Steve Novak Does Not Like Two-Point Land

With so much going on in the home stretch of the NBA season, for some reason, what caught my eye is the weird season that Steve Novak is having.  It was only two years ago that Novak was key component on a very good Knicks team as the guy shooting corner threes when Carmelo Anthony was doubled (after which Novak would celebrate with the famed “Discount Double Check Belt” celebration).  Since leaving New York, minutes have been hard to come by for Novak.  Now, Novak has really retreated to his core skill, three-point shooting, to the detriment of everything else.  He was pretty one-dimensional his whole career but this season Novak is shooting an astounding 95% of his shots from three (versus 78% for his career).

Novak is now approaching a weird record…he hasn’t made a single two-pointer all season.  Zero.  Novak is only averaging five minutes per game, but he has taken 37 shots all year and only two of those came from inside the arc (he is also 0-2 from the line for the season).  Novak’s playing time has become so sporadic that it does seem that this extreme shot distribution could be a result of the specific role he is given (shooting threes at the end of quarters).  Still, you would think he would have made a two-pointer by accident.

How rare is Novak’s feat?  Using Basketball-Reference’s awesome season finder option, we learn that Novak is in some rarified air.  No player with 118 minutes in a season (Novak’s current total) has ever not made a two-pointer.  If you lower the season limit to 100 minutes, the only player to pull this off was Damon Jones in 2008-09, when he shot 11-28 from three and 0-6 from two in 108 minutes.  For fun, here are the players with fewest two-pointers made in a season with a minimum of 118 minutes (not counting Novak):

  1. Brian Cardinal, 2010-11: 1-13 from two, 42-87 from three (618 minutes)
  2. Earl Watson, 2013-14: 1-4 from two, 2-7 from three (161 minutes)
  3. Chris Babb, 2013-14: 2-3 from two, 6-27 from three (132 minutes)
  4. Drew Barry, 1998-99: 2-8 from two, 8-24 from three (183 minutes)
  5. Ronnie Brewer, 2013-14: 2-7 from two, 1-8 from three (160 minutes)
  6. Brad Miller, 2011-12: 2-12 from two, 7-15 from three (146 minutes)

Nine players made only three two-pointers in a season but we cut the list of at two two-pointers in a season.  Cardinal really stands out in the list because his playing time was so much higher than the rest who came up.  Despite his one dimension, Cardinal was considered useful enough to comeback to Dallas for one more season in (where he was even worse).  A few other interesting notes on this list:

-James Jones and Mike Miller both are barely hitting twos this season

-Most of the low two-point scorers were players in the final season of their careers.  Hopefully, this is not the case for Novak.

-There were actually a couple of non-three-point shooters on the list, mostly defensive specialists who were in to foul and not much else (LaSalle Thompson, William Cunningham, Eric Snow).

It is to be expected that extreme stat lines would happen in limited playing time.  What happens, when we expand the minimum playing time?  Here’s the bottom ten two-point scorers with a minimum of 1,000 minutes played:

  1. Shane Battier, 2012-13: 16-46 from two, 136-316 from three (1,786 minutes)
  2. Jason Kidd, 2011-12: 20-50 from two, 79-223 from three (1,379 minutes)
  3. Dan Majerle, 2001-02: 20-54 from two, 79-235 from three (1,180 minutes)
  4. DeShawn Stevenson, 2012-13: 22-53 from two, 76-209 from three (1,158 minutes)
  5. James Jones, 2010-11: 23-59 from two, 123-287 from three (1,549 minutes)
  6. Pablo Prigioni, 2013-14: 23-51 from two, 65-140 from three (1,283 minutes)
  7. Keith Bogans, 2012-13: 24-39 from two, 84-245 from three (1,408 minutes)
  8. Anthony Tolliver, 2013-14: 27-60 from two, 102-247 from three (1,298 minutes)
  9. Steve Novak, 2011-12: 28-55 from two, 133-282 from three (1,020 minutes)
  10. Steve Novak, 2012-13: 29-79 from two, 149-351 from three (1,641 minutes)

Lots of three-and-D specialists on this list (to varying degrees of success) and, of course, our friend Novak (three and-no D?).  If you expand the limit to 2,000 minutes, we see more late-model Jason Kidd and a few other three-and-D guys:

  1. Jason Kidd, 2012-13: 38-84 from two, 114-325 from three (2,043 minutes)
  2. Damon Jones, 2005-06: 50-120 from two, 140-371 from three (2,089 minutes)
  3. Shane Battier, 2008-09: 54-117 from two, 91-237 from three (2,031 minutes)
  4. Dan Majerle, 1999-00: 60-118 from two, 110-304 from three (2,308 minutes)
  5. Shane Battier, 2009-10: 77-168 from two, 101-279 from three (2,168 minutes)
  6. Chris Duhon, 2009-10: 78-193 from two, 90-258 from three (2,072 minutes)
  7. Chris Duhon, 2004-05: 78-223 from two, 94-265 from three (2,177 minutes)
  8. Jason Kidd, 2010-11: 92-205 from two, 133-391 from three (2,653 minutes)
  9. Bruce Bowen, 2007-08: 84-213 from two, 90-215 from three (2,448 minutes)
  10. Kyle Korver, 2012-13: 88-187 from two, 189-414 from three (2,259 minutes)

As the minutes go up, we see some of the same names but the rate of twos becomes higher, presumably because every player who plays this much will have more open jumpers or layups just by being on the court long enough.  Also, fun to see that Duhon made nearly the exact number of shots in two different seasons five years apart.

If you raise the limit to 3,000 minutes, you get many more twos made.  Rather than go through the whole list of 3,000-minutes players, note that only one player has made less than 220 two-pointers in 3,000 minutes: Rafer Alston in 2006-07, who went 191-491 from two and 192-529 from three.

Returning to Novak…will he set the record for two-point futility?  He currently is out a few weeks after recently undergoing an appendectomy.  You do have to think that someone will tell him he has no twos and they might focus on fixing this record.  If he ever gets to play again this season, Novak should get a 15-footer or two to avoid this distinction.  He would have a much more fun story to tell his kids one day if he just kept his current pace.

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