BEST CAREER 3-PT ACCURACY % AMONG CURRENT NBA PLAYERS 1 Jason Kapono 0.4637 2 Steve Nash 0.4314 3 Anthony Parker 0.4250 4 Ben Gordon 0.4163 5 Matt Carroll 0.4109 6 Leandro Barbosa 0.4093 7 Raja Bell 0.4092 8 Brent Barry 0.4065 9 Kyle Korver 0.4064 10 Wally Szczerbiak 0.4054 11 Peja Stojakovic 0.4051 12 Mike Miller 0.4028 13 Eric Piatkowski 0.3990 14 James Jones 0.3987 15 Pat Garrity 0.3976 16 Ray Allen 0.3969 17 Luther Head 0.3930 18 Bruce Bowen 0.3911 19 Hedo Turkoglu 0.3906 20 Rashard Lewis 0.3903 21 Damon Jones 0.3898 22 Tyronn Lue 0.3890 23 Shane Battier 0.3888 24 Michael Redd 0.3877 25 Danny Granger 0.3868 26 Jason Terry 0.3860 27 Chauncey Billups 0.3854 28 Eddie House 0.3833 29 Vladimir Radmanovic 0.3818 30 Manu Ginobili 0.3816 31 Sasha Vujacic 0.3814 32 Steve Blake 0.3807 33 Kevin Martin 0.3798 34 Dirk Nowitzki 0.3794 35 Cuttino Mobley 0.3789 36 Mike James 0.3783 37 Joe Johnson 0.3770 38 Kurt Hinrich 0.3770 39 Vince Carter 0.3750 40 Bostjan Nachbar 0.3749 41 Deron Williams 0.3743 42 Morris Peterson 0.3738 43 Eddie Jones 0.3728 44 Derek Fisher 0.3727 45 Martell Webster 0.3725 46 Troy Murphy 0.3723 47 Michael Finley 0.3711 48 Mike Bibby 0.3710 49 Chucky Atkins 0.3684 50 J.R. Smith 0.3680 51 Gordan Giricek 0.3677 52 Tayshaun Prince 0.3655 53 Tim Thomas 0.3652 54 Rasual Butler 0.3650 55 Mehmet Okur 0.3643 56 Ricky Davis 0.3641 57 Andres Nocioni 0.3640 58 Raef LaFrentz 0.3635 59 Paul Pierce 0.3634 60 Jason Richardson 0.3628 61 Lindsey Hunter 0.3620 62 Mike Dunleavy 0.3619 63 Charlie Bell 0.3617 64 Kareem Rush 0.3602 65 Bobby Jackson 0.3594 66 Maurice Williams 0.3591 67 Gilbert Arenas 0.3583 68 DeShawn Stevenson 0.3571 69 Al Harrington 0.3571 70 Damon Stoudamire 0.3568 71 Rafer Alston 0.3566 72 Chris Duhon 0.3563 73 Mickael Pietrus 0.3530 74 Keith Bogans 0.3529 75 Quentin Richardson 0.3519 76 Fred Jones 0.3510 77 Anthony Johnson 0.3509 78 James Posey 0.3506 79 Earl Boykins 0.3485 80 Donyell Marshall 0.3476 81 Antawn Jamison 0.3469 82 Earl Watson 0.3456 83 Jamal Crawford 0.3451 84 Smush Parker 0.3449 85 Richard Hamilton 0.3448 86 Marko Jaric 0.3424 87 Steve Francis 0.3414 88 Robert Horry 0.3413 89 Stephen Jackson 0.3413 90 Juan Dixon 0.3411 91 Derek Anderson 0.3411 92 Devean George 0.3410 93 Shawn Marion 0.3409 94 Rasheed Wallace 0.3408 95 Kobe Bryant 0.3402 96 Austin Croshere 0.3400 97 Darrick Martin 0.3398 98 Troy Hudson 0.3391 99 Richard Jefferson 0.3377 100 Tracy McGrady 0.3370 101 Jason Kidd 0.3366 102 DerMarr Johnson 0.3362 103 Darrell Armstrong 0.3341 104 Sam Cassell 0.3312 105 Andre Iguodala 0.3307 106 Corey Maggette 0.3292 107 Ron Artest 0.3292 108 Jeff McInnis 0.3283 109 Raymond Felton 0.3269 110 Stephon Marbury 0.3258 111 Baron Davis 0.3251 112 Antoine Walker 0.3250 113 Jason Williams 0.3245 114 LeBron James 0.3242 115 Anfernee Hardaway 0.3162 116 Lamar Odom 0.3140 117 Tony Parker 0.3139 118 Allen Iverson 0.3136 George, say hello to the 50th best 3-point shooter in the NBA. You know him, it's that guy whose style you think is a black mark on basketball, and whose hometown is in Fantasy Land. You know, that guy you will never start unless hell freezes over, and who has to be benched from time to time because of the principle of the thing. Why, it's none other than JR Smith, sitting comfortably ahead of players such as Rasheed Wallace, Richard Hamilton, Tracy McGrady, LeBron James, and Kobe Bryant in accuracy from way out on the outer perimeter, where defense doesn't matter very much and it's mostly a question of who has real shooting skills and who doesn't. Fantasy doesn't come into play out there actually, George. Notice that almost all of the 49 players ahead of Smith are much older and more experienced, meaning that Smith has achieved this very high ranking at an incredibly young age. If he does come from Fantasy Land, I want to get some more players from out of there.
