NBA 2K14: Corner Specialist Signature Skill - iTofu's Blog

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NBA 2K14: Corner Specialist Signature Skill

Posted on July 13, 2014 at 04:28 AM.

This is a post in a series of blog posts describing the process of player modifications, ratings changes or signature skill changes that went into my PS4 NBA 2K14 Offseason Update Roster.

Based on the field goal shots by zone statistics from last year (Seen at NBA Stats) and typically players awarded the Corner Specialist signature skill typically had a minimums of 70 corner shots, 30% of his three point shots from the corner, made 40% of his corner shots and shot 15% better from the corner. By the way, 15% as in (CornerShooting% - AboveTheArc%) / AboveTheArc% NOT simply CornerShooting% - AboveTheArc%.

Out of the players that currently have corner specialist signature skill, the folowing players actually shot worse from the corners than above the break in the arc: Wesley Matthews, Bradley Beal, Danny Green, Kevin Martin, Caron Butler, Kawhi Leonard and Steve Novak.

When combining the data from the last two years, most of those players regress to the mean and still qualify for the minimums previously mentioned. Danny Green was the only player who has the skill that shoots worse from the corners (40.1%) than from above the break in the arc (38.4%).

When looking for players that this skill should be added, I removed the qualification of shooting 40% from the corner previously mentioned. I know, that goes against my original goal in this year's roster editing of copying what 2K has already done,

However, let's remember that this skill provides a shooting percentage increase for players who shooting in the corner, but I provide a couple examples using 2013-14 stats of why this makes sense to me:

DeMar DeRozan: 37/94 for 39.4% from the corner, 27/116 for 23.2% from above the break of the arc.
Corey Brewer: 40/129 31.0% from the corner, 18/77 for 23.4% from above the break.

With this is mind, the follow players seemed to fit the qualifications:
Corey Brewer
Darren Collison
Tayshaun Prince
Richard Jefferson
DeMar DeRozan
Luke Ridnour
Jeff Taylor
Kyle Singler
Jimmy Butler
Wilson Chandler
PJ Tucker
Joe Johnson
Iman Shumpert
Evan Turner

While I was easier on players who already had the skill taking into account sample size over the past year and generally being lenient, it was clear a few players no longer fit into the category:

Danny Green: shot considerably worse from the corner in 2013-14.
Wesley Matthews: doesn't shoot radically on threes from the corner.

I understand that on net, I've added 14 players with the Corner Specialist. I vasilated over the decision; Should I be more rigid? Should I tighten the qualifications? In the end decided that it would not have a significant impact on the game and left it.

The data at stats.nba.com goes back to 1996-97 and the following two players fit the qualifications: Aaron McKie (PHI 00-01) and Eddie Jones (LAL 97-98).