3 NBA players who suddenly became great 3-point shooters this season
You have to evolve as player in today’s NBA, and these three guy suddenly became great 3-point shooters this season.
In any sport, as a player or a coach, it’s, to put it somewhat crudely, “evolve or die.” For an NBA player, that means being able to step out on the floor and shoot the ball in a game where traditional position roles and labels are fading (if not outright eliminated, in a practical sense).
While there is still value in that part of the game, analytics say mid-range jumpers are not as valuable as closer shots and certainly 3-pointers (#math on the latter). A player who can’t be some level of threat away from the basket and positively impact spacing is almost a net negative offensively, no matter what else he can do.
With work, it’s possible to become a functional shooter–if not a pretty good one. On that note, these three players suddenly became great 3-point shooters this NBA season.
3 players who suddenly became excellent 3-point shooters this NBA season
Scouting Report. C. player. Pick Analysis. Orlando Magic. Mo Bamba. 3. 38
Bamba, the No.6 pick in the 2018 draft by Orlando is having the best season of his career (10.4 points, 8.1 rebounds, 1.7 blocks per game and 16 double-doubles). He has been mostly health too, starting 62 of his 64 games while averaging close to 26 minutes per game.
In his first three seasons (155 games), Bamba attempted 295 3-pointers (1.9 per game) and made 32.5 percent of those attempts. This season he has doubled that volume (3.8 attempts from beyond the arc per game), while converting at a solid 36.7 percent rate.
After being just a 27.5 percent 3-point shooter over his one season in college at Texas, Bamba has slowly increased his volume from beyond the arc in the NBA (2.6 attempts per game in 2020-21, albeit while making just 32.2 percent). But this season, the young big man has combined volume with proficiency to make opposing teams account for him as a 3-point shooter