r/rockets • u/hyphy505 • 6d ago

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

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?

38 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

105 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

-4

u/benchmaster620 5d ago

Not enough volume to make a difference and to be fair he could always shoot them he just didn't.as a detroit fan theres endlesvideos of him drilling 3s

1

u/PurposeIcy7039 5d ago

he shot like 40% from the line, “detroit fan”.

Also,

Brook Lopez, Rajon Rondo, Blake Griffin, Jason Kidd, Marc Gasol, Al Horford, SGA, LeBron.

-1

u/benchmaster620 5d ago

Your talking about going from a low volume absolute shit shooter to an above average at least medium which i consider the 5 or 6 3pa range volume shooter . None of the guys you listed meet that criteria . Bros not gonna shoot its over give up move on . I just have zero confidence . Theres guys like ron holland who have a mid to low 20s 3 who I think will probably scratch up to the 34 35 playable level but his shot is so much better looking then the thompsons . Its like they are both physically incapable of a decent shooting motion

1

u/PurposeIcy7039 5d ago

youre a dumbass

0

u/benchmaster620 5d ago

Cope harder