The stupid thing is that this has been one of Denver's main weaknesses ever since they started building the team around Carmelo. How could your management continually ignore such a blatant need?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Chutney @ Jul 4 2008, 02:39 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>The stupid thing is that this has been one of Denver's main weaknesses ever since they started building the team around Carmelo. How could your management continually ignore such a blatant need?</div> Well Chucky Atkins was supposed to address the problem, but he turned out to have the mother of all hernias. I personally think he will never be a serious 3-point threat again, should he return to any degree at all. Even if Atkins had worked out, the Nuggets still would have been extremely handicapped in 3-point shooting, not only because Smith plays only about 2/3 of the minutes he should play, but also because the Nuggets' best 3-point shooting forward/center is Najera, who doesn't start, is never in the heart of the offense, and often is timid to shoot when he does get the ball. Kleiza is inconsistent but is great from long range sometimes. If you have no existing forwards, other than Kleiza on occasion, who are spreading the floor and making some threes, then why would you not have C Anthony, who rains threes in international, spend 1/3 or more of his practice time learning how to make more threes in the NBA? Why would you be harping on him to make a few more rebounds and say nothing about the need for making lightly defended threes, as he does so easily in international? You would not bother to get Anthony to make more threes only if you didn't know how to manage the team. Nuggets coaching is horrendous, pure and simple.
Technically, Chucky Atkins would be the 3rd Nugget, but between his major hernia his coming up on 34 years old, and the fact that he hasn't earned the confidence of Karl, which if you don't do that quickly you may never succeed, he is going to be out of the picture in 2008-09 to one extent or another. I'd say you could count Atkins as 1/2 at the most. Since there are just shy of 120 players, and there are 30 teams, the average team should have 4 players on the list. The Nuggets have only 2 or 2 1/2, with Iverson just barely qualifying. So the Nuggets are deep in the hole, even though they don't seem to realize it. The Nuggets needed to do at least two of the following and they didn't do any one of them: 1. Get Carmelo Anthony to attempt and make more threes--get more diversity in his scoring. 2. Start J.R. Smith and play him at least 30 min. per game. 3. Start Linas Kleiza and play him at least 30 min. per game. 4. Stop looking at Najera as a defense only player, give him a few more minutes, and get him into the heart of the offense much more often. 5. Play Yakhouba Diawara for at least 20 min. per game and get him into the heart of the offense much more often. #1 and #2 were the most likely and effective solutions to the problem. #3 worked by accident on a few occasions. #4 and #5 would give you both better defending and better 3-point shooting.
