Heading in to the new year and now two months in to the NBA season, I thought it was time to check out who the individual basketball shooting leaders are.
Three-point shooting percentage:
Jared Dudley (Suns) 50.5%
Daniel Gibson (Cavs)48.8%
Paul Pierce (Celtics) 47.3%
Anthony Parker (Cavs) 46.1%
Chris Paul (Hornets) 45.8%
Three-point makes per game:
Danny Granger (Pacers) 3.1
Danilo Gallinari (Knicks) 2.8
Rashard Lewis (Magic) 2.8
Channing Frye (Suns) 2.6
Peja Stojakovic (Hornets) 2.4
Free-throw percentage:
Steve Nash (Suns) 94.2%
Ray Allen (Celtics) 91%
Chauncey Billups (Nuggets) 90.3%
Mo Williams (Cavs) 89.4%
Manu Ginobili (Spurs) 89.3%
I was going to include leaders in field goal percentage, but they're not actually shooting it, the list is made up of big men who are mostly dunking or making put-backs.
Although I have made it quite clear already that my NBL team this season will be the Gold Coast Blaze, my second team will be the New Zealand Breakers. They're considered by many to be the favourites for the championship this season, but that's not why I like them, because I almost always side with the underdog.
The reasons I like the Breakers are: 1. They are a great three-point shooting team 2. They have a couple of ex-Brisbane Bullets on the team (CJ Bruton & Dillon Boucher) 3. They don't play a lot of defence so the games are usually high-scoring and fun to watch 4. They have Kirk Penney ... one of our favourite basketball shooting man-crushes from last season
So with the Breakers getting the season underway in New Zealand on Thursday night, here are a couple of stories in the news about them.
Dillon Boucher isn't looking to hide from the pre-season hype surrounding the New Zealand Breakers ahead of Thursday's tipoff of the new Australian NBL season against Phill Jones and the Cairns Taipans at the NSEC.
In fact you could say that the Breakers' hard-nosed do-it-all forward is embracing the favouritism being heaped upon the New Zealand club who are being strongly tipped to become the first Kiwi franchise to win an Australian national league.
Australian basketball legend Andrew Gaze has labelled the Breakers the team everyone's chasing this season, and it's a view that's pretty much universal across the Tasman, even if bookies Centrebet have the Melbourne Tigers as slight favourites ahead of the Breakers.Boucher has heard all the talk, all the speculation that this is the Breakers' year and, what do you know, he agrees with it.
Who is this faceless, publicity-shy owner of the New Zealand Breakers? And why does he shell out his hard-earned fortune to keep a basketball club afloat. For the first time Paul Blackwell has opened up to the media about his motivations. MARC HINTON sat down to hear his special story.
Paul Blackwell is an enigma dressed up as a riddle. He's successful, rich and is in the select group of Kiwis who own professional sports teams.
Yet he's much happier parting with his hard-earned profits as the owner of New Zealand's busiest supermarket than he is giving up his story, and by association his privacy.
In a business all about ego, this God-faring, sports-loving everyday bloke doesn't just break the mould, he shatters it.
One of the most common questions I get asked is: “How do I improve my shooting range?” or “how do I improve my three-point shot?”
The principles of hitting a three-pointer or shooting from deep are the same as any other shot. Your form/shooting technique doesn’t change. Aim at the same point on the ring, get your trajectory right and don't forget to get your legs in to the shot. Your legs are where the power comes from not your arms or upper body.
To improve your range, don't immediately head straight out to the three-point arc and start jacking up shots, work in close to the basket first to make sure your technique is right, you’re warmed up and your eye is in. As your confidence increases and you find your rhythm, begin to gradually work your way out. Do this by making 10 shots from in close, step back a metre make another 10 and so on. It’s important to count your makes NOT just how many shots you take.
There are plenty of drills that you can run to improve your range and confidence from downtown. Get creative, have fun and remember to practise at game speed.
Practice and repetition will give you confidence and remember to practise shots you’ll get in game situations (practise shooting off the dribble, practise coming off a screen, practise fading away, etc).
As I mentioned earlier, the power in your shot comes from your legs (not your arms) so you can improve your range when you’re not on the court by doing weights and exercises to strengthen your legs. Squats and lunges are usually the simplest. Keep in mind that you’re not trying to become a running back in the NFL so you don’t need to use massive weights, high reps are better for basketball.
Great three-point shooters aren't just born ... you can of course work on it and become one. Watch great shooters and see what they do and learn from them. Success leaves clues.
Other than being just about basketball, the focus of this blog leans towards the shooting aspect of the game. Whether its free-throw shooting, three-point shooting, clutch shooting, we've got it covered.
I've talked many times about the importance of free-throw shooting and why its vital that you spend hours at the line working on it. I've highlighted the truly great free-throw shooters (Ray Allen, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf and many more) and how you should watch and learn from them.
Well last night's game 4 of the NBA Championship Series has again got everyone talking about free-throws as Orlando hit just 22 of 37 (59.5%) from the line and went on to lose the game in overtime. Most people are pointing to Dwight Howard's two missed free-throws in the final minute of regulation which would've given them the win ... but Hedo Turkoglu was just 8 of 13 (61.5%) from the line. Hedo is an 80% free-throw shooter over his career so was it the pressure of the situation that got to him? If either of them just make one more free-throw, they win this game and level the series at 2 - 2, instead they're down 3 - 1 and it looks like they're done.
