Kawhi's 3pt shooting is underrated

[basketballcat]

Everybody raves about Durant being a natural shooter. Can't blame them, his shot is a thing of beauty. In comparison, Kawhi's look flat. There is a reason for that, though. Kawhi goes for stability and repeatability. That is why he tries to minimise the length of the ball trajectory.

Anyway, did you know that Kawhi is a better 3pt shooter than Durant?
career averages, regular season
Kawhi: 38.7%
Durant: 38.5%

It gets even more pronounced in the playoffs
career averages, regular season
Kawhi: 39.9%
Durant: 35.6%

In fact, Kawhi's playoff 3pt% is as good at Curry's (40.1%). Another thing that is notable about Kawhi's shooting is that it gets better in the playoffs. Both Durant & Curry get worse.

Kawhi is not just an elite mid-range shooter, he's an elite 3-pt shooter too.

[iamgine]

The difference is Kawhi seldom took a tightly defended 3s and when he does his % is abysmal. While Durant regularly took tightly defended 3s with good %.

[basketballcat]

And how do you know this for sure? Eye test?

[iamgine]

stats?

[Axe]

Kawhi is responsible for popularizing load management in the league.

[basketballcat]

stats?

I would love to see those. What stat tracks "tightly defended 3s"?

[SATAN]

Pretty sure everyone knows Kawhi is a good shooter. He just isn't praised for it like other guys because he's barely on the court.

[ArbitraryWater]

He‘s a sniper yea, wild.

[ImKobe]

If you look at their shooting in he POs they're damn near identical from 0-3 ft up to 3s since 2016 (start of Kawhi's prime). Kawhi has the high-volume ~50% mid-range jumper in the POs as well. Kawhi's numbers do get better in the POs and a big reason for that is him being injured and also load-managing, so he's not going all out in the RS while Durant's had to carry a much bigger load in the RS.

[SouBeachTalents]

The difference is Kawhi seldom took a tightly defended 3s and when he does his % is abysmal. While Durant regularly took tightly defended 3s with good %.
Stats or gtfo