Surprised very few mentioned Dirk. Its Dirk or Bird for me, the amount of contested mid range shoots they made are amazing, and they make it look so so easy.
Bird is the best shooter of all time from any range, period! (or, should I say exclamation point!) For mid-range, after Bird, I'll pick Dirk.
- rip is a really deadly mid ranger - kobe altough not the best percentages is included because he is able to make the most difficult mid range shots
Everything was midrange when I grew up, the idea was to getbas close to the basket and get a good shot. Calvin Murphy had a great MR game ascdid Mike Newlin. I think it is a lost artform now it seems to be 3pt or layup only. Which is why i teach my team the midrange game and why we are beating teams 60-24, because it is an easier game the closer in you get. DD DD
I thought Hamilton was a great one to mention when I read that, but he's a career 45% shooter. And there aren't many 3's pulling that number down. Jerry West, who I never saw play, shot just over 47% and never shot a 3-pointer. He only had one season over 50%. As I understand it though, he had very few drives and layups that would boost some shooters' averages. Somebody mentioned World B. Free, but he's just over 45% and he was more in the chucker category, LOL, much as I loved to see him play. My vote at the end of the day is either English or King, but we're all slaves to when we most loved the NBA game I guess. Would agree with the poster that said Kobe could reach greatest degree of difficulty, but I'd put that as a tie with Gervin (or even Maravich.)
Re: Rip Hamilton I am surprised his numbers aren't better! His best season shooting percentage was in 05-06 I think (49%). I checked Hoop data and see numbers going back to 2007, so it missed his best year, but he hasn't shot above mid-40% http://www.hoopdata.com/player.aspx?name=Richard%20Hamilton Very surprising
Jim55 says those are the worse shots in basketball. Anyway, great topic, jeff malone, rudy T, eddie johnson were all great mid guys. Its a lost art like stealing bases. Henderson had 100 steals and was 2nd one yr,lol. Now guys just swing and try to get big innings.
League average FG% was high in the late 70's - early 80's with more physical defenses. Might indicate there was more premium on hitting those kinda shots. I actually think defenses are BETTER NOW honestly, there's just better athletes now as there were then. Its just a LITTLE harder to get a shot over guys like Josh Smith, Robert Horry, Chandler Parsons playing small forward, just is. But brutality is adversity no matter what. I think "old school fundamentals" is also a bit overrated. But percentages just show higher percentages of shots were made, have to credit SOMETHING.
How about Jeff Hornacek? That guy was a pure shooter. Sam Cassell said Hornacek was his favorite player all-time.
