Why the Knicks giving Julius Randle a max contract is a mistake
By Justin Frank
New York Knicks 2020-21: The absence of crowds + depth perception
Try giving a speech in front of your mirror and everything is dandy. Attempt the same thing in front of a small group of family or friends, and it gets a bit harder. Get up behind a podium and bellow out the same words to a crowd of hundreds, and you’d probably feel anxious, nervous and intimidated.
It’s the same thing for a pro athlete. This season, NBA players played in mostly empty arenas until the playoffs started. MSG and Atlanta’s State Farm Arena were rocking during the playoffs. You don’t think the crowds deterred Randle at all? Even the best players can be fazed by the antics of a boisterous crowd. Two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo airballed two free throws in game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Hawks because of the influence of the Atlanta crowd, who counted Giannis’ time on the charity stripe every time he had to attempt a free throw.
Will Randle let the sighs and boos of the notoriously tough home crowd at MSG get to him if he starts off on a cold streak next season? Does he have the resolve to overcome a road team’s loud fans if they chant “AIRBALL” when comes down the court after badly misfiring on an earlier attempt?
Additionally, perhaps the least-talked about component of a fan-less arena is the change in depth perception for a shooter. Depth perception enables a player to grasp a better orientation of the relation of the basket, the ball and the moving figures on and near the court, including the referees and the crowd within proximity to the basket. NBA backboards are made of see-through glass, with moving fans, cardboard signs and distractions behind the basket making it more difficult for a player to concentrate and hone in on the precision of their shot.
During this past season, the smaller space between the basket and a draped covering (usually black) on the seats behind it made easier to establish site lines for players because they had an immobile point of reference.
Depth perception is predicated on how far away a player’s brain judges the basket to be from where they’re shooting from. It’s all about focusing for a shooter. Imagine shooting darts at a floating glass dartboard with 30 feet of space between the dartboard and the wall behind it – plus people moving behind the board – versus shooting darts at a conventional dartboard posted on a wall. It’s obvious the latter one is much easier.
How much a of a role did this play in the gaudy shooting displays and breakout performances of players like Tyler Herro of the Miami Heat and Gary Trent, Jr. of the Portland Trailblazers during the NBA Bubble last season? Could you attribute Randle’s shooting success in the regular season to this dynamic? Randle also shot a career-high 81.1% from the charity stripe this season, yet had never sniffed above 73% in a season, including his lone season for the John Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcats, when he shot 70.6%. Depth perception is perhaps most integral in an idle setting, such as FT shooting.