Solid article posted today by ESPN writing John Hollinger on trying to statistically find the greatest shooters of all time. In short Hollinger put together a simple man's methodology to this debate. He simply took every player in in league history and with the caveats that they must have played at least 10,000 minutes, have a career FT of at least 85% and career FG of at least 45% and then added them together with the the player's career 3PT percentage and subsequently ranked them.
Top All-Time Shooters By Combined Shooting Rating
Player | 2-Pt% | 3-Pt% | FT% | CSR |
---|---|---|---|---|
Steve Nash | .515 | .431 | .903 | 1.849 |
Steve Kerr | .494 | .454 | .864 | 1.812 |
Reggie Miller | .525 | .395 | .888 | 1.807 |
Mark Price | .501 | .402 | .904 | 1.807 |
Jeff Hornacek | .515 | .403 | .877 | 1.795 |
Chris Mullin | .533 | .384 | .865 | 1.783 |
Peja Stojakovic | .485 | .400 | .895 | 1.779 |
Larry Bird | .509 | .376 | .886 | 1.770 |
Ray Allen | .482 | .396 | .893 | 1.770 |
Dana Barros | .488 | .411 | .858 | 1.757 |
Min. 10,000 career minutes
Normally this isn't type of research wouldn't be of much interest to Warrior fans. Other than the fact that Chris Mullin shows up #6. However it was the bit at the end of article that I think all Warriors fans should care a lot about. In short, Hollinger throws out which young guns he'd recommend we watch to see if they can crack this list. And two he highlighted were none other that Stephen Curry and Anthony Morrow.
Finally, two young players on the Golden State Warriors have established a great chance of finishing their careers near the top of this list. Rookie Stephen Curry is at 1.770 thus far in his brief career, and should that number hold up, he'll finish his career in the top 10. Since players' shooting often improves dramatically in their second through fifth seasons, he could finish as one of the top-ranked players of all time.
Then again, he also might finish second among current Warriors. Curry's teammate, Anthony Morrow, has played two NBA seasons as a part-time starter, and posted career marks of 48.8 percent on 2s, 45.9 percent on 3s and 87.6 percent from the line. That's good for a CSR of 1.822, which is better than every other player in history except Nash.
Obviously we're dealing with smaller sample sizes with those two, and it's possible they'll regress in future seasons. But when we discuss the great all-time shooters, those two are worth tracking in future seasons to see if they warrant a spot in the conversation.
Whoa... Hollinger having something good to say about a player, let alone two players on the Warriors' roster.