Last Updated on July 25, 2024 by Mathew Diekhake
To become a very good shooter, Stephen Curry started shooting shots close to the basket and then once he got good at those shots, he stepped further back and started taking shots from further back until he was good at those shots. Curry has said that he doesn’t like it when he sees young basketball players trying to learn how to become great shooters by shooting three-point shots because that’s not how he started. He started with shots close to the rim and ended up with shots behind the three-point line. He also suggests that this was critical to him becoming a great three-point shooter and who many NBA superstars regard as the greatest shooter of all time.
My favorite player of all time, Tracy McGrady, says that Steph Curry is undoubtedly the greatest shooter of all time and doesn’t list my personal favorite shooter in his top five. My personal favorite shooter was Ray Allen. I might be biased in my opinion because I watched a lot of the Sonics when Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis were teammates. But I tend to rate players with great mechanics higher than others. To me, Ray Allen had the best mechanics and it might sway my opinion on his ability overall. Tracy McGrady has Reggie Miller above Ray Allen even though Miller didn’t have great mechanics. And that brings me to my last point about Steph Curry. Steph has said that every basketball player’s mechanics will vary depending on what their bodies want to do. Here he suggests that he may have tried adjusting his mechanics but was unsuccessful in doing so because his body was better off shooting a different way that was unique to him. And based on the results, we can’t argue with that necessarily, though Ray Allen had textbook mechanics that suggest you can change your mechanics to be perfect instead of what you naturally want to do.
One of the best ways you can improve your shooting is by shooting foul shots. If you get good at foul shooting, the rest of your shooting will only be so bad. In basketball, there are three main stances for taking a foul shot that each player mimics. One is to stand straight on with the rim. The second is to stand with your feet on a slight angle. And the third is to angle the feet even more. Note that you always keep the feet parallel to each other no matter what stance you choose. For me, I like to keep my keep on a slight angle from the rim so that my lead foot is facing the outside of the rim. It ends up with the back of my lead foot lined up with one side of the rim and the front side of my lead foot facing the other side of the rim, with the middle of the foot placed in the middle of the rim. The players who most closely resembled my technique are Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady.