Patrick Beverley Has Become An Elite Shooter

The Houston Rockets’ 2015-2016 has been disappointing to say the least. There’s no walking around that. However, I am a believer in looking at the positive things the Rockets are doing instead of focusing so much on the negative things they are also doing (Believe me, there are lots of negatives). If we continue to harp on the negatives, we tend to overlook the positives.

One of the many things being overlooked is Patrick Beverley’s elite 3-point shooting. That’s right, I said elite. Beverley is shooting the basketball at an incredible 42.4% from behind the arc – the highest on the Rockets by a large margin. Even known shooters like Jason Terry (37.6%), Marcus Thornton (35.9%) and star shooting guard James Harden (33.6%) are shooting at lower clips than the feisty point guard.

Now, Beverley has always been a good 3-point shooter (career 37%), but even this is unprecedented for him. This isn’t just good, this is great. The 2014-15 Skills Challenge winner’s 3-point prowess is good enough to land him 14th in the league in 3-point shooting. That falls him just short of great shooters like Kawhi Leonard, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson but puts him directly ahead of the following known great 3-point shooters:

Channing Frye (18th at 42.2%)
Anthony Morrow (19th at 41.6%)
Kevin Durant (20th at 41.5%)
C.J. McCollum (22nd at 39.8%)
Manu Ginobili (23rd at 39.6%)
Dirk Nowitzki (27th at 39.2%)
Paul George (28th at 39.2%)
J.R. Smith (30th at 39%)
Bradley Beal (31st at 38.9%)
Damian Lillard (42nd at 37.4%)
Eric Gordon (50th at 36.9%)

This is just so insane that it has to be fake.

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The last Houston Rockets to ever crack the top 15 in 3-point shooting percentage were Luther Head and Shane Battier in the 2006-07 season (4th and 12th respectively and 44.1% and 42.1%). Just sit on that. That’s 10 years where a Rocket has not cracked the top 15 in 3-point percentage.

Beverley is also making these shots in an array of different situations. If you were a betting man, you would assume that the majority of his made 3s are coming off catch-and-shoot situations and terrible with anything else. You would be right, but also completely wrong. It’s true, Beverley has been on fire in catch-and-shoot situations (42.2% from 3). However, even in pull-up situations, not only does Beverley stay good, he gets better (42.9%). Just hold on – it gets even crazier.

With zero dribbles (classified as a catch and shoot situation), Beverley is 42.2%, with 1 dribble he’s 46.2%, with 3-6 dribbles, he’s 50%, and with 7 or more dribbles Patrick Beverley is 50%. I know – sample size, but even then it’s completely dumbfounding.