Jason Maxiell’s maddening mid-rangers

Who leads current Pistons in mid-range shot attempts this season?

It’s not Jose Calderon, Will Bynum, Jonas Jerebko, Kim English, Kyle Singler, Rodney Stuckey, Corey Maggette or Brandon Knight – all of whom are making at least a third of their shots from that range.

It’s Jason Maxiell.

Jason Maxiell!

Of all Maxiell’s shots, 60.2 percent are mid-range jumpers, according to nba wowy!. That’s more than any Piston besides Khris Middleton, who’s played just 94 minutes this year. No other Pistons big man takes mid-rangers on even 30 percent of his shots.

The problem, of course, isn’t just that Maxiell shoots too many mid-range jumpers. The problem is he doesn’t make them.

Maxiell shoots just 32.8 percent on mid-range jumpers.

Worse, Maxiell takes those jumpers in lieu of inside shots. Maxiell (60.8 percent) actually shoots slightly better inside three feet than Greg Monroe (60.4 percent), but Monroe takes 59.3 percent of his shots at the rim compared to 31.9 percent for Maxiell. In fact, Bynum, Stuckey, Singler and Knight all take a higher percentage of their shots at the rim than Maxiell.

Maxiell’s problem is simple. He takes a lot of of jumpers and doesn’t make many of them.