There are three-point specialists in every group. The players who enter the league with that all-important skill and exercised it to their fullest from the very moment they stepped on the floor are easy to spot.
These are the guys that we think of when it comes to shooting. The guys that teams covet and can transform an entire offense.
As we have detailed throughout all of August, shooting is one of the most important skills and it has evolved greatly through the course of the past 33 years the Magic have played. Orlando had a big role to play in that development, and were among the early adopters of the 3-point shot as a major tool.
Every team in the NBA has always chased shooting. While there are always clear shooters, there are still players who work to improve their outside shot. The Orlando Magic have seen plenty of players become 3-point shooters and make a positive impact on their team.
Shooting is the most coveted and important skill in the modern NBA, completely transforming offenses with spacing and gravity that makes things almost impossible to defend. Shooting is so evolved these days, teams are throwing out gimmick defenses just to cover everything.
While we will continue to celebrate great shooters like Dennis Scott, J.J. Redick and Rashard Lewis — our final list of the top-20 shooters in Magic history is coming later this week! — there is another side to the shooting equation that deserves recognition.
These are the players who improved and embraced the 3-point shot later in their careers. The players who stepped their games up from beyond the arc over time are just as laudable and important in the long run.
The Magic have seen the 3-point shot transform their team. They have also seen the 3-point shot transform players on their team. And it is completely true that becoming a better 3-point shooter changes what a team can do with that player.
As we finish up our celebration of the Magic’s shooting month, we need to highlight the players who used their time with the Magic to become 3-point shooters and improve their 3-point shot. It is a chance to look at and highlight how 3-point improvement makes a player that much more valuable and helps the team improve.
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.
5 most improved Orlando Magic shooters
Darrell Armstrong
When Orlando Magic fans think of Darrell Armstrong, they think of the hustle and the energy. That was how Armstrong got his foot in the door.
He was a spark plug. The Magic snatched him from the CBA because he just stood out with how off the wall he was. There was no off button with him and he constantly made everyone award of his presence.
That was enough to pique interest. And the Magic added him for the end of the 1995 season — his oversized mustard-colored suits were one of the highlights of the Magic’s Finals run as he was jumping all over his new teammates giving what energy he could from off the bench.
Armstrong made an early name for himself with his energy and supreme athleticism. Yes, his performance in the 1997 Slam Dunk Contest is one everyone wants to forget. But he earned his way in there.
That was all good. It got his foot in the door. But he became the NBA’s Most Improved Player and Sixth Man of the Year in 1999 because he suddenly became a reliable 3-point shooter.
Armstrong’s first regular playing time came in 1997 when he made 30.4-percent from beyond the arc on 1.4 attempts per game. In 1998, he improved to 36.8-percent from deep on 1.4 attempts per game.
But he took the leap in 1999. He made 36.5-percent of his 3.8 attempts per game. He followed that up with 34.0-percent in the Heart & Hustle year on 4.9 attempts per game.
Armstrong continued to rely on the 3-point shot and became a solid 3-point shooter throughout his career. The percentages are not as strong as they would become in the modern age. But Armstrong carved his place in the league not just with his hustle, but with his skill and his ability to spread the floor.
That became important to help Tracy McGrady as much as he could. He was a playmaker and creator to generate offense. But his shooting was vital to his staying power in the league just as much as his hustle and energy were.
5 most improved Orlando Magic shooters
Hedo Turkoglu
Hedo Turkoglu was something that a lot of the league could not figure out through the early part of his career.
The Sacramento Kings used him off the bench as essentially a stretch-4 as they fought for their piece of the championship. Turkoglu averaged 7.5 points per game and made 35.8-percent of his 1.5 3-point attempts per game in three seasons in Sacramento.
The Sacramento Kings traded him to the San Antonio Spurs after three seasons, where he seemed a bit lost for that lone year — he averaged 9.2 points per game. He showed hints of what he could do — he made 41.9-percent from beyond the arc.
His first few years in Orlando before the Finals run were still Turkoglu trying to figure things out. But Turkoglu was unique as a 6-foot-10 forward who could work and shoot from the outside. He was starting to find his comfort.
Before the big 3-pointers in the 2009 Playoffs and his near-All-Star season in 2008, he was figuring things out.
In three seasons before Stan Van Gundy’s arrival, Turkoglu scored 14.1 points per game and shot 39.1-percent from beyond the arc on 3.7 attempts per game.
The thing about Turkoglu’s time in Orlando was that he got the shot volume to showcase what he could do. He was not just the bit player. The Magic figured out how to unleash him.
It went into overdrive with Van Gundy’s arrival and his decision to put the ball in Turkoglu’s hands more. In 2008 and 2009, Turkoglu averaged 18.2 points per game and shot 37.9-percent from beyond the arc on 5.0 3-point attempts per game.
This was Turkoglu without any restrictions and complete trust. He could be the playmaker and passer he always had the skill to be. And he had the freedom to take 3-pointers at volume. That was the point of what the Magic did. And Turkoglu was the perfect pick-and-roll partner for Dwight Howard.
Turkoglu hit plenty of big 3-pointers along the way. That was all because of the confidence the Magic embued in him.
5 most improved Orlando Magic shooters
Nikola Vucevic
The Orlando Magic got Nikola Vucevic as a wide-eyed second-year player still waiting for his first real opportunity to play. The Magic had plenty of that to give in their first year after trading Dwight Howard. Vucevic was the “centerpiece” player of that Howard trade — a four-team monstrosity that saw Andrew Bynum and Andre Iguodala get moved but not to Orlando.
Orlando did not really know what it had. The team really never found out what it had until much later in his playing career. He seemed destined to get traded every year, but Orlando found it hard to part with him.
At a certain point, Vucevic made it impossible for the Magic to trade him until they got their ransom from the Chicago Bulls in 2021.
Vucevic proved to be a double-double machine, which was a great place for a young player to start. He was a solid screener in pick and rolls, he could post-up effectively and he could step out to the mid-range and hit jumpers.
The Magic really could use him however they needed.
But it was not until he added a 3-point shot that things transformed for Vucevic. Limited before to inside the paint, teams could crash the paint and challenge him defensively with little impunity. Vucevic got his numbers but the floor was crowded.
In his first four seasons with Orlando, he shot 18 total 3-pointers. He took a big leap with 75 3-pointers in 2017 — the season when Serge Ibaka arrived and pushed Vucevic to the perimeter a bit more.
Vucevic was starting to add the 3-pointer, but it was still not a shot he was comfortable with. In his first six seasons with the Magic, he shot just 30.6-percent from deep on 0.7 3-point attempts per game.
But he needed to adapt his offense. And when things clicked, it clicked.
In the 2019 season, he took 231 3-pointers and made 36.4-percent from deep. That made Vucevic an All-Star and became a huge part of his game.
He never reached that high of a percentage again with the Magic. But his ability to stretch the floor not only made him an All-Star but gave the Magic’s offense some needed space. It was something the team desperately missed in the years after Howard left.
He returned to the All-Star Game in 2021, making 40.6-percent of his 288 3-pointers before his trade to the Chicago Bulls. In his final three seasons with the Magic, he made 37.0-percent of his 3-pointers on 4.3 attempts per game.
There really are few players who transformed his play the way Vucevic did. The 3-pointer turned Vucevic into something completely different and made the Magic a playoff team again, even if the team still had its limitations and its struggles.
5 most improved Orlando Magic shooters
Victor Oladipo
When the Orlando Magic drafted Victor Oladipo, they knew they were getting a dynamic athlete who could attack the basket and finish with athleticism. They were banking on his defense and the comparisons to Dwyane Wade as the centerpiece of their rebuild with the second overall pick.
They truly believed Oladipo would grow into an improved 3-point shooter. He showed hints of it in college, but his years at Indiana were not about his shooting — although he improved each season in school topping off at 44.1-percent from deep in his final year in Bloomington.
It was always going to be a work in progress for Oladipo. But for him to become an All-Star and the player the Magic envisioned, he would need to add the 3-pointer to complement his driving ability.
It was slow going to get him there. But in many of Oladipo’s biggest games, it was because he could hit from the outside. When he had these big burst games, it was because he caught fire from deep.
Oladipo shot 32.7-percent in his rookie year and progressed nicely to 33.9-percent in his second year and 34.8-percent in his final year in Orlando.
Oladipo was every bit the dynamic athlete. He struggled to finish consistently at the rim and get to the foul line. Orlando ultimately questioned how much he was worth in free agency and opted to trade him for a get-rich-quick scheme with Serge Ibaka.
That ended up being the best thing for Oladipo. Going to a franchise like Oklahoma City where he was a secondary player helped focus his 3-point shooting and he became the star player the Magic always envisioned.
In his lone season with the Oklahoma City Thunder, he shot 36.1-percent from deep. He continued to improve, topping off at 37.1-percent with the Indiana Pacers in the 2018 season on 5.8 attempts per game. That 3-point shot is why Oladipo suddenly seemed to make good on all of his potential and become that All-Star.
It was perhaps percolating in Orlando if the team had the faith and the patience to see it through. That was just something the Magic did not have.
Injuries zapped him of his athleticism. And Oladipo is still working to reinvent himself as a shooter. Last year for the Miami Heat, he shot 41.7-percent from deep on 4.5 attempts per game. He might be a shooter yet.