I tend to tell athletes to aim for the mythical 50/40/80.

At training I think we can expect that of an U16 athlete, if not more especially for uncontested shooting drills.

Reality for games, FG of 35-40% and 25-30% from 3PT is pretty good.

FT should be aiming for 80% at high level U16's for sure.

I find with U16 athletes, focus is less about shooting percentage and more about shooting the right shots. If you execute offence and make the right decisions, totally possible to go 7/7 in a quarter of basketball.

If your athletes are taking poor shots, their percentage will be poor. If they're patient and taking good shots, then set expectations regarding percentage.

FT should be aiming for 80% at high level U16's for sure.

Thanks Phizzer. If they shoot at that level, I'll be a very happy coach!
Free throws is interesting - they should be able to shoot at 70% ... if they have a repeatable action and practice, practice, practice. Reality is that most shoot at 50-60%. Free throws win games so often, so it’s a shame. If you have a kid shooting 80% then he’s a gun and probably spends a lot of time on his game. Pick him!

I recall someone on here saying they'd run stats from the U/14 nationals and come up with around 50% FT and 25% 3P.

I'm clearly saying what you should tell them to be aiming for, not where you should set your expectations. You did say they are higher grade teams so should have high goals.

As I said, as a metric of performance, I wouldn't focus too much on shooting percentage but on decision making. I would not make a big deal of athletes missing shots in a game and potentially hurt their confidence, but praise them for choosing the right shot to take, or coaching them on when to pass and when to shoot.

Free throws win games we know, but likewise I'd suggest at juniors, making an extra pass to avoid the foul and give a team mate an open lay up is better than maybe taking the foul and going to the line to maybe make 1/2.

Excellent point Phizzer.

Just checked the stats from the under 16 Nationals - thought that would be a good guide.

Vic Metro won, and 8 of their players were shooting above 42% from the field.
The lowest FG% was 29% from quite a few attempts which is a bit low for that level I think.
Free throws were a mixed bag, but two kids had more than 80% which is v impressive.

SA Metro came second. Again, 8 of their players were above 40% and all above 38%, so clearly a good shooting side.

So I reckon aiming for 40% FG percentage is about right ... and just practice, practice, practice free throws.

Might be getting off topic, and way too early given it's pre-ECC, but any contenders to challenge Vic Metro in the U16 Boys nationals next year? VM looking pretty strong given they had 3 bottom agers there this year and their 2009 crop is very talented. QLD South or North in any position to challenge?

Don't worry too much about stats at junior levels.
Focus on technique.

Pressue does some pretty funny things to junior statistics.

A decent technique that never breaks down under pressure will let the statistics take care of themselves.

As for what a player should be targeting. I've always said, the player themself will know what they are capable of.

No coach barking out numbers is going to make a difference to a player's performance over the long term. However, a coach that facilitates a player developing a technique that is consistent regardless of the situation will be richly rewarded over time.

I'd be very happy for my Field Goal Shooting percentage to be 10% as long as the one two pointer I made every game was a buzzer beater that won my team the game! ;)