Thinking is "deep work." Someone tells us, "the sky is blue." Is that true, sometimes true?
Take a basketball concept like the "Four Factors" (shooting, offensive rebounding, turnovers, free throw attempts) that impact winning. "Deep work" expands our knowledge and wins games.
Cal Newport wrote, "Deep Work" examining how to work to success. "Newport defines the two most important characteristics in these ‘successful workers’ as; 1) the ability to take on hard tasks/things and master them at pace, and 2) producing content/products/services at what can be considered an ‘elite level’ in both speed and quality."
High-Quality Work Produced = (Time Spent) x (Intensity of Focus)
Consider shooting, specifically "effective field goal percentage."
- Type of shot (e.g. uncontested layup)
- Area of shot (e.g. mid-range, "below the break" 3 point shot)
- Type of play (isolation, cut, pick-and-roll)
- Quality of shooter
- Initiation, off the catch, off the dribble
- Contestedness of shot - how open is the shot?
- Optimization (e.g. using the backboard as appropriate)
- Recent results (the "hot hand" theory)
- Leading passes (relative EFG% assisted or unassisted shots)..."the quality of the shot relates to the quality of the pass" - Pete Carill
- The degrading impact of pressure (time and score)
- the origin of the possession (points/possession higher off a turnover/steal than off opponent's made basket)
Lagniappe. Player development. Quicker release.
5 Out into an across cut to set up an iso or a fake handoff drive to score. pic.twitter.com/jBu4X9OoJj
— Chris Oliver (@BBallImmersion) April 1, 2022
Steals result in higher percentage/shot than dead balls or rebounds.
Ditto. Note how the guard attacks with the ball in the inside hand allowing a one-handed pass.
Cut urgently. In the NBA, scoring off cuts is the highest point/possession type of play. Bueckers cuts hard and gets rewarded.