The NBA evolves and changes constantly. Skill sets that are valuable one day are not quite as valuable the next. Players come to the league and challenge pre-conceived notions and sometimes the league is just not ready for it.
That is undoubtedly true when it comes to the 3-pointer’s evolution within the league.
The NBA introduced the ABA gimmick to the league for the 1980 season. And it was largely viewed as that — just a gimmick. As we detailed, it was not really until the mid-1990s (and with the help of a shortened 3-point line) that the 3-point line took off as a viable weapon to help with winning basketball.
That change and shift has had dramatic effects around the league.
It is not merely the volume of 3-pointers being taken in the modern game — it seems that every year a new single-season record for 3-pointers — it is the way they are taken. The game has evolved away from having two big men in the paint (although it is starting to swing back that way in some ways) and looks to spread the floor. Things are evolving further with the advent of 5-out offenses and using centers as playmakers now.
Basketball today looks very different than basketball did when the Magic joined the league 34 years ago. It looks different than it did when the Orlando Magic changed the league 15 years ago with their 2009 Finals run.
The Orlando Magic were part of the NBA’s 3-point revolution and had several players who played well ahead of the times they played in.
The Magic’s history is very central to the story of the 3-point-shooting revolution. Both in its initial burst in the mid-1990s with their plan to surround Shaquille O’Neal with shooters and its 2009 Finals run that saw them build the first winning 4-out team in the league.
But there are always players who fall through the cracks. There are always players whose skill sets are just well before anyone was ready or knew how to use them. There are always players who are well before their time and preview the world that is to come.
Every team finds these types of players. The Magic were among the teams that pushed the league toward the 3-point revolution. And they had plenty of players who were doing it far before their time, previewing the skills that became regular in the league.
As we spend this month celebrating the Magic’s history with shooting, we look at the pioneers who were well before their time who donned a Magic uniform.
5 Orlando Magic shooters before their times
Dennis Scott
There is no discussion about the evolution of the 3-point shot without a discussion about Dennis Scott and how he completely changed the league with his vision of what 3-point shooting could be.
The story goes that he had to fight to let his college coach, Bobby Cremins, let him shoot 3-pointers in transition instead of going to the basket on the fast break. The idea of spotting up for threes in transition was completely foreign.
Scott may not have been the only revolutionary, but he was a big part of the league’s overall change. He was one of the first true 3-point specialists and someone who just made the 3-pointer much cooler.
Dennis Scott still leads the Magic with 981 3-pointers made (81 ahead of Nick Anderson, another player who changed his style to embrace 3-pointers before anyone else really started to). Scott still holds that lead despite the change in the league — the closest modern player is Evan Fournier at 895.
Scott finished fifth in the league in 3-pointers made his rookie year. He had injuries that limited his time in 1992 and 1992. But he returned to the top of the 3-point charts, finishing second in the league (behind Dan Majerle) in 1994, 15th in 1995 (when 3-point shooting began to increase) and first with 267 3-pointers in 1996.
Magic players dot the single-season 3-point lists throughout those early years with Scott Skiles taking and making his share of 3-pointers early on in the Magic’s time. Nick Anderson would join them as the Magic started to make their push to the title.
But Scott was as much a catalyst as anyone. Scott still ranks 83rd all-time in 3-point field goals made. Only 21 players from the 1990s rank higher than him on the all-time 3-point list — led by Reggie Miller but featuring luminaries like Terry Porter, John Starks and Dale Ellis.
Scott was part of this revolution and this change in 3-point shooting. He was well ahead of his time and the Magic were better when they let Scott be Scott.
5 Orlando Magic shooters before their times
Pat Garrity
The real evolution in 3-point shooting in the NBA came when power forwards began to stretch out to the 3-point line. In the age of hand-checking and more physical play, teams needed a second post player to set extra screens and be an enforcer to protect big men from the physical play.
Orlando experimented with some forwards who could shoot beforehand. But never to the 3-point line.
Horace Grant was a solid shooter out to 18 feet and was money from the top of the free throw circle. Jeff Turner was even a better shooter than people remembered. If he had been given permission and time to develop a 3-point shot, he could have been among the first stretch-4s in the league (shout out to the original modern stretch-4 Sam Perkins).
Orlando was at the vanguard of the stretch-4 revolution with Rashard Lewis. But Pat Garrity may be the real first stretch-4 for the Magic.
Garrity came along just as the league was loosening its physicality that would open the door for players like him to thrive. Garrity was not a physical specimen at all but his 3-point shooting made him unique. Teams just did not really know what to do with a 6-foot-10 forward capable of hitting from the outside.
Garrity played nine seasons with the Magic averaging 7.4 points per game, topping off at 11.1 points per game in the 2002 season. Considering the style of play at the time was stand around and watch the superstar work one on one — and with the Magic’s roster and Tracy McGrady at the time, that was probably the right offense to run — having a player like Garrity to spread the floor was a real weapon.
Garrity shot 39.8-percent from beyond the arc, including three seasons shooting better than 40 percent from deep.
He was not just a stand-still shooter. He was good at coming around screens for a player of his size. And he was plenty clutch too, with his share of big shots for the Magic in his time.
Garrity was truly ahead of his time. If he had come around in the late 2000s and early 2010s, he would have been one of the most dangerous players in the league. He would have fit perfectly with the 2009 Magic in his prime.
He may not have had the overall athleticism to compete in today’s NBA. There was a narrow window for his success. In this time, he came just before his skills would have peaked in value.
