He was ahead of his time. If guys like Ray Allen, Reggie Miller, Peja, or other good shooters who did not shoot many threes played in todays NBA shooting 8-10 threes a night they would be on another level. There was a game where Mahmoud Abdul Rauf, a great shooter, made a 3 to win the game and his center slapped him and was upset letting him know not to take a frowned upon shot and instead to pass it in to the post. “Because there are no fours.” -Antoine Walker PHD in basketball Analytics
I'm sure Morey would take 8 attempts at 34% and another year of 7.4 attempts at 36.7% over all the 2 pt shooters of his day. You'll see even with guys who shot a lot of 3s could be all over the map from really good to above average to abysmal percentage. It really shows you the inconsistency and lack of proper training to shoot them. Barkley took a lot too towards the end of his career, now he couldn't make any. You could tell he didn't even bother practicing them, but just nonchalantly threw them up as he was older. I think any era can be trained to shoot 3's. You've got bigs and guys who could never shoot today now shooting 3s at a high clip so when people talk about past players couldn't shoot 3's, it's never really a big deal to me. Give them a year and they'll be shooting over 35% or more with 4+ attempts easy.
The real pioneers were Rudy Tomjanovich putting Robert Horry as a Stretch Forward for Hakeem to have space to work in the post.
The real pioneers were Rudy Tomjanovich putting Robert Horry as a Stretch Forward for Hakeem to have space to work in the post.
He was 32% for career, and his year-to-year averages are all over the place. He also wasn’t ever known for his defense. I’m not convinced.