I think its a bit presumptious to claim that they don't work on that in practice. We don't know what they work on. But, I'm talking about roster management more than anything. The Nuggets have brought in scorers, but never consistent and efficient outside shooters to space the floor for Anthony and co. Voshon Lenard was the last person I remember on their team who had that role.
It would be good if it were true that Anthony spent a lot of practice time making defended threes. And it may be true, as I will admit below. On the other hand, it would be at least as bad from a management perspective if he did, because the Nuggets, due to being poor defensively, needed to be better than the middle of the pack in attempted threes per game, which is what they were adjusted for pace. In percentage of threes made, they were only #19. Actually, the history of Anthony's 3-point shot in the NBA is mysterious. In his rookie year, 2003-04, Anthony made 69/214 threes or 32.2%, which would just qualify him to be in the top NBA group. So far so good. Then something really bad and unknown to me at this writing happened. (You can bet I will let everyone know if and when I discover what happened.) In the next three years, which were the years 2004-07, his three-point shooting was just an afterthought, and was uncompetitive. He made only 42, 37, and 40 threes in those years, and his accuracy was only slightly over 25%, Then in 2007-08 all of a sudden, he made 58/164 threes, for a career high accuracy of 35.4%. He was a threat from long range again. It was an accuracy increase of almost 10% from the three prior years, which strongly suggests he did practice threes big time following the 2006-07 season. But if the practice coaches and/or his personal coach had him practice threes more, the game coaches did not make sure he sought out and took more threes, because the percentage of his shots that were threes in 2007-08 was not substantially higher than it was during the three years that Carmelo Anthony was failing at and largely ignoring the 3-point shot. Nor were his 2007-08 threes any where near what they were in his rookie year. In his rookie year, 214 of his 1465 shots were threes and, as already mentioned, he made a solid 32.2% of them. In 2007-08, following the three bad years, 164 of his 1481 shots were threes. So the coaches clearly failed to reestablish his three point shot in actual games, whether or not they helped to reestablish the accuracy in practice. It has been hard for me to think that the coaches made sure that Anthony got his accuracy back in practice but did not use it much in real games. I would rather think that Anthony got his long range shot back with no help from any coaches. But when you realize that we may be talking about totally different coaches when we are talking about who coaches Melo and about who coaches Nuggets games, then maybe I should start suspecting that the Nuggets did help get Melo's 3-point shot back, but then got almost no payoff from that. Or, the right hand didn't know or recognize what the left hand was doing.
Your right about the roster Chutney. Every contender has to have at least one and usually two veteran G-Fs who are money from long range and decent defensively. But the Nuggets, once they had Camby, Martin, and Nene on the same roster, none of whom has a prayer from 3-point range, were left with the short end of the stick with respect to the three. For this type of needed player, the Nuggets start with the young Linas Kleiza, who gets only 20 minutes a game and who is not such a great defender despite being qualified theoretically to play either forward position. Then they have Najera, who has been considered mostly defense only since the stone age. Yakhouba Diawara is mostly a guard and was mostly useless offensively despite being able to make threes, simply because the lack of any point guard system prevented him from getting the ball much. All of the other potential players of this type, such as DerMarr Johnson and Bobby Jones, have been fiercely resisted by and left untapped by Karl. Given how he shows no sign that he thinks it is important, and given how badly he treats most of his better 3-point shooters, I strongly suspect that if it were up for a vote and Karl had a vote, he would vote to abolish the 3-point shot.
Career 3-Pt. shooting Among Key Nuggets Forwards/Centers: Nene 0/9 Camby 13/71 Martin 39/192 So none of the three defensively most important Nuggets front court players are any threat at all as far as scoring the ball from outside is concerned. And many fans bitterly complain that Camby is not that great of a threat from point blank range, either! The moral, if you are a general manager, is that you should never have three key front court players who can not make threes on your roster at the same time, unless you have at least four or five quality veteran G-Fs and guards who can reliably make threes and who can play some defense, and unless you have a coaching staff that will recognize the problem and that can and will make full use of those G-Fs and guards. Otherwise, teams will stack the paint against you and you can run, fast pace, drive right into a traffic jam, jab step, and alley-oop all you want, but you won't be a top offense in the NBA and you will be toast in the playoffs.