5 Orlando Magic shooters before their times
Hedo Turkoglu
The revolution that was the 2009 Orlando Magic deserves a much longer post during this month celebrating shooting. They changed the league in many ways — and even forced their opponent in the NBA Finals to embrace the change that was coming to the league to beat them.
There were a lot of things the Magic did that were so far ahead of their times.
The accident that turned Rashard Lewis from a post-up small forward to a stretch-4 is a story that should be told and retold — Lewis signed specifically not to play power forward but after Dwight Howard broke Tony Battie’s collarbone, Stan Van Gundy and his staff asked Lewis to move up a spot and he accepted. That change was probably happening anyway, but it was truly revolutionary with what Van Gundy was trying to do.
That story deserves its own post. But Van Gundy was also revolutionizing things in another way.
He was going to make Hedo Turkoglu one of his main playmakers, a trust that Turkoglu never got with any other team or coach before him. There had been other 6-foot-10 point forwards before — Magic Johnson the most notable of them. But teams did not really let their big forwards handle the ball.
Not to this extent.
Add in Turkoglu’s 3-point shooting and this was something the league did not know how to handle. It could easily be argued that Orlando’s trust in Turkoglu was the matchup nightmare that helped the team reach the 2009 Finals and break other teams’ defenses.
The fact Hedo Turkoglu was adept at the pick and roll with the best roll-man center in the league in Dwight Howard, was a capable passer out of that pick and roll and could step out and hit 3-pointers, just changed everything.
Turkoglu finished his seven years in Orlando shooting 37.9-percent from beyond the arc. The 2009 season was actually his worst 3-point shooting season with his first sting in Orlando at 35.9-percent.
Turkoglu was just a weapon that was hinted at around the league at the time, but nobody really used it.
The Magic’s success in 2009 changed how the league began to think about players less as positions and more as skill sets. Turkoglu changed that perception.
5 Orlando Magic shooters before their times
Ryan Anderson
The Orlando Magic’s experiments with the stretch-4 continued throughout Stan Van Gundy’s tenure. Almost to an obsession.
Once it was clear how much Rashard Lewis was working, the Magic were hunting for similar backups. That pursuit may very well have cost the Orlando Magic a title when they traded Trevor Ariza (still unrefined as a shooter, but an ace defender) to the Los Angeles Lakers for a defensive-minded wing in Maurice Evans and stretch-4 Brian Cook.
Ariza ended up killing the Magic with his versatile defense in the 2009 NBA Finals. Evans was gone after the 2008 season (turned into Mickael Pietrus with the mid-level exception) and Cook was a bit player for the 2009 Finals team.
Cook was exclusively a 3-point shooter as a 6-foot-9 forward. He was fine as a shooter — 40.0-percent in two seasons with the Magic and 38.2-percent for his career — but not much of an impact.
Really, the biggest change for the Magic came when they acquired Ryan Anderson. In Anderson, they found a stretch-4 they could really press to become the modern kind of player they were seeking.
Ryan Anderson was acquired as a throw-in for the team’s acquisition of Vince Carter. As controversial as that move became, Anderson was a steal for the team and a key player for the team as Lewis sat out the first 10 games due to a PED suspension.
Anderson was a revelation as a true exclusive 3-point shooting power forward. He averaged 11.4 points per game and shot 38.8-percent from beyond the arc in three seasons with the team. He was a player that defenses everywhere had to account for, almost more so than any other player on the team, especially after the trades that sent out Rashard Lewis and Vince Carter in Dec. 2010.
Anderson stepped up for the team at that point. He became indispensable and his 3-point shooting was truly a weapon.
He was probably the most 3-point-specific specialist the Magic had since Scott. He was just a great sharpshooter.
5 Orlando Magic shooters before their times
Mo Bamba
The next evolution around the NBA is the advent of the stretch-5.
The idea of inverting the traditional idea of basketball and having your center shoot from beyond the arc is slowly changing the league. Big men have to be skilled now, they cannot be mere brutes or else they could get blown by off the dribble.
The idea behind the stretch-5 has freed up space for the crazy amount of playmakers and drivers in the league. Teams are moving to switching defenses because they trust centers to be able to hold their own on the perimeter.
Center skills are becoming more valuable in non-centers just as much as shooting is becoming valuable in centers. Not to mention playmaking now that Nikola Jokic has become a two-time MVP as a playmaking center.
Orlando is still trying to find its way in this new wave. For the first time, Orlando is not leading or near the lead of the 3-pointe evolution.
The Magic have had few stretch-5s before. The experiment signing Channing Frye to a four-year deal was dipping the toe into this world.
Frye was a great 3-point shooter in Orlando even though he still largely played power forward. Nikola Vucevic’s evolution into an All-Star came because he expanded out to the 3-point line.
The Magic’s first stretch-5 experiment in full has come with Mo Bamba.
Bamba has shot 35.2-percent from beyond the arc for his career, topping off last year at 38.1-percent. He has had burst games where he hits a bunch of 3-pointers and becomes a player teams had no answer for. That is the threat and promise a stretch-5 brings.
Bamba has inverted a lot of the thoughts about center. He has taken 39.8-percent of his shots from beyond the arc in his career. That does not sound like it is going to slow down, even as the Magic move to more traditional stretch lineups and separate Mo Bamba from Wendell Carter in their lineup next year.
The idea in drafting Bamba with the sixth pick in 2018 was to find the team’s true unicorn. They were looking for someone equally adept at shooting and defending the perimeter as he was protecting the rim and shot-blocking.
That promise has not quite panned out yet. Bamba has struggled to put all this talent together. But Orlando cannot quit the project either. The idea of his threat on the inside and the out is where the NBA is heading. And what the Magic want to find.