Give-and-Go: The “Iso-Joe” Dilemma

Insight8 years ago4 min readGiancarlo Navas

Welcome to Give-and-Go! This is a new series where I’ll be point out some interesting numbers for the Heat in a short, easy, visual and digestible way. So, lots of pretty graphs and gifs. Yay, technology!

It’s always going to be short, so think of this as something you’d read when grabbing a coffee or waiting in line. Credit to @Heat_CM for coming up with the awesome name.


Editor’s Note: All stats are in reference to the second round of the playoffs unless stated otherwise

Sometimes he is Joe Johnson, other times he is Joe Jesus, but most of the time he is ski mask Joe “Iso-Joe.” To put it bluntly, Iso-Joe has been awful in the second round of the playoffs. Like, really awful.

Even from just looking at raw traditional stats, you can see he is shooting zero percent from three on 3.3 attempts per game and a glittering 36.5 percent from the field overall. Johnson is averaging 14 points, which sounds terrible considering how bad his shooting percentages are and how much he shoots.

He’s taking 17 field goal attempts per game and is missing around 11 of those shots. He is also posting a usage rate of 22.7. No bueno. During the regular season, Johnson was only taking 10 shots and had a usage rate of 18.

In essence, Iso-Joe is going through an uptake in usage and a dramatic decrease in efficiency. His post All-Star break true shooting percentage was 61.2. In the second round of the playoffs, it’s been 39.3. Ouch.

So, why has such a good shooter gone so cold? It might have to do with the shots Johnson is taking. In this series, he hasn’t attempted a corner 3 yet. Let that sink in. Joe Johnson, who shot over 40 percent on corner threes since the All-Star break, has not even attempted one all series.

Johnson is also finding the majority of his offense coming late in the shot clock, with little to no ball movement. Over 50 percent of his field goals come within seven seconds or less (lol D’Antoni) in the shot clock, usually preceded by over dribbling.

Speaking of over dribbling!! 57 percent of Johnson’s offense comes after 3 or more dribbles, which typically is never good. And he’s oddly shooting 46 percent with seven or more dribbles this series, which is probably enabling him to do it more – not a good recipe for the offense. A lot of times, his over dribbling results in contested jumpers or jump hooks.

Speaking of contested jumpers!!! Over 60 percent of Johnson’s field goals come with a defender zero-to-four feet away from him, which NBA Stats describes as tight to very tight. He is shooting 39 percent on those shots. He isn’t getting open and it’s probably because he is dribbling wayyyy too much. Thus, the reason why he hasn’t taken a single corner three this series and why his usage rate is unusually high.

Johnson has also only been assisted on one field goal all series long by Josh “McBobs” McRoberts, which is also terrible. He is commanding a lot of ball handling duties, even though it’d be better if he were the one receiving a pass, rather than creating a contested jumper.

So, he’s been terrible. They aren’t unfixable problems, and I genuinely do think there will be adjustments made to have Iso-Joe play off the ball more.