three-pointers

Jim Eichenhofer

DENVER – Scan through the NBA’s 2014-15 three-percentage leaders list today and you’ll find an 11th-place tie between an unexpected pair of names: Klay Thompson and Tyreke Evans. It’s no surprise to see Thompson shooting 46.7 percent so far from beyond the three-point arc – he’s part of the famed Golden State duo nicknamed the “Splash Brothers” – but Evans’ top-15 status qualifies as an early-season eye-opener. After all, the 6-foot-6, 220-pound slashing wing entered this season with a meager career accuracy rate of 26.8 percent.

Before you completely dismiss his early-season hot shooting as a small sample size (14-for-30), consider that his three-point improvement also dates back to 2013-14, when he was a ghastly 9-for-56 (16.1 percent) through February, but went 12-for-39 (a semi-respectable 30.8 percent) in March and April.

Known primarily for his ability to get to the rim against defenders of all sizes, Evans has been a one-on-one matchup problem throughout his six-year NBA career, but opponents have always been willing to sag off him and let him take jumpers. That could be changing – his once-erratic perimeter shot has improved to the point where he’s leading the New Orleans Pelicans (6-4) in three-point percentage.

When informed of his early-season tie with Thompson, Evans downplayed the statistic, saying he wants to continue shooting this well deeper into the 82-game schedule.

“It’s early,” Evans said, smiling. “I shoot three (three-pointers) a game, at the most. I think one game I shot five. But it’s just (a result) of shooting with confidence. Working with (Pelicans assistant coach Fred Vinson) in the offseason helped a lot, getting repetitions and shooting the same shot every time. It’s been working in the games. I just want to keep it up for the whole season.”

When Vinson analyzed the mechanics of Evans’ shot last season, the player’s first with the Pelicans, the coach found several flaws that combined to prevent Evans from achieving consistency. For one, Evans was not squaring his feet up to the basket.

“There’s a saying, ‘All 10 toes to the rim,’ ” Vinson said. “You build your shot from the feet up.”

Evans also was not bending his knees – called “loading up” by coaches – when he took three-pointers or other deep jumpers. Just as damaging, he was holding the ball incorrectly and closing his fingers together as he released shots.

“He had a habit of letting the ball sit on the palm of his hand, rather than his fingertips,” said Vinson, an elite shooter who played in the NBA and once drained eight treys for Georgia Tech in a win at North Carolina. “He was also closing his fingers when he released the ball (instead of keeping them spread apart evenly). So he didn’t have total control of the ball. I saw it from watching him shoot from different angles and watching (his release) from his right side, his shooting side. He was ‘projecting’ the ball to the rim. Once he got that concept down, his shot really took off, because he had more control of it.”

Evans: “On threes, I get more lift now by bending my knees. It makes me go straight up (and on-balance) when I shoot (instead of leaning forward). When I catch-and-shoot on threes, I feel like if I load up, I shoot the same shot every time, it doesn’t matter if a (defender) is running at me or not.”

Evans spent many nights during the ’14 offseason in the Pelicans’ practice facility working by himself on his shot. He also is often one of the last players to leave the gym following team practices in Metairie, continuing to fine-tune his shooting stroke with Vinson. The 25-year-old is now seeing the dividends from the extra time he’s spent in the gym.

“I was coming in late at night, shooting with the (ball-back shooting) gun and then without it,” said Evans of the device that feeds balls to players so they can practice on their own. “I kept telling myself, ‘I have to get this shot down, because it will help my game out and make the game easier for me.’ In the summer, I worked with Freddy, came back in the gym and it’s been paying off so far.”

“That’s a credit to him,” Vinson said. “All the work he’s put in, after practice every day, he’s still out on the court shooting. That’s so important, to build the muscle memory. He had to be willing to put in the time to build muscle memory. Then he started to see certain things getting better (in his shot). When a player can sniff that they’re getting better, they get hungry for more. It’s a testament to his work ethic. I can show you something, but if you don’t work at it on your own, it’s not going to be the same result.”

The fact that he’s made at least one three-pointer in eight of the Pelicans’ first 10 games may be astonishing to some, especially Sacramento fans who watched him shoot a frigid 20.2 percent in 2011-12, but Evans realizes the 2014-15 season is only a few weeks old. He’d love to continue making shots at this rate into April and beyond.

