Friday, December 11th, 2009 at 11:45 am  |  17 responses

Jesus Opines

The Decade’s Best Shooter weighs in on the decade’s best shooter.

by Aaron Kaplowitz

Labeling Ray Allen as the Top Shooter of the Decade launched a healthy debate about his merits compared to some of the League’s other top snipers. After receiving a fair share of praise and condemnation for my decision, I did what any of us would have done and asked Allen to weigh in. He offered a surprising answer and waxed philosophical on what it takes and what it means to be a shooter. Below is an excerpt from our conversation.

SLAM: Who do you consider the best shooter this decade?
Ray Allen: The best shooter this decade? Dirk. dirk

SLAM: Why?
RA: There’s always a separation in this league of shooters and scorers. He’s been a guy that can score, he’s scored a lot of points, but at the same time he’s shooting from all over the floor, from three to mid-range. He doesn’t get a lot of layups, but he creates a big matchup (problem). He’s been having big games for his franchise over the last ten years.

SLAM: Would you consider yourself more of a shooter or scorer?
RA: Me personally, I would categorize myself more as a scorer. I think my shooting is a weapon, but I have always been known for scoring.

SLAM: Would you say you establish your outside game first and use that to take advantage of overzealous defenders and get to the hole, or vice versa?
RA: I think early on it was to the basket and then shooting the ball. Now people think I’m a shooter and then I can get to hole. You know the mid-range is probably the most important shot nowadays.

SLAM: Do you have to be a prolific three-point shooter to be part of this discussion? Can a guy like Rip Hamilton, who doesn’t attempt many threes be considered?
RA: Yeah I think ultimately you have to be able to shoot the three ball, because being a great shooter means you could put the ball in from all over the floor. I think he can hit the three but I just don’t think he takes a lot of them.

SLAM: Who has the best form? It would be hard to give that to Dirk…
RA: I wouldn’t say that he has great form. I learned a long time ago, even before I got to the NBA that there are guys that have great form but don’t work at shooting. Shooting is hard work. The only time I’ll say if a guy has great form is if I see him making it over and over again, you kind of see why he’s making it because he has pretty good form. But you look at some of the weird looking jumpshots in the League today and in the history of the League, guys know how to make shots because they work on it

SLAM: So if a guy like Bill Cartwright hit every shot he’d be a great shooter?
RA: Mmm-hmmm. Yep. Great shooting has to do with hitting shots in big games, playoff games, 4th quarter — that’s where you get labeled as a great shooter.

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  • http://slamonline.com/ niQ

    I feel like Dirk is a great scorer, but Ray Allen is a better shooter.

  • http://Www.lkz.ch Darksaber

    Straight from the horses mouth. Interesting that he’d say that, but some of the commenters made the same statement on the Ray post, so it isn’t too far fetched. No player has been more recognizable for his shooting than Dirk. Still think Jesus has the purrrtiest shot of the decade, maybe even in nba history (forgive me Glen Rice’s wife)

  • k.a.

    I like rays definition of a guy who can put it in from any spot. A lot of guys have their sweet spot, like the corner three, isolation guys like the 45 compared to top of the key, but a guy who can score from all angles is quite impressive in itself. Because most defense starts with getting ur guy to catch it in a spot where he’s least comfortable, a guy like, say bird, was tough cover even if all ur doing is stopping his shooting.

  • JOMAY

    I’d still say it’s Ray-ray! He’s just being modest/humble about the best shooter title. but i think he is. he even won the best looking jumpshot!

  • Foobar

    Ask Dirk. He’s gonna say Allen for sure.

  • LA Huey

    We should ask Deshawn. He’d prolly say Deshawn.

  • tavoris

    Foobar-you’re probably right.

  • http://www.michaelcho.com M Cho

    And that’s why everyone loves Ray – he’s classy, modest, and an intelligent and knowledgeable student of the game. And his jumper is smooth like butter.

  • fatjeansince’88

    I know this is limited to this decade, but all time would Jabbar be considered for best shooter, or only jumpshots?

  • http://www.triplejunearthed.com/dacre Dacre

    Dirk.

  • http://www.triplejunearthed.com/dacre Dacre

    If you want to look outside of this decade your going to have to focus on these guys….

    X Mark Price
    X Craig Hodges
    X Reggie Miller
    X Chuck Person

  • J

    if you take/make more difficult off-balanced shots and still a great shooter doesn’t that make you a better shooter than the one who has a great form?

  • d.j.

    peja the best… no discussion needed….

  • http://www.yahoo.com Logues

    ask every guy in the nba, and i bet almost all of them would say ray allen, and peja? are u serious? u do know how a long a decade is right?

  • Kadavour

    Can’t argue with Ray here. the only weapon Ray has that Dirk doesn’t is his quick release of screens, but at the same time Ray doesn’t have Dirk’s fadeaway game. I’d split this award between them. Can’t really argue AGAINST either person.

  • http://www.sixers.com 360vue

    Ray is humble, so the Dirk-deflection is probably down to that, although Dirk is more singleminded in his ways of scoring, but eitherway it is good to see Dirk get some public credit from an influential peer. He get’s bashed on here too often… On the issue of form, Ray’s is nice and perfect for himself but it’s somewhat idiosyncratic, I guess they all are… but I would go out on a limb and say Nash has the most flawless form that I’ve seen consistently enough to be able to comment… Kobe’s form when shooting close or in lay ups is ridiculos though, in those situations it’s all about adjustments and he’s the jedi master at that ish

  • http://celticknightk3@aol.com Celtic Knight

    @Dacre where is Larry “Legend” Bird? Didn’t he win three 3-point shootout titles and even defeated Craig Hodges and not to mentioned winning several games with clutch 3-point shooting. What about Dale Ellis?!

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