Over 82 games last season, DeMar DeRozan made five three-pointers in 52 attempts. On Wednesday night, DeRozan matched that total in eight attempts in a win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
As NBA.com’s John Schuhmann noted yesterday, DeRozan’s three-point percentage (9.6 percent) was the worst in NBA history for a player with at least 50 attempts. On a more positive note, DeRozan has a chance to make history again. If he shoots better than 35.6 percent from beyond the arc this season, DeRozan will make the largest single-season improvement by any player with at least 50 attempts both seasons. That record currently belongs to Josh Childress, who went from 23.2 percent to 49.2 percent between his first and second campaigns. Just one other player (Hubert Davis, after a fluke down year) has improved his three-point percentage by more than 20 percent.
It’s surely much too early to speculate where DeRozan (currently 10-of-16, 62.5 percent) might finish the season. Already, however, he’s shown more development than most players make after shooting so poorly from downtown.
Player Year 3P% 3P 3A 3P%
DeMar DeRozan 2011 .096 10 16 .625
Dennis Johnson 1987 .113 12 46 .261
Michael Jordan 1988 .132 27 98 .276
Greg Anthony 1992 .145 4 30 .133
Detlef Schrempf 1993 .154 22 68 .324
Larry Hughes 1999 .154 29 125 .232
Mookie Blaylock 1991 .154 12 54 .222
Allen Leavell 1984 .155 8 37 .216
Micheal Ray Richardson 1983 .157 14 58 .241
Larry Drew 1987 .167 26 90 .289
Ray Williams 1982 .167 15 74 .203
Tony Campbell 1990 .167 16 61 .262
Rod Strickland 1997 .169 12 48 .250
Terence Stansbury 1986 .170 11 29 .379
Dwyane Wade 2006 .171 21 79 .266
Michael Jordan 1985 .173 3 18 .167
DeRozan has already made more threes the following season than three of the previous 15 guys who shot worse than 17.5 percent with at least 50 attempts. No one in this group made more than 30 triples the next year, a number that DeRozan has a chance to breeze past.
There’s another encouraging fact here, and it’s the number of these players who eventually became competent outside shooters. Obviously Michael Jordan stands out. Jordan eventually became a fine three-point shooter, especially when the line was moved in from 1994-95 through 1996-97. Mookie Blaylock ranks 29th in NBA history in threes. And Detlef Schrempf shot 38.4 percent in his career, including 51.4 percent in 1994-95. So even before his successful start to the year, it was much too early to write off DeRozan’s chances of developing into an accurate marksman.
