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Orlando Magic Shooting Month: 5 Most Improved Magic shooters

By Philip Rossman-Reich

Nikola Vucevic has established himself as a solid player. But notice will only come with flash, and more importantly winning. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports
Nikola Vucevic has established himself as a solid player. But notice will only come with flash, and more importantly winning. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports /
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Nick Anderson, Orlando Magic
Nick Anderson was a capable shooter in college, but did not embrace the line until Shaquille O’Neal’s arrival with the Orlando Magic. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images) /

5 most improved Orlando Magic shooters

Nick Anderson

The NBA was extremely different when the Orlando Magic entered the league and drafted Nick Anderson. The kind of teams and the kind of players that teams valued and the way teams played were not designed to take advantage of the 3-point shot. The mid-range jumper was kind and post-play was the supreme skill.

Anderson arrived in Orlando to play a similar style that he played in college with Illinois — the famed “Flying Illini” teams. The Magic wanted to play up-tempo with guards swooping into the basket. But the three was not a concern.

It is hard to imagine a Nick Anderson who was not a great three-point shooter. He hit so many big 3-pointers — from the 1995 Eastern Conference Finals in Game 1 when he hit a big shot and then pounded the floor in celebration or when he did the Merton Hanks dance after hitting the game-winning three over the Los Angeles Lakers in Shaquille O’Neal’s first game back in Orlando in 1998.

But that is not how he started his career at all. He was a capable shooter. But Anderson preferred in the half-court to back players down and use his size to post up guards and attack the basket that way.

In college, Anderson shot 36.1-percent from deep on 72 total attempts (66 of them in his sophomore season). He averaged only 1.0 attempts per game.

When he got to the NBA, he was not much of a shooter. Anderson 30.0-percent on 3-pointers on 160 total attempts in his first three seasons in the league. He just was not used as a 3-point shooter.

He made only 1 of 17 3-pointers in his rookie year. There was only the memory of his college game to suggest he could be a great 3-point shooter.

O’Neal changed all of that and Anderson quickly became a dominant 3-point shooter.

In the years O’Neal was in Orlando — from 1993-96 — Anderson shot 37.6-percent from deep on 4.5 3-point attempts per game from deep. His 3-point attempts jumped from 85 in 1992 to 249 in 1993 with O’Neal’s arrival. His role completely changed and Anderson became a major part of the Magic’s 3-point revolution.

And it largely continued as he took 405 3-point attempts in 1997, the first year without O’Neal. There were fewer 3-point shots without O’Neal creating gravity and the need to set up Anderson as a bigger creator and scorer, but Anderson was now a 3-point shooter.

He always had it in him, but it was not important until O’Neal arrived. And Anderson became one of the Magic’s best all-time shooters very suddenly.