“It’s good so far,” he said. “From the hard work I put in, it’s showing that it pays off. But at the end of the season, if I can stay near there, I’ll look back and say that I’m happy with it.”

pelicans-tyreke-evans-has-been-drastically-improved-three-point-shooter-early-in-2014-15

Pelicans’ Tyreke Evans has been drastically improved three-point shooter early in 2014-15

New Orleans Pelicans fifth-year head coach Monty Williams jokes that even when Ryan Anderson goes to sleep at night, the forward’s hands are in position to shoot a basketball. So perhaps it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that after nine months away from an NBA court, when Anderson made his 2014-15 preseason debut Oct. 4, he immediately came out firing.

“He’s always giving himself a chance (to score) when the ball touches his hand,” a smiling Williams said about Anderson’s rapid acclimation to the game in preseason. “And that’s what we want him to do. He’s excited to be back on the floor. I think everybody’s happy to see Ryan out there.”

Few could blame the 6-foot-10, 240-pounder for relishing the opportunity to get back into a shooting groove in his first NBA action since January, when his 2013-14 season ended in frightening fashion in Boston. Through the first week of preseason, Anderson is averaging a team-high 10.3 shot attempts per game, in only 20.5 minutes. He started out red-hot in the first two games, before going 4-for-13 (0-for-4 on threes) vs. Washington on Wednesday. Even after factoring in the Wizards game, he’s shooting 41.9 percent from the field and 38.9 percent from three-point range. Anderson is tied with Jimmer Fredette in scoring average (13.3 ppg) through three games.

“I feel good,” Anderson said of returning after a lengthy layoff. “I definitely feel like I need to get my footing better when I go off the dribble. I feel a little off-balance �� maybe it’s strength, maybe it’s just lack of stability a little bit. I feel fine shooting regular spot-up threes, or running into a shot; I just need to work on my moves off the dribble. Other than that, I feel pretty good as far as shape. There are just some things rhythm-wise I need to continue to develop and get better at.”

Anderson has spent much of his on-court time in preseason relying on his forte, the three-point shot, taking 18 of his 31 overall attempts from beyond the arc. However, he’s also been mixing it up with fellow bigs in the paint, including outmuscling 278-pound Wizards forward Kevin Seraphin for a hard-nosed rebound Wednesday. Anderson has grabbed six offensive boards, sometimes taking the ball off the rim and retreating to the three-point arc for an open shot. That combination of ruggedness and skill makes him a difficult matchup for defenders.

Like Anderson individually, the Pelicans started quickly shooting-wise in their preseason opener but cooled a bit in the final two games of their road trip, including a 7-for-28 outing on threes vs. Washington. With several above-average perimeter shooters among the reserves, such as Jimmer Fredette (40.1 percent career on threes) and Luke Babbitt (37.0), Anderson is confident the Pelicans just need more time to click on offense.

“One hundred percent,” Anderson said of his confidence in NOLA shooting better. “This group can score in so many ways. We just need to get our legs under us. We’re practicing hard, working hard and focusing on a lot of things.”

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Pelicans' Ryan Anderson off to aggressive start in preseason

Since the July day he signed a free-agent contract with the New Orleans Pelicans, the message to guard Jimmer Fredette from the team’s coaching staff has been exceedingly simple: When you get a good look at the basket, don’t hesitate. For an elite perimeter shooter such as Fredette, who has connected on 40.1 percent of his career three-point attempts in the NBA, those instructions should sound like music to the ears.

Fredette: “Every single day, (Monty Williams) and the coaches say ‘Hey, if you have an open shot, make sure to shoot it. Don’t pass it up – shoot it. That’s what we brought you here for, to shoot the basketball and score for us.’ ”

After a standout college career at Brigham Young University that sparked rampant fandom known as “JimmerMania” – partly due to Fredette’s accuracy from well beyond the NCAA three-point arc  – he was picked 10th overall in the 2011 NBA Draft. However, over the past three seasons, his opportunities to play have been sporadic, with his role fluctuating between backup minutes and being left entirely out of the rotation. The 6-foot-2, 195-pounder has also already had four different head coaches in his brief NBA tenure (Williams will be his fifth). Fredette’s entrance to the pros could not have been more tumultuous – his rookie year coincided with the ’11 lockout; his first NBA head coach, Paul Westphal, was fired by the Sacramento Kings a mere seven games into the ’11-12 season.

Fredette has received double-digit DNPs due to coach’s decision in each of the past two seasons, after he intermittently started a total of seven games as a Sacramento rookie. Despite the constant questions related to his role, he’s been a progressively improved three-point shooter each season, including making a career-best 47.6 percent in ’13-14. As a result of averaging just 14.6 minutes in his total of 179 NBA appearances, Fredette does not have enough three-pointers to qualify for the statistical category, but according to Basketball-Reference.com, his 40.1 career percentage would rank him 35th all-time and 16th among active players.

