Nowhere, chillax.
When I saw this Tweet, my jaw hit the floor, but, unlike most things Markus Howard, in a bad way.
That’s the problem, I though, Markus is relying too much on isolation plays and it’s making it easier for the defense to defend him if he isn’t hitting like usual.
But then I checked Synergy to try and identify some egregious examples against Maryland, only to find out he didn’t have any iso possessions against the Terps.
In fact, 8 of the 18 came against USC, which I think we are all in agreement was one of his best offensive games ever. He scored 4 points against the Trojans, and had one bucket waived off due to a questionable charge call. So basically 6 points in 8 attempts, not great, but not catastrophic like that chart had me feeling.
Digging in even deeper, he’s had some ridiculously poor luck on shots that were seemingly in, only to somehow bounce out.
The ball is halfway through the cylinder on all of those images, and would have added 8 points to his total, had they bounced in, taking him to 12 points on 18 possessions. Of course, they didn’t, so you may think I’m nuts for typing this paragraph out.
But the point is, it’s not like Markus is forcing terrible stepback attempts in iso sets all the time. Only 10% of his possessions are coming from isolations, and even the shots he’s missed aren’t necessarily bad shots.
Check out his shot chart:
That’s beautiful (minus all the misses).
And here’s how well he’s done historically on isos.
Markus can keep on doing the exact things he has been and you won’t hear a peep from me.
As for the rest of the team, they have only combined to take 10 shots from isolations in 7 games and scored 5 points. Based on the strengths and composition of this team I think I might like to see a bit more aggressiveness from Koby or Sacar, but they haven’t exactly been lighting up the nets, so can appreciate their reserved nature for now.
Long story short, don’t fret about the ISO game, progression to the mean is coming.
Paint Touches 
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