983, replaced Spalding as the official supplier for the NBA at the start of the 2021-22 campaign.
Basketball skills coach Drew Hanlen tweeted he believes the change has had a “HUGE” impact on the players. Portland Trail Blazers’ CJ McCollum, who is also the president of the NBPA, suggested players are currently still adjusting to the switch.
Paul George on Wilson ball: "It doesn't have the same touch & softness that the Spalding ball had. You'll see this year. A lot of bad misses. You've seen a lot of airballs."
League Averages
.446 FG% (lowest since 2004)
.342 3PT% (lowest since 1999) pic.twitter.com/j2L8G9n82R— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) November 2, 2021
According to George, the Wilson ball doesn’t have the same “touch” and “softness” that Spalding basketballs have:
“Not to make an excuse or anything about the ball but I said that it’s just a different basketball. It don’t have the same touch and softness that the Spalding ball had. You’ll see this year. It’s going to be a lot of bad misses. You’ll see a lot of bad misses. I think you’ve seen a lot of airballs so far this season. Again, not to put any excuse or blame on the basketball. But it is different. There’s no secret. It’s a different basketball.”
As noted by Ballislife.com, the league average shooting percentage is down thus far.
According to Basketball-Reference, NBA players are shooting just 34.2 percent from beyond the arc (the lowest rate since 1998-99) and only 44.6 percent from the field (lowest since 2003-04).
But those figures are a bit misleading and can easily be misconstrued as the sample sizes are vastly different. The numbers mentioned above are what was calculated at the end of the season, not after two weeks.
The league average 3% is just 34% but while that may seem very low, the league has got off to a slow start before. As @kmedved has found, 3% usually improves through the season so we should expect these #'s to go up. pic.twitter.com/ylYfqI7QZz
— Krishna Narsu (@knarsu3) November 1, 2021
Krishna Narsu observed that the league almost always comes out of the gates sluggish on 3-point attempts. It makes sense that it would take some time to get in the swing of things after the offseason.
For example, while the league average was 35.8 percent from downtown in 2019-20, it was actually just 34.6 percent after the first thirteen days of the season. That’s just half a percentage point better than it has been for the first thirteen days of this season.
Similarly, while the league shot better than 35.0 percent on 3-pointers in both 2015-16 and then again in 2016-17, the league average after thirteen days has actually been higher season than it was in either of those campaigns.
As such, as the season continues, don’t be surprised if the league progresses toward the mean. Could it really be a problem with the ball for everyone if the Los Angeles Lakers are shooting their highest mark from 3-point range since 2013-14?
One thing I didn’t know until yesterday is that the NBA changed the ball from Spalding to Wilson this season. Could be part of an explanation for lower 3P%?
— Tom Bassine (@tvbassine) November 2, 2021
For what it’s worth, the Wilson ball was shipped to “hundreds of players” before the season to get their feedback.
Miami Heat wing Duncan Robinson has said that if you handed him each ball, he would “one thousand percent” be able to tell the difference. Nikola Jokic has said sometimes he loses a grip on it when he plays.
McCollum tweeted that it’s “not the balls fault” when he misses shots and that responsibility lies on the shooter. Minnesota Timberwolves wing Malik Beasley agrees, telling reporters “it’s not the ball” that is causing the slump.
It is not the balls fault I missed shots lol. That’s the shooters fault. For the record https://t.co/pEQbYt3bVk
— CJ McCollum (@CJMcCollum) November 2, 2021
Amin Elhassan, who has worked for several different NBA franchises, has said that he knows players “hate” playing with new balls and — even when the sponsor was Spalding — couldn’t wait for each individual ball to finally get broken in.
Additionally, with the change to the way that fouls are called on 3-pointers, players are still getting adjusted to multiple new facets of shooting so far this season.
As a whole, the shooting slump around the league can be credited to many things, but the change of the ball isn’t necessarily one of them.