Eddie House Better than Vinnie Johnson?

If you would have asked me what Eddie House was shooting for the year overall, I might have guessed somewhere in the vicinity of 44% to 46%. And if you would have asked me the same question about his three-point acuracy, I might have guessed 36% to 38%.

I would have been wrong...on both accounts.

House is shooting just .413 overall and .399 from three. So I vastly overestimated his field goal percentage, and just barely underestimated his three-point percentage.

This makes sense, because in my mind the most vivid Eddie House stats are always the numbers under the 3PA and 3PM columns. Just going by feel, the dude always seems to be shooting 1-2, 3-6, or 2-7 from the arc.

Still, despite the respectable three-point accuracy, I was a bit disappointed with his overall field-goal percentage. Less so, however, once I realized that 56% of his 390 field-goal attempts are from international waters.

Then I asked myself, has EH lived up to his billing as the second-coming of Vinnie "the Microwave" Johnson of Detroit Pistons fame.

Interestingly, Vinnie shot just .431 overall and a measley .147 from three during the Pistons last championship season under Chuck Daly in 1989-1990. Less than one-percent of the Microwave's shots were from beyond the arc. Also of note, the Microwave averaged just 9.8 points per game in just over 24 minutes.

Eddie?

7.6 points in 19 minutes.

So Vinnie is more accurate from two, while Eddie is more accurate from three, and shoots far more threes than Vinnie ever dreamed of shooting.

So who was the more valuable bench player?

Tough call.

Both were shooting guards by nature, and either one can play point in a pinch. Vinnie was not a great defender, and neither is Eddie. Nor would Vinnie or Eddie be confused with Moses Malone on the boards.

So it pretty much comes down to shooting and scoring, and on that front, I give the slight nod to Eddie.

Eddie comes out firing from the moment he first touches the ball. If the defense doesn't get him on their radar immediately, chances are pretty good that he will have hit his scoring average after his first couple of minutes in the game. He's the primary offensive weapon on the second unit, even when he is joined on the second unit by Ray Allen or Paul Pierce, at least in the first half.

Even when House is missing threes, he spreads the defense more than a stritcly two-point shooter can, and forces them to guard him closely because he makes such a high percentage. And his two-point attempts are usually from far enough away that he still spreads out defenders, creating opportunities for Big Baby and Leon Powe underneath.

Once House reqlinquishes his backup point-guard responsibilities to Sam Cassell, I expect him to become an even more dangerous assassain in his exclusive role as a two.