What can NBA’s best shooters tell us about Kispert’s future? originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
If the trajectory of Corey Kispert‘s rookie season with the Wizards is any indication, he is likely to come back a noticeably improved player this upcoming 2022-23 season.
Those first-year numbers overall do not tell the full story, as Kispert raised his field goal percentage every single month and shot 38.6% from three after the All-Star break (24 games) as opposed to 32.2% before it arrived (53 games) while he dealt with an inconsistent role in the rotation.
Kispert, 23, figures to be a more important piece for the Wizards moving forward, in part because 3-point shooting was one of their biggest weaknesses last year and that is expected to be his specialty in the NBA. Kispert was widely regarded as the best shooter in the 2021 draft class after a four-year career at Gonzaga where he made threes with accuracy, in volume and across a large sample size.
But Kispert is entering just his second year in the league and even though he played a full college career, he’s still in the early stages of his professional development. Even if he someday blossoms into a great NBA 3-point shooter, it could take years before that happens.
So, what can the Wizards expect from him this season in that regard? Some of the great 3-point shooters currently in the league and of the modern era may provide some perspective. A look at how long they needed to reach their primes as 3-point shooters may signal how long Kispert will need to reach his own.
First, a review of Kispert’s shooting numbers from last season. He shot 35% from long range on 4.2 attempts across 77 games, 36 of them starts. He made 112 out of 320 total 3-point attempts and, as noted above, he finished strong. Over the final two months of the season, he knocked down 39.4% from three across 22 games.
While it was an all-around solid start to his NBA career, in order to join the ranks of the league’s top perimeter shooters, he has a ways to go. There are two markers that could be used to represent that top 3-point shooting tier. One is 200 threes made and the other is 40% while making at least two threes per game.
Last season, 18 players made 200 or more threes. The last 82-game season before that, 2018-19, saw 12 players hit that milestone. The three seasons before had 12, 11 (including Russell Westbrook — people forget) and eight (including Stephen Curry‘s NBA-record 402). Bradley Beal, Davis…