The Supply-side Issues with Knicks' FG Attempts

Today's news that Baron Davis signed with the Knicks arouses a concern for DBSF related to one of the most basic tenets of microeconomics—supply and demand. The addition of Davis presents a problem as the demand for shots is now projected to far exceed the supply of available shots in an NBA game. Considering that the average NBA team takes about 80 shots per game, we’ll assume that a Mike D’Antoni (the Knicks’ coach) 7-seconds-and-shoot team takes 85 shots. In a perfectly functioning market the supply of 85 shots meets demand and there are no concerns. But Melo and Stoudamire take 20+ shots a game each—and must to in order to be effective—which almost halves the supply to 40-45. When you take Toney “Tony with an E” Douglas, Landry Fields, and all-time Wizard great Mike Bibby into account supply decreases to about 15.

After Tyson Chandler’s 5-7 tip-ins and a lapse in D’Antoni’s judgment allows Renaldo Balkman for two minutes to impersonate whatever shots Renaldo Balkman took that afternoon on NBA Live 2012 with Renaldo Balkman, who in Renaldo Balkman’s virtual world either pulls up for a 40 foot three or drives and dunks the ball every time down the court (and plays surprisingly lackluster D even in a virtual world where Renaldo put in the code for virtual Renaldo to have unlimited endurance and 100 shooting/ ball handling/ speed/ etc) and Jared Jeffries makes fans question how someone can be so ineffective at shooting a basketball when the practice that one gains from simply trotting through lay-up lines five times a week has to make one’s familiarity with a basketball and the depth perception necessary to get it in the vicinity of a basket suffice for some semblance of offense, leaves Baron with maybe a shot.

Now in normally functioning markets when demand exceed supply costs rise which pushes those with less demand out of the market and a new equilibrium is reached where supply is available only to those with the high demand. Sadly there’s no substitute for price in the market for basketball shots which means that either Baron Davis is going to take 10 of Melo and Amare’s shots with his trademark fast break 35-foot pulls, or Baron and Renaldo Balkman’s relationship will become increasingly strained as Baron fails to appreciate Renaldo’s efforts to play-out that morning’s Xbox game in Madison Square Garden.