I'm wondering if you all have any ideas or philosophies on how you determine who shoots 3's, who doesn't, which ones they shoot etc? For example, my team's goal is 34% from outside the arc, but I have other kids who are around 25-30%, etc and I'm trying to come up with some good rules for how they know when it is ok for them to pull the trigger. For example when I was in high school our coach's rule was that if you missed 2 in a row then you must hit a shot in closer (layup, jump shot, ft) before taking another. I'm considering things like:

*for a certain percentage you can only shoot after the better shooters have touched it
*for a certain percentage you can only shoot if the pass comes to you from out of the post or off a drive and kick (I like something like this because this pass mimics many shooting drills)
*for player's shooting certain percentages you only get 1,2, etc.

What do you all think? Do any of you have any kind of rules like this in place?

I think you need to be careful about this because the last thing you want is a shooter "thinking". You want them to catch and shoot in rhythm without thinking or worrying about missing.

Also, if you have a player great a driving, you might want to let them take a couple shots. Even if they miss, many times the defense will still come out on them opening up their driving game. So ultimately I don't think it's as simple as shooting %. I think EFG% is a good stat to look as a coach to get a feel for things.

But I think you help players figure out what their "range" is. If they are in their range, open, and it's the proper game situation, they let it fly. One way to determine range is in practice. We do 5 spot shooting. Shoot 10 shots 4 feet from the basket. If you make at least 6 out of 10, you move back 4 more feet. Keep repeating. You get 5 chances to see how far you get. If you make it all the way out and still make at least 6, you keep moving out.

Then once you work out, pick another angle and repeat the drill. We usually take 5 angles -- corner, wing, top of key, other wing, and other corner.

Another drill giving you a similar indication of range is 2 up 2 back. Start close to the basket. If you make 2 in a row, take a step back. If you miss 2 in a row, take a step forward. Let the players do this for about 5 minutes. After 5 minutes you can pretty much tell what their range is.

After doing the drills and knowing your players, you communicate what their range is and when they have the green light.

Those are great ideas Jeff -

My rules were very simple... DON'T taje shots in games that you don't practice or cant make. Pretty simple.... I don't want a 20% 3 point shooter taking 3s. JOM..... get inside the arc or take it to the basket. IF you are a 3 point shooter you will know it and you have the green light. The only time that changes is if we are going to hold the ball at the end and force them to foul us.... we might allow wide open takes. The other rule was also simple... PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTHS..... I see some teams running the dribble drive depending on kick outs for perimeter shots... and they cant hit them.... that is soimething we were NOT going to do.

Of course, IF you have the ball in your hands and time is running out, there is NO rule... get the best shot YOU can get.

These are situations we worked on in practice all the time - they knew and understood my philosophy. One of my best 3 point shooters wasn't thrilled with out Open Post Offense but he told people, hey I still got the shots I wanted so why complain. We alway7s talked about Controlling the Tempo ( we were usually the shortest team on the floor)

One year I had TWO great 3 point shooters, they used to have shooting contests.... shooting from one step futher back than the other guy did..... and they did this in games.... they drove me nuts.... butt hey COULD score! So I didn't complain (too much) either.

By the way, for those kids that are 25 - 30% 3 point shooters... tell them that they need to put in some extra time and get better at it. Obviously you have that range, you just need to be more consistent, we NEED you to be able to hit that shot for us to become better. That should give them the incentive to work on that shot and get better.