It's crazy to me that there are no players in todays NBA that are 6'10+ who can hit jumpshots from like 4-8 feet. I know Hakeem makes it look so easy, but it doesn't seem like it should be so hard to shoot over 50% on those easy little short range jumpers. @tinman
Davis, Towns, Gasol & Gasol, Embiid, Cousins, Lopez, Horford, Porzingis, Jokic, Len, Henson, Ilyasova, Love, Zeller, Griffin, Durant, Aldridge... It’s not that there aren’t great shooters, it’s just that the 8 foot jumper has lost favor.
there are players (as the previous post detailed) but part of the problem is that the fuking league office dislikes big man post play and has instructed their zebras to allow insane levels of contact in the paint without whistles being called
Sorry, I meant dominant scorers. I think Towns is actually a really good example. Aldridge constantly settles for longer fadeaways and doesn't hit them efficiently, and then Embiid/Davis are both really inefficient with their inside jumpers as well. EDIT - some numbers for jump shots inside 10 feet Davis - 44% Aldridge - 37% Embiid - 44% Towns - 53% Gasol - 38% Cousins - 38% Blake - 33%
Hakeem shot 41/113 = 36.3% on 3 foot to 10 foot shots in 2000/2001. That was his second to last season, but bball reference only has those last two years. Maybe there's more out there, but I'm not researching. I suspect he was in the mid to high 40's at his peak. Hakeem was 48% on 10 to 16 footers that year, probably because those were more open "jumpers" whereas his 3 to 10 foot shots were off one of his plethora of moves. You'll note as good as KAT is on the 3 to 10 footers, he's generally worse on the 10 to 16 footers. That's the "true" mid-range shot now, which has fallen out of favor and open or not just players aren't as accustomed to taking now. The reason "mid-range" shots have fallen out of favor is because even for the best of the best, they aren't converted at high clips.
young kids these days don't practice the mid-range anymore unless it's a freethrow. it's all about jacking up 3s these days. we can thank Curry for that