NBA Draft 2017: 5 best pure shooters available

Is your team looking for a shooter in the NBA Draft? These are the best options.

The 3-point shot has become increasingly important to offenses in the modern NBA. Teams are pulling up from deep at a higher volume than ever before. Even in recent seasons there has been a precipitous increase in the number of 3-pointers teams take on average per game.

Since the 2013-14 season, the number of 3s attempted by a team on a per game basis has increased from 21.5 to 27.0, per Basketball Reference. Some of that bump can be attributed to a faster pace of play, but with the average number of possessions during that span only rose by 2.5, so it’s clear that faster play doesn’t tell the whole story.

It is also probably no coincidence that the league’s three best offenses during the regular season — the Cleveland Cavaliers, Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets — ranked in the top five in 3-point attempts per game. A Nylon Calculus study done in 2015 suggests that’s no mistake.

The value of 3-point shooting goes beyond the math problem (that 3s are worth more than 2s). Having shooters on the floor changes the way that opposing teams have to defend because shooters have a sort of gravitational pull that keeps defenders close.

Value goes beyond the obvious 3-point makes; Andre Roberson and defending Russell Westbrook

5. Justin Jackson, North Carolina

After declaring for the NBA Draft last year and being told he needed to improve his 3-point shot to have a chance in the NBA, North Carolina’s Justin Jackson returned to school and did just that. Despite shooting worse than 30.0 percent from behind the arc during his first two seasons, the former top 10 recruit canned 37.0 percent of his attempts this season. Jackson made 105 total 3s in 2016-17, which assuming he gets drafted in the first round, will be the most made triples in the season prior to being drafted by any player 6-foot-8 or taller taken in the first round since the 2010 draft.

Jackson’s improved shooting production does come with a bit of an asterisk given his struggles shooting in his first two seasons. Nearly all of the improvements he made this year are reflected in improved points per possession on stand still shots like spot ups and catch-and-shoots:

The 6-foot-8 wing still hasn’t sorted out how to get himself balanced when pulling up off of screens, often ending up off kilter in the air. There are also concerns about the obvious small sample size of a college season, but there are two things in Jackson’s favor.

First, he massively increased his volume this season, attempting over twice as many 3s per 40 minutes as a junior than he did either as a freshman or sophomore. Second, he saw a corresponding improvement in shooting from the free throw line, which suggests some sort of change in his mechanics. Jackson may have some troubles translating as someone who can effectively shoot on the move at the next level, but his spot up game is one of the best five in this draft class.