Well I totally agree that 3 point shooting a is a big big weakness in the Nuggets' offense. Having JR at the 2 spot being able to knock down the 3s is a good start. Spurs: Ginobili, Bowen, Finley, Barry, Horry all can do it. Lakers: They have Fisher, Vujacic, Farmar, Radmanovic, Kobe, and kind of Odom. Detroit: Billups, Rip, Tayshawn, Rasheed all have 3 point range. Boston: Allen, Pierce, Posey, House, Cassell. They usually have 2 or 3 (if Rondo is on, then 2. If he is off then 3) Jazz: Deron, Korver, Okur, sometimes Kirilenko. Basically the Nuggets need to have 2 starters that can hit the 3 point shot consistently, and they preferrably not the primary ballhandler. So If AI is the main playmaker, then they should have JR start at SG, and Melo needs to improve his 3 point shot. If he can knock down 35-36% it would help the Nuggets a lot. As well if they had a backup combo guard that could knock down the 3. So when JR or AI come off the court they would have a 3 point shooter there. So it could work with AI,JR,Melo + say a guy like Derek Fisher who can cover PG or SG and plays good D and knocks down 3s, or DeShawn Stevenson, Keith Bogans would be great for them, Steve Blake, Damon Jones, Kareem Rush, Bobby Jackson, Mo Evans, Mobley. Those kind of guys would help.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Lavalamp @ Jul 4 2008, 06:06 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Well I totally agree that 3 point shooting a is a big big weakness in the Nuggets' offense. Having JR at the 2 spot being able to knock down the 3s is a good start. Spurs: Ginobili, Bowen, Finley, Barry, Horry all can do it. Lakers: They have Fisher, Vujacic, Farmar, Radmanovic, Kobe, and kind of Odom. Detroit: Billups, Rip, Tayshawn, Rasheed all have 3 point range. Boston: Allen, Pierce, Posey, House, Cassell. They usually have 2 or 3 (if Rondo is on, then 2. If he is off then 3) Jazz: Deron, Korver, Okur, sometimes Kirilenko. Basically the Nuggets need to have 2 starters that can hit the 3 point shot consistently, and they preferrably not the primary ballhandler. So If AI is the main playmaker, then they should have JR start at SG, and Melo needs to improve his 3 point shot. If he can knock down 35-36% it would help the Nuggets a lot. As well if they had a backup combo guard that could knock down the 3. So when JR or AI come off the court they would have a 3 point shooter there. So it could work with AI,JR,Melo + say a guy like Derek Fisher who can cover PG or SG and plays good D and knocks down 3s, or DeShawn Stevenson, Keith Bogans would be great for them, Steve Blake, Damon Jones, Kareem Rush, Bobby Jackson, Mo Evans, Mobley. Those kind of guys would help.</div> Lol, I did the same thing you did this past season, I just as you did pointed out how each contending team had a greater number of dependable 3-point shooters than the Nuggets do, and I named them. But see, if you and I can start to manage the Nuggets, than why is it the actual managers can't? Is it simply that they are chumps, or is there more than that to it? Aside from not knowing or at least not recognizing some basketball factors hurting the Nuggets, I think there may be a substantial number of false beliefs held by Nuggets coaches and managers that are facilitating their failure to manage the team in a good way. I know for a fact that many Colorado fans of the Nuggets do believe some or many of the following: 1. We were one of the worst teams in the League for many years before Melo came, and now we are very respectable, so we have done our jobs, and to try to go for more than one and done every year is risky. 2. Denver is not really a basketball town, so most fans are content with just being respectable; they don't think advancing far in the playoffs is all that important. One playoff series is enough for our fans, so it is enough for us. 3. The fast pace offense is very valuable, is sort of a tradition in high altitude Denver, and is a good substitute for a more planned, controlled offense. 4. The character and playing style of basketball players (and the playing style of a player reveals that player's character to some extent) is more important than either their actual production/performance or their actual net contributions (positives less minuses) to the team winning the game. In other words, characters, personalities, and "mental toughness" are at least a little more important than are skills, energy, and strategies, for winning games. 5. Allen Iverson can not play PG (lol, I'm sorry, but this one always brings visions of mountain hicks into my head; but I don't think there is any such thing as mountain hicks anymore; they went the way of the dinosaur at least 25 years ago.) 6. Carmelo Anthony is a very good player, but it is impossible that he will ever become one of the best 10 players in the NBA, whether or not he gets markedly different coaching. (lol at "impossible".)
