Is there precedent for a truly horrific shooter becoming adequate?

Rondo might be a good comp for Amen.

 

I fully expect to be ridiculed, harassed and called jazzhole breath for this but: Karl Malone. He shot 48% from the free throw line to start his career and finished with a career 74%.

Take that for data. Discuss my breath.

 

The answer is no.

DD

 

One example, just tossing out here for science, is Tyrese Maxey:

.292 3 point shooting on 3.6 attempts in one season at Kentucky
.301 on 1.7 rookie season
.434 on 6.2 attempts this season (crikey!)

I'd be interested to know if anyone can beat a 14 percentage point improvement from college - leaving qualitative stuff like mechanics out of it.

For the record, I don't think players can drastically change their shooting, but I also don't know enough to say with certainty.

 

Dream took a similar path. Started at 61%. Best year was 79%.

And then there was Shaq. A career 53% FT shooter. Consistently bad his entire career.

 

Stank breath

 

I was going to say Jason Kidd, until I looked.

Did you know he shot 40% for his career? Not from 3, everywhere. Wow.

 

You mean you disregard all the answers given in this thread because you prefer your own bias.

The thread title is called “adequate” and there are quite a few names listed. Getting a Jason Kidd level of player out of the 4th pick is a slam dunk. I don’t think Amen is a Jason Kidd type player but shooting can be supplemented with other attributes.

 

Read the thread title

 

Amen is just the type of player that you know will be a project and you will really have to have a good developmental program/staff.

I’m more off the Amen train, but I can certainly see the appeal if we end up bringing in Harden and Amen can ease into being a nba player.

 

The NBA 3-point shot is a 23'9" shot at its furthest.

When Jason Kidd and Russell Westbrook were shooting 3 pointers in college, it was a 19'9" shot. That's a 4 foot difference.

When Marcus Smart was shooting them in college, I believe it was a 20'9" shot.

 

Plenty of guys have improved their shooting in the NBA. Just about everyone who works at it consistently with good coaching will improve. The guys who struggle to improve their shot usually are heavy strength trainers, I think that hurts the touch on the shot for most guys


Blake griffin shot 36% from 3 with 7 attempts per game 1 season. He also had seasons earlier of 12% and 17%

 

Who let this jazzhole in? His breath stinks like roadkill on a summer day on an SLC road.

 

What's the title of this thread?

 

I think the difference between me and some of the people who are against picking Amen is that I am not bothered by the possibility that he busts/ends up being a bench player. (I think something in the range of backup guard/defensive specialist is his worst case outcome barring major injuries.)

In my view the primary goal of any full rebuild is to find a top 10 player, and unless Scoot somehow drops, Amen is the only guy you can look at and see as really having a chance at getting to that level. Are the chances higher that he will end up being called a bust? Sure. Absolutely. Y'all are all right to think there's a good chance that happens.

But this is our last chance to increase our odds at finding a franchise player. Tanking for a few top draft picks is like rolling the dice three times and hoping you land on a six. I don't care if another guy is a near-guaranteed three. That's not what we need. We can buy threes in free agency. We need the six.

 

Man I wish Amen was even close to the prospect J Kidd was coming out of UC.

 

The short answer is that there are a lot of players that were bad shooters in college that became adequate in the NBA.

Mike Conley, Brook Lopez, PJ Tucker, Jerami Grant, Shawn Marion, Clyde Drexler, Tim Duncan

There are even some players that were poor shooters in college that became very good shooters in the NBA.

Al Horford, Michael Redd, Kevin Martin, Kawhi Leonard, Kris Middleton, Hakeem OIajuwon

There are even some players that were poor shooters in college and poor shooters in the NBA that became stars.

Dwayne Wade, Russ Westbrook, Andre Iguodala.

LeBron James for his career is only like 34% from three and this season was like 31%. James has dominated from within 3 feet of the basket and that is it from a field goal percentage.

Did every player that struggled as a shooter in college improve in the NBA? No - MKG didn't improve, neither did Brewer..... but the over whelming majority improved somewhat. Even some really weak perimeter shooters would develop a pet spot on the floor where they were at least average as a shooter. Kevin Johnson for example became a very good shooter from 10-12 feet.

There are no guarantees that Amen Thompson will ever be a good shooter - in fact I would be surprised if he is ever above average overall as a shooter. However, he has a good chance to be good enough and find a niche where he is an effective shooter. Just like guys like Michael Redd and Al Horford are extreme positive examples, guys like Russell Westbrook and MKG are extreme examples the other way.

The reality is that most players on the perimeter with the extreme quickness, wiggle in traffic and body control of Amen Thompson figure it out because they have a larger margin for error.

 

There are examples but for the most part, you either have "it" as a shooter or you don't.

 

I would argue shooting is the skill where this is least the case, perhaps along with team defense, which players also often improve at dramatically. The examples are numerous of players eventually learning how to shoot even including some who were beyond hopeless, like Blake Griffin, a guy who was dominant because of his athleticism and strength and was one of the worst shooters I've seen, yet managed to learn how to shoot well enough that he's still on the court after injuries sapped his physical abilities. I still remember watching him shoot 52% from the FT line and get hack-a-Shaq'd his second year in the league, lol. He eventually worked his way into a roughly 75% free throw shooter and an average 3P shooter who was taking seven 3Pers per game.

Rebounding, passing, shotblocking. Those rarely improve dramatically on a per-possession basis. Jump shooting percentages do... we've seen it time and time again.

 

Not a great example, but the first 6 years of Kobe's career he was an awful 31.4% from 3.

The next 6 years he shot 35.1% from 3 on well over more than double the attempts.

He went from bad to average.