“I’ve had opportunities to go out and play, but sometimes I haven’t,” the 25-year-old said of his NBA career. “It’s been a mixture of both. I haven’t been able to get consistent minutes at any place yet, so I’m excited to hopefully be able to do that here. It’s all about working hard, keeping your head down and just pushing forward and not worrying about what happened in the past. So I’m excited to get a fresh start, and hopefully I’ll be able to get some good minutes here and be able to help this team.”

Prior to last season, Sacramento chose not to pick up Fredette’s fourth-year option, which meant he would become a free agent for the first time in the summer of 2014. The Kings waived him midway through '13-14; Chicago promptly signed him, but Fredette played even less on a Bulls team that already had a consistent player rotation and was headed to another Eastern Conference playoff berth. Although Fredette was on the roster, he did not appear in a postseason game, which would have marked his playoff debut.

Given the chance in 2014 unrestricted free agency to choose his NBA destination for the first time, Fredette opted for the Pelicans at least partly due to their need for his skill set. Earlier in free agency, New Orleans lost one of the NBA’s premier three-point shooters, Anthony Morrow (42.8 percent career on three-pointers, third among all active players).

“It’s nice that they wanted (me) here,” Fredette said of the Pelicans’ interest in signing him. “They reached out to want me to be on the team. Obviously they definitely had interest and think that I can help them. That’s great to feel for me… I’m excited to be able to come in to this organization and be able to help out in whatever way that I can. I’m just excited to get the season started, and it’s almost here now. We’re revving up and getting ready to go. Everybody’s back. I’m very excited for this new start.”

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Jimmer Fredette has green light from Pelicans coaches

6: Pelicans’ NBA rank in team three-point percentage last season

Despite a slew of injuries to key players in 2013-14, the New Orleans Pelicans still were an above-average offensive team, ranking 13th of 30 NBA teams in offensive efficiency (107.2 points per 100 possessions). One factor behind the overachievement was the Pelicans’ sixth-place finish in accuracy from the three-point stripe – four players shot at least 39.0 percent, contributing greatly to the team’s 37.3 overall success rate. Only NBA champion San Antonio, Dallas, the Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State and Washington were more accurate than New Orleans percentage-wise.

In 2014-15, the Pelicans will have to overcome the departure in free agency of Anthony Morrow (45.1 percent last season), who signed with Oklahoma City. However, New Orleans is expected to have Ryan Anderson (40.9) and Jrue Holiday (39.0) back at 100 percent from injuries, after the pair combined to miss 108 games in 2013-14. Eric Gordon rounded out the quartet of stellar shooters by connecting on 39.1 percent of his treys last season.

Help is also on the way via the free-agent signing of Jimmer Fredette, a career 40.1 percent shooter from beyond the arc. Based on Basketball-Reference.com’s qualifying minimums, Fredette does not have enough three-pointers for his name to appear on the list, otherwise he’d rank 16th among all active NBA players in that statistic, slightly ahead of Ray Allen (40.0).

countdown-to-pelicans-training-camp-6-days

Countdown to Pelicans training camp: 6 days

7: Three-pointers in consecutive December games by Ryan Anderson in '13-14

When New Orleans All-Star forward Anthony Davis accidentally hit his left hand on the rim at Madison Square Garden during the first half of a Dec. 1 game last season, resulting in a fracture, things looked dire for the Pelicans. Instead of faltering, however, New Orleans went on to pick up a dramatic road victory against New York, then posted an even more thrilling, triple-overtime win at Chicago the next night.

Ryan Anderson was the biggest single factor behind the Pelicans’ ability to prevail without their rising second-year star. For the first time in Anderson’s six-year NBA career, he drained seven three-pointers in consecutive games, going exactly 7-for-11 against both the Knicks and Bulls. The effectiveness from three-point range comprised a big chunk of what turned out to be 31- and 36-point games by Anderson, the latter a career high.

countdown-to-pelicans-training-camp-7-days

Countdown to Pelicans training camp: 7 days

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three‑pointers

Pelicans’ Tyreke Evans has been drastically improved three-point shooter early in 2014-15

Pelicans' Ryan Anderson off to aggressive start in preseason

Jimmer Fredette has green light from Pelicans coaches

Countdown to Pelicans training camp: 6 days

Countdown to Pelicans training camp: 7 days