Good NBA offense isn’t quite as simple as “take good shots, not bad ones,” but it’s not a bad place to start. That’s where first-year Dallas Mavericks head coach would like his team to keep its focus.

“Our shot diet, our shot profile, has to improve from the team last year,” he said before the Mavs’ first preseason game against the Houston Rockets in Macao, China, in which the club not-so-coincidentally took 51 3-point attempts. “We have to generate better, more efficient looks.”

It’s widely understood in the NBA world these days that more 3s means more scoring. It’s likewise well-known among Mavs fans that last year’s roster didn’t take many, largely in part due to the makeup of the team. Dallas ranked 27th in the league in 3-point attempts per game (31.9) last season, a year in which six teams averaged at least 40 hoists per contest. The Mavs took 25 or fewer in more games (14) than contents in which they took 40 or more (10).

But rest assured, my old-school mid-range truthers: May isn’t just talking about the long-ball. The Rockets, Pistons and Raptors, who each finished top-5 in their respective conference, joined the Mavs in the bottom-five in 3-point attempts per game, yet all three finished top-half in offensive rating. There are more ways to score, and May’s Mavericks know where to look to find them.

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