The Weirdest NBA Game Ever! (Warriors vs. Blazers)
By: Nina Mandell| January 17, 2017 10:50 amFollow @ninamandell
Brook Lopezs love affair with the 3-point shot began as a means of survival.
No, not in the NBA, where an increasing number of big men are adding the 3 to their skillset as their coaches continue to look to stretch out the floor.
But against his older brothers, who certainly werent going to give up any easy buckets.
Theres four of us. I was always smaller than them, so I couldnt very well go in the paint, they would block my shot, he said. So it was kind of survival of the fittest. If I wanted to score at all, I had to score from long range.
This season when the Nets hired Kenny Atkinson, Lopez picked up the shot again, joiningthe ranks of unlikely 3-point shooters in the league. Thephenomenon hasbeen written about, but with the expanding numbers of 7-footers hitting shots that used to be reserved for guards, For The Win went to find out one thing: How do they do that?
Long before Lopez was expanding his shooting range, Antawn Jamison was taking stock of his career prospects. At 6-foot-9 hehadnt fit as a small forward, he wasnt great at being a perimeter player and a third coachs suggestion of being a flasher didnt really work out.
I realized the only way I was going to be successful and have longevity at all was I had to be able to learn how to shoot the 3-point shot, he said. I remember my rookie year was the lockout and we missed half the season, we played like 50 games in almost 3 months, it was a lot of games but not a lot of time for learning or growth or whatever.
And I remember going home a week after the season and I put in time with my family and then after that for the whole summer I was at Golden State just trying to perfect being a decent shooter.
He went to the gym twice a day during the summer and worked on his agility, his strength, and took shot after shot after shot.
It was thousands of shots a day. You start off catch and shoot, you got to make a certain amount of shots from a certain amount of spots, he said. Then it became being able to catch and take a couple of dribbles and then shoot off the dribble. But it was shot after shot after shot. That was the only way that you could become decent or be a great shooter. You have to put the work in.
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He also worked out with John Starks, Gilbert Arenas and, later in his career, Steph Curry and mimicked exactly what they did.
And Im not talking about going in there for 45 minutes, he said. Im talking were in there for 2-3 hours at a time, doing pick-and-rolls, catch and shoot, learning how to get your footwork after you set a pick, getting to the point where you can catch that ball quickly and put it up and do it on a consistent basis time and time again.
Lopez wasnt exactly fighting for his career when he set out to be a 3-point shooter last summer, but his focus on making shot after shot after shot until he could do it in a game one perhaps with bigger stakes than taking down his big brothers was similar.
He said he would shoot from a number of different spots while working out in the summer until he felt like he had it. During this season, hes worked on his 3-point shot 45 to 50 minutes outside of practice or whatever the training staff allows.
For me it was just a matter of repetition, he said. I got in the gym. I got lots of reps up. I shot for long time this summer, I tried to shoot as much as possible just to keep my touch.
Myles Turner, who was a good 3-point shooter in high school, shot just under 2 3-pointers a game in college and went from shooting only 12 3-pointers last season to over 55 this season already. He echoed what Lopez said about the value of repetition. No matter how good of a shooter a player is in college, he pointed out, the college 3-point line is just a mid-range jumper in the nba.
i worked a lot this summer. I shot about 800 to 1000 shots a day, he said. I was working with my (former AAU) coach back home. He really said, You have the ability to do it, so lets prove it to everyone. When I think about it, it sounds like a lot but it really wasnt that much at the time. It was something I liked to do, so it was just fun.
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Hornets center Frank Kaminsky, who has shot over 150 3-pointers this season and put up 202 in 2015-16, said he built on a skill hes always had to have he wasnt really that tall until a huge growth spurt late in high school. He said hes never let anyone stop him from shooting 3-pointers.
The way I always played basketball, it was from the outside going in, so its easier for me to get my game going by shooting than by driving or posting up, he said. Its always just been something I had a knack for. I had to learn to post up after I learned to shoot.
As for the actual act of getting a good enough shot to put them up in the NBA?
Its just shooting drills and repetition, Kaminsky said. Its muscle memory, how often youre willing to keep doing it and keep trying. Once it starts coming in, at least for me, it made me want to shoot more and more..
Theres also the mental side to a big man shooting a 3, a number of players pointed out.
Its just about confidence, Lopez said. Having the confidence to shoot it when Im open. And the coaches here give me such a great opportunity to do that. I didnt shoot well (in one game) but Kenny (Atkinson) came in (the next) morning and said, Look we know youre a fantastic shooter, weve seen it. Thats part of your game and we need you to do that, so if youre open, if its a good shot, take it. And that confidence just means so much.
Graphic by Steven Ruiz
In the WNBA, theres been a similar change in whats needed from stretch 4s and the leagues best players, like Candace Parker and Elena Delle Donne, have been perfecting their 3-point shot since high school. New York Liberty center Amanda Zahui B, who is 6-foot-5, said she began shooting the shot in college but hasnt put up many in the WNBA yet.
This season, her coach in Russia, where she plays duringthe WNBA offseason, told her she needed to start shooting more long-distance shots, so now she spends 30 minutes after practice working on it.
Im working my way around the 3-second area and then working my way further out to the free throw line extended and then where Im usually taking my 3-point shot, thats where Im practicing them, she said. So on the wings or on the top of the key. Just taking a couple of shots, just so I get comfortable with it.
The look on the defenders face when they realized they cant give an unlikely looking 3-point shooter space, she said, is worth the extra time in the gym.
The more shots you make, everybody gets hyped around you because youre quote, unquote not supposed to shoot because youre a big player, she said. Its always fun to get better at things others might not think youre supposed to do.
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