Dime had a good piece about the situation on their website, I've included an excerpt from it below. Click on the title to read the full story. PS. Great to see them giving up the love to my boy Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf!
NBA big men are traditionally below-average free throw shooters, and while you can chalk that up to hand size, range of motion in the shoulders or whatever, I think it’s really just because nobody expects them to be that good. From the time they’re in high school, they don’t practice free throws as much as a guard would practice. If you’re getting tough buckets in the paint, winning your team extra possessions by battling for rebounds, and blocking a couple shots on top of that, it may seem like a lot to ask to also turn into Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf from 15 feet away. But because every big man can point to Wilt Chamberlain and say, “He only shot 51 percent from the line,” it’s acceptable to perform at a lower standard than other players.
And here’s the problem, particularly for somebody like Dwight: He takes A LOT of free throws. Because of his size and skill, teams have to foul him close to the basket. Throughout this series it’s been clear the Lakers made it their game plan to not let Dwight get those soul-crushing dunks on them, especially in Orlando, where he can whip the crowd into a frenzy. Kobe and everyone else in purple would rather bear-hug Dwight and tackle him before letting him get a dunk. And a lot of teams would do the same. During the regular season, Dwight led the League with 10.8 free throws per game (59% FT). In the playoffs, he’s been taking 10.2 free throws per, second behind LeBron James (14.2 FT per game). And, true, up until last night, he’s been pretty good in the Finals from the stripe.
But Howard, and every coach that he’s ever played for and will ever play for, knows damn well he’s gonna be put on the line often. He’s going to have to hit some free throws in crunch time. So why should he be held to a lower level of expectation than the Nick Andersons, Darius Washingtons and Derrick Roses of the game? If any perimeter player bricked those FT’s in Game 4 — and Lord help us all if it were LeBron or Kobe — nobody could “live with” those misses.
If you missed it, here are the highlights from the game
Thanks to my new best friend One HD, I've been able to see every game of the Orlando Cleveland Eastern Conference Finals in the NBA.
It was a great series and from my own perspective it was fantastic to see the basketball shooting display put on by the Magic. Sure, Dwight was a beast inside and carried his team's scoring in the paint, but one player doesn't not make a team (as was shown by LeBron and the Cavs) and it was the Orlando three-point shooting that made the difference. When Hedo, Shard, Pietrus or Alston were firing from downtown, the Magic looked good and if more than one of them was "on", Orlando were unstoppable.
On to the title of this post tho. Getting to watch all the games of the series and not having watched too many games in recent times due to no Foxtel, I noticed how one-dimensional Delonte West (pictured right) from Cleveland is. Delonte essentially has one move, the step back jumper. It doesn't matter whether he's beyond the arc or drives in to the middle of the key, you know he's going to that shot.
Now that's not quite fair because his other move is turning the corner on his defender and driving to the basket, so technically he has two moves.
When I was watching on Sunday, I almost burst out laughing when West actually turn down a wide-open three to dribble in to a defender and then step back to take the three. That's right, he turned down the open spot-up three, just so he could go to his signature move, draw the defender and shoot the step-back triple.
Don't get me wrong, I like Delonte and have kept an eye on him since he was drafted to the Boston Celtics back in 2004 and was then traded to the Sonics. It just goes to show that you don't have to be a superstar to make it in the NBA. If you know your game, know what your team needs from you and you have a go-to move that you can rely on to get points, you can make it to the top level of the game.
Its been a few weeks since I've mentioned our Basketball Workshop so here's an update and a brief intro to what its all about.
At the end of last year I went up to Townsville and spent some time with my favourite NBL player John Rillie. John and I spent a few hours putting together some videos that take you step-by-step through everything you need to know to improve your shooting. JR is one of the best shooters the NBL has ever seen, especially from the free-throw line and behind the three-point arc, so naturally these are the main areas we focussed on. We also covered basic shooting technique and form, warming up, bank shots, catching and shooting and much more.
Here's one of the videos from JR:
It took me a while to organise the second player to add to the site, but last month I caught up with ex-Bullet (ex-Razorback and ex-Breakers) Adam Darragh. Adam is now running a basketball excellence program at Varsity College on the Gold Coast and rehabbing from a knee reconstruction. I spent a couple of sessions with Adam and we covered everything a point guard needs to know about shooting a basketball. Like JR, he's also very proficient from the line so we spent some time there as well as working on training drills, shooting off the dribble, creating space to get your shot off, three-point shooting and plenty more. To see part of the interview I did with Adam after our shooting sessions, click here.
For the past few months I've had an opening special for the Workshop of just US$9.95 for an annual membership. Now that I've added all of Adam's videos to the site as well as some basketball shooting articles and a "Best of YouTube" section, the price is going up. If you want to take your game to the next level and dramatically improve your shooting sign up before May 14.
In the Workshop you'll find everything you need to know about how to shoot a basketball properly and exactly what you need to do to become a better player.
You'll gain access to basketball shooting tips, drills and training techniques directly from professional players (such as John and Adam). You'll see them in action talking and walking you through drills that have been proven over and over to be some of the very best ways to improve your basketball shot.
