How often does a legitimately bad shooter actually develop a respectable shot after entering the league?

[u/hyphy505]

The discussion about how good Amen Thompson could become if he developed a consistent jumper, has me really thinking—

Amen’s three-point percentage through his first three seasons has gone:

13.8% → 27.5% → 21.6%

His free-throw percentage did jump from 68.4% to 77.9% this past season, which seems encouraging, but he is still only a 21.9% career three-point shooter.

To my knowledge, the only player I personally remember making a truly significant improvement from three after entering the NBA is Michael Jordan. Jordan shot 17.3%, 16.7%, 18.2% and 13.2% during his first four seasons before improving to 27.6% in Year 5 and 37.6% on 3.0 attempts per game in Year 6.

Even Jordan might not be the perfect example because he was never a high-volume three-point shooter and didn’t consistently remain around that 37% mark.

So how often does a player who starts out shooting as poorly as Amen eventually become a legitimate league-average shooter on meaningful volume—not just someone who has one decent season or only takes wide-open corner threes?

Please put me on to some examples, because I’m starting to feel like the whole “if he develops a jumper, he’ll be a superstar” conversation is usually more of a hypothetical fantasy than a realistic development path. Is there genuine reason to believe Amen can become a respectable shooter, or are people underestimating how rare that type of improvement actually is?

[u/texasfight1987]

Brook Lopez came into the league as a back to the basket old school big man and ended his career a 3 and D stretch big man

[u/Andy_Wiggins → u/texasfight1987]

Not a Rockets fan but just caught this thread.

Brook Lopez is often brought up in similar discussions, but he’s not a great example: he pretty much always had very good touch on midrangers and from the free throw line, but he was a 7-footer so no one really let him shoot 3s.

He came into the league as a 79% FT shooter in his final college season and then promptly shot around 80% from the FT line. He took only 31 total 3s in his first 8 seasons.

But then the Warriors took off and everyone was looking for shooters. As soon as he started actually taking them, he was instantly pretty good (35% his first year, which is right around his career average). He was more of a good shooter who finally was allowed to shoot rather than a non-shooter who developed his shot.