Modern basketball is very different from the basketball of the 2000s, 90s, 80s, etc. With the death of the traditional big man, advent of spacing, positionless small ball, fast pace, it seems like certain types of players are being driven out of the NBA. Ben Wallace could not survive this league.
So is it still possible for someone to maintain a long career in the league without developing a reliable 3 point shot? And what would they have to specialize in to justify their value?
Rudy Gobert, Kevon Looney are two guys who don’t shoot 3s and have been in the league for a while. There are plenty of others as well
Ben Simmons has hung around without even taking them
Giannis has entered the chat …
Ben Wallace couldn’t survive in this league? Have you seen how much Gobert makes?
Luka, Devin Booker, Demar Derozan, Jimmy Butler and Trae Young are all below average 3p shooters.
The majority of starting centers don’t have a three point shot.
Jarrett Allen, Mitchell Robinson, Nic Claxton, Bam Adebayo, Clint Capela, Jakob Poeltl, Daniel Gafford, Mason Plumlee, Isaiah Stewart, Steven Adams, Deandre Ayton, Ivica Zubac, Kevon Looney, Rudy Gobert, Dwight Powell and Walker Kessler were all starters for their respective teams last year and have a basically non-existent three point shot. That means that 17/30 starting centers don’t have a three point shot at all.
You also have guys like AD, Domantas Sabonis, Jusuf Nurkic, Jonas Valanciunas and Alperen Sengun who can’t hit the three ocassionaly but shoot a really low volume so they’re also not solid shooters.
So basically 22/30 starting centers don’t have a “solid three point shot”.