NBA's best all time mid range shooter

Chris Mullin or Bird

 

Not sure about greatest per se but I do feel that Dirk should be in the discussion.

 

Gervin, English, Bernard King, maybe even Purvis Short were arguably better mid-range shooters than Jordan or Kobe. They weren't the same scorers or overall dominant basketball players *at all*, but just in terms of mid-range flexibility, consistency and accuracy, I'd put some of these other guys in the mix.

Here's a goofy English movie:
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Career 50.7% FG with only 83 3-pt attempts, so he was just about all mid-range.

And a movie full of finger-rolls, but a lot of George Gervin's midrange game is shown in the middle of it, from like 2 to 3 minute marks.
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Gervin was 51.1% for his long NBA career, with 15,700 FGA, and only 260 3-pt attempts.

 

Mullin is a great call. Bird of course was pretty good, especially when it mattered. Both those guys are right at 50% for their long careers, with relatively crappy 3-pt %.

I mention the 3-pt % for some of these guys since, for people like Bird and Mullin, they took a decent #, and the <40% on those really held down the phenomenal % of their mid-range shots.

Bernard King, by the way, took over 15,000 shots in his career and hit 51.8%

He is thought of as kind of a post guy, but he was only 6-7 and did most of his damage as a mid-range shooter.

 

Alex English was the best I can remember.

Bernard King was more of a low box scorer, iirc

 

Adrian Dantley.

Career 54% shooter with only 41 3pa in 15 seasons.

 

Yeah, King was often on the low block, but most of his points came a good ways away from the hoop. He just wasn't very big. He also faced up a lot.

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And Dantley is a good call. I was about to mention him, but then I thought "well, he got all his points on free throws." That's not the whole story. But it's true that he was in the post more than King. A lot more. I remembered his game as being the most boring imaginable, and then I found this video. "Enjoy.":grin:

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Thanks guys for those vids. Brought back memories of my youth, going to Kemper Arena and watching English, Kiki, Issel and co. simply unload 120 point games with regularity and watching Ice Man nail down 30 in 3 quarters and most of the time be on the pine for the 4th. All these players listed here were tremendous in mid-range, no comparison to today's players. There's not a single player in the league today that can dominate the mid-range like Gervin, Alex, Bernard, etc.

 

Ricky Pierce. Or atleast I remember him always killing the Rockets with his mid-range shot.

 

I think Steve Nash could be considered one of the best. For years he ran that pick n roll with Stoudemire and Marion and he would always nail that 18 foot jumper.

 

John Stockton made 54% from 2 point range.

 

Stockton's percentage is probably better, but I was always more worried when Hornacek shot the ball so I'd go with Hornacek.

 

sacrilege! but true. I think those were mostly long jumpers as opposed to what most of think of as "mid-range," all the pull-up jumpers and turnarounds and little moves just outside the post.

Ricky Pierce was a good mention. I think the true points like Flopton and Nash were more hitting 18 footers and the occasional layup.

 

Nash is probably a top 5 shooter in NBA history regardless of where he is shooting it.

 

my first thought was alex english. this dude was a bad mofo.

 

Exactly. So no discussion of shooting, midrange or not can be had with my boys Reggie Miller and Ray Allen put on there. Maybe I'm biased, but the quick release and ability to move without the ball and get your shot off without dribbling make them a member of team GOAT.

You tell me that you wouldn't have wanted either of those to curling off a screen to catch and shoot at the elbow on the last second of a tied game and I'd assume you don't want to win lol

 

I like that Kobe mention because sometimes great players don't get their due, they are just called great. But there are a couple things still automatic about Kobe's game and the midrange jumper is one of them.

 

Trevor Ariza

 

The English, Ice Man, Short, Birdsong, Free, Sikma and Dantley period was without question the best mid range jump shot era in NBA history. Virtually all the sg/sf of that era had to be able to hit an open 15 footer.