Speaking of player comparisons. Avery Bradley should give us hope. His first year of shooting stunk. His second year of shooting was significantly better. But his third year of shooting showed significant and alarming regression. Nowadays he is a very good outside threat all the way out to 3 point range.
AB year1 2pt% 34.3, 3pt% 0, FT% 50.0
AB year2 2pt% 49.8, 3pt% 40.7, FT% 79.5
AB year3 2p% 40.2, 3pt% 31.7, FT% 75.5
AB year4 2pt% 43.8, 3pt% 39.5, FT% 80.4
So if you had written AB off during his regression year, you'd be wrong about his prospects as a shooter. What I find a significant correlation is that his FT shooting stayed at an improved level and his shooting eventually rounded out to match his prowess at the charity stripe.
It's way too early to dismiss Smart considering he has shown the leap in FT% which indicates that his shooting form is improving. Now he just needs to put it all together, improve his shot selection as well, and translate that improved form to shooting in the field.
Sometimes it takes players longer to develop their games. The regression year is alarming, but hardly signals that Smart won't be able to put it all together this early into his career.
AB stats source:
http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/b/bradlav01.html
TP....thanks for the helpful perspective
Sorry to be the negative one, but those numbers are taken completely out of context, to be completely honest.
Avery Bradley entered the league as a rookie with an existing major injury, playing on a championship caliber team where rookies got no playing opportunities.
His second year nobody expected a thing of him until he actually got given some meaningful minutes, and when he did he started making an impact and hitting shots immediately.
His third season "regression" was due to the fact that he was coming off a season ending injury that required him to get two (not one, but TWO) dislocated shoulders surgically repaired. He started the season shooting horribly, as you would expect from somebody who just got surgery on both shoulders. It took about half a season before he started to find his shot again, and it did improve towards the end of the season.
The following year he had right back up to around the 40% mark from three again.
Bradley was also a pretty good shooter in college - from memory he shot around 37% - 38% from three before he was drafted. Bradley always showed clear potential as a shooter. He never looked like the second coming of Ray Allen, but he could always shoot.
Marcus Smart has never shown any indication of being CAPABLE of being a good shooter. HE shot poor in college. He shot poor in summer league. He shot poor in two full NBA regular seasons. He shot decent in the playoffs last year which is about the first time he's done so on any stage - and that was a 7 game sample size.
By no means does this suggest Smart is a lost cause as a shooter - but it doesn't look good at all. There's nothing hinting at his shooting potential. Absolutely nothing. We just have to hope he surprises the world (e.g. Jason Kidd) and one day becomes a capable shooter.
Topic: Who is expecting a leap from Marcus Smart in year 3? (Read 17143 times)