Shooting is not the end all be all, but some players need that in their game for their full value to blossom. These players had good seasons, but their teams will benefit from them finding their jumpers. Shooting closer to league average instead of 29 percent is enough to qualify for a bounce-back season here.
Evan Mobley, Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cleveland Cavaliers need more from their 2024 No. 3 pick if they want to turn the corner. The Cavs have been knocking at the door for years in the post-LeBron era. They finally broke through with an Eastern Conference Finals appearance, but the won't-be-denied New York Knicks locked Cleveland out without second-guessing the removal. It all starts with Evan Mobley.
Mobley was good enough in so many areas last season. He's still a destructive defender, plus-passer, and a top-of-the-market lob-threat. But Cleveland needs his pre-draft hype to come to life. He needs to be consistently aggressive for this thing to work.
Shooting 12 percentage points worse from the line is not going to cut it. Mobley's free-throw drop-off was a microcosm of his season. His shot was nowhere to be found. Mobley's never been a lethal can't-miss shooter, but his 3-point percentage dropped over seven percentage points on the same volume. His tanked shooting led to less aggression overall.
Donovan Mitchell and company need Mobley to clearly be the second-best player at this stage of the Cavs experience. It's a luxury to have James Harden slicing and dicing defenses at age 37, but Mobley has to be the guy behind Mitchell. The skill is there. He can put it on the floor with the best bigs, attack wild contests, and leave a dent at the rim. According to Cleaning the Glass, Mobley is an 82nd percentile rim finisher but a 56th percentile rim attempter. When his shot is falling, he is more confident and aggressive. Mobley has all the tools to be what he was hyped to be coming out of USC.
Derrick White, Boston Celtics
The best role players do multiple things right. They home-plate slide for loose balls, set life-or-death screens, move without the ball, and contain the ball like their family depends on it. Derrick White did all of that for Boston last year. He was elite in every way besides where the Celtics needed him most with Jayson Tatum missing over 60 games: jump shooting.
Shooting has been part of the White experience. He's arguably the best help-side rim protector from the guard position. He's a top-notch secondary playmaker, and he burned defenses when they gave him space. Not last year. White shot 33 percent from deep after shooting 39 percent on high volume over the previous three seasons as a Celtic. Boston desperately needed White to get going in the playoffs, but his jumper turned its back on the first-team All-Defense defender.
White had one of those years. His jumper was inexplicable. he shot 35 percent percent on wide open looks after shooting an elite 41 percent in 2025. The playmaking chops, drives, and bail-you-out defense remained in his game, but Boston needs his jumper to return home to have another home-court advantage season. It is hard to imagine White shooting that poorly again.
Dyson Daniels, Atlanta Hawks
Unlike White, Dyson Daniels is not a great shooter. He shoots 61 percent at the line for his career and 33 percent from 3 if you remove last season. Last year was something else entirely for the defensive-minded Daniels. He shot an Antarctic-like 18.8 percent on nearly two attempts per game last season. No matter how good of an all-around player a wing is, that type of shooting is glaring from that position.
Daniels won't bounce back and suddenly become Steph Curry, but he's also not 2000s center bad from 3 historically. Like White, he had a horrific down year shooting the ball but looks to get close to league average from three.
Despite being a liability from 23 feet out, Daniels still had a massive impact on a Hawks team that gave the Knicks their toughest series. Daniels made All-Defense again. He was third in deflections, tied for first in loose balls recovered, and Atlanta's transition offense skyrocketed with Daniels on the floor.
All of those fingertip deflections turned defense into offense. Daniels' elite rebounding from the wing spot aided Atlanta's offense overall. He can get it off the glass and go and still make solid reads. He can thank his time in New Orleans, when he played point guard, for that ability. It takes a well-rounded perimeter player to be impactful while shooting dreadful from deep. If Daniels can get back to 33-34 percent from deep, his imprint will be felt even more.
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