The Daily Mississippian men’s basketball beat writer Tyler Bischoff will break down Ole Miss basketball each Tuesday and Thursday leading up to 2013-14 season. In part four of the seven-part series, Bischoff looks at LaDarius White’s offensive strengths.
Ole Miss junior guard LaDarius White averaged 6.4 points per game last season, the sixth most for the Rebels. With three of the top five scorers departing from Ole Miss, White will be relied upon to develop more of an offensive game.
He posted an offensive rating of 96.1, only sophomore forward Anthony Perez and sophomore guard Martavious Newby were less efficient among players that played at least 10 games. White’s turnover percentage of 16.27 was only lower than Perez, Newby and sophomore forward Terry Brutus. To develop his scoring, he needs to be more efficient and go to what works.
Last year, White was most effective when he could drive into the lane and pull up for a jump shot around five to seven feet. This allowed White to get the shot up before a big man could get out to contest his shot.
Here White has gotten a step past his man, Ryan Evans. Instead of driving the ball all the way to the basket, White pulls up for the jumper. This prevents Wisconsin big man Jared Berrgren, listed at 6-foot-10, from contesting or blocking the shot.
White liked to take the ball from the wing and drive over the top of the defense to get into the lane. To facilitate this, Ole Miss often ran a simple down screen for White, where he could get free coming from the block. This created a semi-isolation play for White that prevented the defense from helping without leaving someone wide open.
On these types of plays, White rarely turned the ball over, and he was even less likely to have a shot blocked. According to Synergy Sports, White posted a points per possession of 1.22 on shots around the basket. This doesn’t account for all of White’s shots on this type of play because some were from farther away and wouldn’t be considered around the basket.
To make this a more efficient play, Ole Miss should design some secondary action to get another player open. Too often, if White couldn’t get away from his man for a clean look, he would fire up a contested shot or pass it to an emergency valve which led to the whole possession having to be restarted.
A con to White not taking the ball all the way to the basket is that he rarely goes to the foul line. On a per 40 minute basis, White attempted 2.49 free throws, just 10th most last year for Ole Miss. The premature shots for White keep the big men from contesting, but also prevent the big men from fouling him on a layup or dunk attempt.
The other major component of White’s offensive game was the three-point jumper. White had the highest three point percentage for Ole Miss last year at 35.1 percent. (Senior guard Marshall Henderson was second at 35.0 percent.) White attempted 77 threes, third most on the team.
White was significantly better when he took his jump shots sans dribble. His points per possession last season on no dribble jumpers was 1.07, while with a dribble or more it fell to .77. White should look to eliminate the long jumpers off the dribble and instead try to get into the lane for a quick shot.
Part One: Breaking down the Rebels’ most used play
Part Two: Using Marshall Henderson as a decoy
Part Three: Aaron Jones’ potential to be an excellent post defender
Photo and stats courtesy Synergy Sports
For continuing coverage of Ole Miss men’s basketball, follow @Tyler_RSR and @thedm_sports on Twitter.
