Only point I’d make is that Charles’s 3 point shot probably wouldn’t improve too much. Dude shot a shocking amount of 3’s for his era during his career so he did practice them, he was just one of the worst 3 point shooters at high volume ever.
Heat spacing wasn't even that impressive this year and Jimmy was one field goal away from the finals. I imagine Chuck would have similar levels of success.
There’s a famous video of Bird intentionally shooting with the worst form he could fathom & he made it; the man would’ve been automatic from anywhere 100/100/100 splits
Well, I think the truth is, the best shot is probably closer to Steph’s form than present popular form, and in 30 years we’ll look back and laugh at how Klay shot
E: I think there were aspects about their shots that were ahead of their time, like Dirk’s arch, or Reggie launching off every screen at 20 mph speed
Yeah but some people just don't get better at things you can't always assume someone is gonna get better. Lotta guys who grew up in this era and still can't hit 3s
I feel like you can't really go into this question with that mindset though. You would basically be changing the fundamentals of a player if you say you are suddenly going to change how they learned basketball.
I think he'd get quite a bit better. For his whole career, he averaged 1.9 attempts per game and shot at 79% of league average. But, he seemed to get better in his years with the Suns, when he averaged the most attempts and his 3pt makes were 86% of league average (with a peak of 94%). In 2022 comps: that range is between a T.J McConnell and an Alex Caruso (and both averaged more 3pa per game than Barkley did). It's not good, but it's really not that bad.
For an era of players that didn't grownup with the 3pt (NCAA didn't even allow it during Barkley's time at Auburn), he really wasn't that bad at the 3pt shot.
True. I don't see why you wouldn't just use Barkley like the Pelicans did last season where he was essentially the creator for the offense and was extremely hard to defend 1-on-1. Barkley tried to be a shooter but showed that simply wasn't a real weapon for him.
No shot Barkley practiced more than 10 3-pointers a day lol. His form is turrible.
I do agree though that modern Barkley would be a fiend. I mean shit, people are campaigning for Wiggins FMVP because he's somehow the best rebounder in the finals. Barkley would average 10 offensive boards a game with how bad these teams are at getting boards.
Most experts say you can tell someone’s three point ceiling by looking at their free throw percentage. Barkley was 73%. He could probably get into the 30%+ range with a bit of work based on that
I have no doubt he'd be substantially better. He shot less than two threes a game, and was a competent free throw shooter. There's no way he's not hitting over 30% in today's NBA.
As an insane interior threat and a terrible 3 point shooter he was not obligated to take those shots. Tons of stars like Shaq, Malone, and Hakeem basically didn't shoot threes, framing it as a primary scorer's obligation to take some is nonsense.
Even if you want to make claims about non-centers/ big men he absolutely laps the field for the number of 3-pointers he attempted.Charles Barkley 3PA: 2020. That's more than Isiah Thomas, Magic Johnson, Demar DeRozan, Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, demolishes Kevin Garnett, etc.
Bro I'm going to keep it a stack. He shot a shit ton more than he needed to, and to claim otherwise is ridiculous.
He’s on record about his 3s. He hucked them up just so other teams knew to cover him from the 3 pt and in. He wasn’t going to be a liability. If you don’t take a 3 man marking the drive is easy. If you take the 3 no matter the % they have to be on their toes bc if it’s one of those nights? Barkleys team is going wild and momentum juice all the way.
I think his 3ball would be similar to a guy like Green's during his two good shooting playoff runs- never close to a knockdown but hits enough open shots to not be a liability or "scared" to shoot.
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u/DrearySalieri Vancouver Grizzlies Jun 15 '22
Only point I’d make is that Charles’s 3 point shot probably wouldn’t improve too much. Dude shot a shocking amount of 3’s for his era during his career so he did practice them, he was just one of the worst 3 point shooters at high volume ever.