It’s just so hard to know what this team’s potential is when the best player is struggling as much as he has. For some context:
The UMass-Lowell loss doesn’t happen even if Kelly shoots even below average. But it’s almost impossible to overcome a 26/0/33 shooting split on 19 attempts.
Cincinnati loss, fine. It wasn’t on Kelly.
UGA loss, his splits were again terrible 26/25/100 (two FT attempts, 15 FG attempts). I’m not sure if we beat them with Kelly having an average game, but there was no way to beat them with him shooting that poorly.
Nevada loss, I again pin on Kelly. I hate pinning it on one player but that’s what happens when you’re a volume shooter. His splits were 20/11/50 on 15 FG attempts. We beat Nevada with even a below average game from Kelly.
This isn’t news to anyone here, but parsing out his shooting splits in 3 of our 4 losses really showcases how much he’s costing us. He hasn’t won us a single game, but I’m pretty confident stating that 3 of our 4 losses are a direct result of Miles Kelly shooting us out of the game. The fact that those games were so close for the majority (UGA) while being consistently hamstrung by our best scorer is a GOOD thing.
Last thing I’ll say about Kelly. I’ve mentioned him getting significantly stronger this offseason and that playing a role in him temporarily losing his shooting touch/feel. But in my opinion (I’m far from a shooting coach but I do study shot mechanics), there’s two other aspects of his shot that add unnecessary variables. First, Kelly’s shot is flat. When you look at his release point, it’s not only low, but it's flat coming out of his hand. This allows for a better contest and simply the lack of arch always equals inconsistency for any shooter.
Second, it seems to me his guide hand is doing too much and maybe that’s part of the added muscle. But with the added muscle that’s three unnecessary variables with his guide hand and low point of release, which makes it easy to contest and affect his shot. That's why he is inconsistent, and it’s most obvious at the FT line.
In college basketball, FT% is actually the top predictor of future/professional shooting ability. This is anecdotal, but look at Anthony Edwards’ college 3 pt % and you’d on the surface understand the pre-draft concern regarding his outside shooting ability. However, he shot 77% from the FT line on over 5 attempts per game while carrying the entire offensive load (and seemingly exhausted half the time) so it should have been known he wasn’t going to be a poor shooter. He shoots the exact same FT% in the NBA but with a much better 3PT %. And now, we’ve seen Kelly go 72%, 90%, and now 70% from the FT line in his three seasons.