First and foremost, I’m a huge fan of Victor. He’s a very talented player and he has a bright future ahead of him. However, at 28.4%, his three point shooting has been downright atrocious so far. I’ve watched some Spurs games this season where teams would block his path to the rim, cut off passing options, and let him fire away from three because they know that he wouldn’t be able to make them pay.
To put things into perspective, Josh Smith, a player who was notorious for shooting his own team out of games, has a career three point percentage of 28.5%. Charles Barkley, the worst volume three point shooter in NBA History, has a career percentage of 26.6%. The fact that Victor’s three point percentage lines up with the percentages of these guys is not good. Even a player like Russell Westbrook has a higher 3 point percentage than Victor at 31.6%.
However, he can improve. His stroke looks fine and he could improve his shot selection. He takes many threes which are not in-rhythm. His percentage could definitely grow up if he solely takes spot up threes like Yuta Watanabe, PJ Tucker, Grant Williams, and Grayson Allen. It would also be good to take threes as a trailer in transition or in a pick and pop situation like Kevin Love, Dirk, Al Horford, Brook Lopez, and Chet Holmgren (at least in the games he’s played in so far).
How do you think this will go? Will he improve and become like Luka Doncic (who was a horrible three point shooter in his first few seasons but is now hitting 42.2% of his threes)? Or will he become a liability from deep who continues to keep firing away? (ex: Russell Westbrook, Josh Smith, Charles Barkley, Antoine Walker, Jerry Stackhouse)