Why the Spurs’ midrange stars are more efficient than you think

Individual efficiency is a tricky thing to contextualize. You need to account for play type, opponent, lineup fluctuations, and a dozen other wrinkles that influence how well a team scores when a particular player touches the ball. For hot takes and Twitter spats, it’s easier to revert to shooting metrics like effective field-goal and true-shooting percentage or lean on more nebulous catch-alls to affirm what our eyes and the box scores are telling us, and conversations usually end there.

And yet, it feels like we need to work towards a better-rounded idea of efficiency, if only to make sense of how an elite offense and its mid-range enthusiasts are thriving in the Pace and Space Era.