Victor Nash of Whoop De Damn Do takes a closer look at why Travis Outlaw has been so awful this season (putting aside his contract, I don’t think anyone expected him to struggle this much):
The main reason for this is, of course, his horrible shot selection. In the 08-09 season, Outlaw hit 44% of his shots from 16-23 feet out, while attempting 3.5 of them per game. That’s pretty decent for a guy coming off of the bench. This season, however, he is still putting up 3 of those per game and is only converting on 34% of those shots. Obviously, that’s a steep decline. Then comes the three point shooting. Outlaw is chucking up 3.4 threes per game and has an eFG% (formula that adjusts for the three point shot counting for 1 extra point) of 49.1%. In that Portland season, Outlaw was shooting 2.9 threes per game, which is similar to what he’s doing now, and connecting at an eFG of 57%. The decline in shooting of some players can be attributed to the %assisted numbers, which tracks how many shots a player is assisted on. In Outlaw’s case, he is getting assisted on the same number of shots that he was in Portland.
I think Outlaw has the potential to be a very good complimentary piece, but because of injury and his contract, he’s being forced into something more. If the Nets ever do acquire another scorer at one of the wings, it would relegate Outlaw back to 6th man where I think he might do better.