I think part of the problem is that Denver has spent a lot of money on Kmart, Nene, Camby, AI, and Melo. So that the owner has probably reached his limit in what he is willing to spend. HOwever because the contracts that he has aren't the most desireable. It is hard to trade a 10 million dollar contract for arole player that is badly needed hat can hit the 3 point shot. I'm sure the ownder doesn't want to give up Melo or AI to get a Deshawn Stevenson, but who do they have? I'm pretty sure the Nuggets are paying luxury tax and any contract they add is double. Maybe if they get say a Tyronne Lue for cheap or a Vujajic. However what happens is the elite teams that are in a better salary cap situation are willing to offer more and some of them are more elite teams.
Yes, they spent so much money that they have one of the highest payrolls and one of the highest luxury taxes in the League. If they were going to do that, they needed to be able to manage that investment properly. But they have a coaching staff that can not handle playoff basketball in particular and squeezing performance out of a roster in general, they have an owner for whom basketball is just a small part of his vast business empire, and they have a front office that seems to think that simply by building up the huge payroll with famous veterans, they ought to get some kind of a medal. If you are going to spend big money, you need to know for sure how to manage your investment, but the Nuggets organization broke that rule of economics and finance. Can you succeed at anything that is complicated and large scale, simply by spending money, but not doing very much else than that? No, and even if you could, it would be a worthless exercise. If you fail to manage a large investment correctly, you are subject to being penalized by losing some percentage of it. In basketball terms, the Nuggets are now subject to dropping back down close to or back into the basement of the NBA. You already see fans alluding to this in discussions about this team, although few if any are going to be as blunt about it as I am. Other fans like to use the term "blowing up" to describe the probable fate that awaits the Nuggets. Blowing up means that most or even all of the big names depart or retire. Financially it means that the team finally gets free of many, most, or possibly all of the huge contracts. In basketball performance terms, blowing up usually entails having to start from the basement, because the team didn't have the money to get the "next generation" of players in place before the blowing up. Always remember that only badly managed franchises are subject to an actual "blowing up." Well managed franchises such as the Lakers and the Celtics may be in the cellar every once in a great while, even for a few years, but it will be in their cases due to the normal ebb and flow of a roster, and will in effect be an accident due to retirements, draft picks not working out, injuries, and other things that are bad luck more than anything else. Getting back to the Nuggets, when money is invested and then the investment is not managed well, the investment turns into an expense. Now all of a sudden, you have spent too much money, not invested a lot of money, and the implications are totally different. As everyone knows, when you spend too much money, you are going to have to pay some kind of a penalty for that, which in the case of the Nuggets, may be a return to the basement. They have spent the big bucks and have demonstrated that they do not know how to put the expensive pieces together to make their team work. And by work, I don't mean simply winning a few playoff games. I mean that the Nuggets are still not on the map as a desirable place to play among good free agents and players around the League who want to be traded. Normally, a team that spends big bucks becomes attractive to those good free agents and tradable assets, but the Nuggets failed to become very enticing. And how can the Nuggets build a good franchise long term if few good players want to play in Denver? They can't. Between that and the lack of money, the Nuggets may find themselves in the basement in a few short years. Aside from having needed to be able to manage their huge investment well, the Nuggets needed someone in the front office who understands the laws of economics and the laws of finance as they work out in pro basketball. I mean that literally; if you ever spend a huge amount of money and you do not understand the economics and finance that are involved, you are cruising for a bruising.
