JMAC3 wrote:OriAr wrote:JMAC3 wrote:
He projects as a 36% three point shooter according to Tankathon formula.
Maybe he sucks as a shooter, but are there are any NBA shooters who shoot 88% from ft that struggle to shoot 3s? Especially at 18 yrs old. I think the shooting concern is massively overblown considering he is more than willing to take them at nearly 5 per game.
Compare that to Giddey shot 3.5 threes per game and 69% from FT
He also shot 40% from 3 in Serbian League last year at age 17. 21/52 from downtown and 42/49 from FT
https://www.proballers.com/basketball/player/237851/nikola-topic
44% in 7 game tourney here 9/17 from three and 32/33 from FT
https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/ngt/stats/expanded/?size=25&viewType=traditional&seasonCode=JTB22&statisticMode=perGame&seasonMode=Single&sortDirection=descending&statistic=score
There aren't many, but there aren't many who were as bad as he's been at the first place, his career % is 30% which is already very bad, especially with those who shoot in any kind of volume that resembles the modern game.
Topic is already a pretty big outlier with how bad his shooting is, to the point you can't look at this FT% and just say "Oh he'll be fine".
Yeah 30% isn't all that bad for a 17/18 yr old playing professionally. That is better than Buzelis and Holland and his FT% is far better.
There is very little disputing that Buzelis and Holland are *very* bad shooters who'll likely need a miracle to become even passable shooters at NBA level.
Topic's shooting will get somewhat better, it might even become passable, I just don't buy that it'll improve enough, even accounting for his great FT%. Most people who are that good from the line are at least passable from 3 even when they are young, Topic's starting point is that much lower, people don't realize the scale of improvement needed there.