Ranking the greatest 3-Point Shooters in Sixers History

Ranking the greatest 3-Point Shooters in Sixers History

Derek, welcome to the show. Of course, Derek Devon here live from the Xfinity Lounge presented by Rothman Orthopedics and our good buddy from the All City Network, a a native of the area, of course, Tim Leggler, also part of ESPN, reportedly going to be one of the lead guys on the broadcast with Mike Breen and Richard Jefferson. So, hat tip to him. Also, we can’t forget about he’s going to be on the call for 2K26 as well. So, big stuff for Tim Leggler. One of the best three-point shooters in the NBA during the time that he played and he’s a SA grad as well. With that, we figured let’s talk about the best three-point shooters in Sixers history because while he did not play, the local ties are there. So, Derek, let’s talk about the best guys in Sixers history. three-point shooting like Tim Leggler. By the way, Tim Leggler not too shabby in uh the 95 96 season. 52% from three-point range in 77 games for the Washington Wizards. Also won a three-point title at All-Star weekend as well. So, let’s run through a few. Who’s your first one that comes to mind? So, I’m not like I don’t know. This is a tough one to rank in part because obviously a three-point shot has become way more prevalent in today’s game. So, not only are you allowed to take more, like if you would shoot 10 threes per game in the early 2000s, Larry Brown would have had you on the bench so quickly, you wouldn’t even know what to do. No doubt. But also, you just work on it way more, right? Like Joel Embiid 25 years ago would have never been like, “Hey, big man, why don’t you go work on that three-pointer?” They just wouldn’t have tolerated it. So there’s a lot better shooters now. So I like to try to frame things in the era that they’ve played. So the first place I’m going to go is Kyle Corver. Perfect. A guy who was shooting 43 44% from three-point range. Was Abraham the coach at that time? I mean, look, you have if you’re going to play Kyle, I’m just asking. He’s he’s he was Yeah. Okay. Yeah, he was. Yeah. No, that was right after that was 03 he came in. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But you’re talking about a guy who’s shooting 43% 42 43% for a couple years in a row shooting five per game like 60% of his shots from three-point range. And the way he could get them, you know, it could be, you know, his footwork was perfect like coming up in transition, getting his his base set, coming off of screens, relocating, like he was a I think a pretty early example of what the game would become. Uh, and he was just a terrific, terrific shooter. He was a fantastic shooter. Uh, you knew how good of a shooter he was when Allen Iverson would just simply have a good look but pass to him as a rookie as a second round player that was acquired via trade. I don’t even know if that was cash. I think they just that was cash that Billy King paid for Kyle Corver. That’s how good Kyle Corver was. I agree with you on that one. My next one would be Hershey Hawkins, man. Allstar in the Sixers uniform. Played with Charles Barkley. 98 uh pardon me, the 88 89 season was his rookie year all the way up to the 92 93 campaign. He played 79 82 80 81 81 in those games, man. He was a starter right from the getout because of that ability to shoot the basketball. Hersy Hawkins his best season with the Sixers. his rookie year he shot 42% which was 428. So I always like to round those off. He was a 43% shooter on yes only two attempts man but he was that dangerous as a three-point shooter for his career in the Sixers uniform the five years that he was there. He shot 40% from three-point range as a Philadelphia 76er. He then went on to play for the Seattle SuperSonics and Charlotte Hornets and the Chicago Bulls so on and so forth. But man, Derek, he was that good as a three-point shooter. Cris I was just going to say if we use your math where we round everything up, then he hit that 40% threshold every year. Okay. Two of them were 39.7%. Right. We’re doing Devon math. He hit 40% every year of his career. Amazingly consistent. Fantastic. And he’s a guy who like if you look at if he played in different era like he shot I think for his six years career he only took 2.9 three-point attempts per game out of 14 field goal attempts. If he played nowadays he’d be shooting six or seven per game easily. Easily. What what what player would you look at him right now? And we do the comps and all. It’s just more of the translating that player to this era. What is that? Who is that? Is he is he upgraded from a JJ Reic role? Is he is he had a little more off the dribble than JJ like JJ wanted a durable handoff. Percy was a little more like I’m going to dribble off of that screen and launch one. Um so yeah, he’s a he’s a tough guy to put into a perfect bucket. But man, I think he would have been built way better for this era. But he’s taken six to seven a game. Yep. Especially cuz he was playing heavy minutes. Like for him to be playing 38 minutes per game and shooting like two threes per game regular season. Come on. Do you Did you not realize that those are worth more than the two-pointers and he’s shooting 42% and you’re like, “No, no, no. Only take two. We We don’t want those extra points.” I agree. I agree. Who you got next? Killed me. Yeah. Who you got next? So, you know, there’s a couple here that are certainly recent examples in like someone like Robert Coington or Danny Green. I’m not going to put them up there just because that adversity of the shot wasn’t enough. And I do appreciate those guys like CV who had such a high release point that they would shoot contested. Cington over Green still. No, I think he because of his willingness to take a contested three that was especially early on in his career and not put on the floor and you don’t want Rob. No, please don’t shoot pass. Totally different. Totally different. We got So, this isn’t I’m not going to go with the best one, right? Because that’s a completely different conversation. I’m just gonna bring up somebody I loved watching play because there was no stakes during that time and because it was just fun to watch him launch like a 30-footer. Cannonball. That guy when he got hot, he was cinema. And when he was not hot, he was cinema, too, cuz he could shoot you out of a game. Yeah. But man, it was an experience. He could certainly shoot. It’s probably the only thing he could really do at an NBA level. That’s why he was in the league. And again, not the best shooter out of the ones remaining, not the most significant in Sixers history, but it was just a joy to watch and in part because you’re talking about like a 2014 2015 timeline. Wins didn’t matter. You just wanted to be entertained while losing games. He was perfect. I love it, man. I love I didn’t even expect you to go Isaiah Cannon. Not one bit at all. But man, was it fun. He took his his last year at the Sixers. It’s because he played two partial seasons or one partial and a full one. his full season with the Sixers, 9.4 field goal attempts, twothirds of them were from three. Yeah, that is all that dude did. Yep. Remember that game in OKC? What do you have at OKC? Was it like didn’t you drop like a 40 spot? I think I think if not it was a high 30s because I remember he came on the show. You know I did the Sixers show on the radio. Me and one of the other Sixers, former Sixers employees who you know who that was. We had a show together because he was with the team at that time helping with their podcast network and he was the next guest on our show and we talked about it after that. It was it was perfect timing and I think of course because team wasn’t that great. Okay. It was only 31. It was only 31. Yeah. I knew it was 30. A little over. Yeah. So I knew it was 30 but and I remember talking to him about it because it was OKC and I said you played with OKC and you played with some of those guys. How satisfying was it to do that against Russ and, you know, against your former teammates? What did you learn from them and all that? It was fun, man. It was fun to just watch him today. He would be one of those guys coming off the bench that we talk about if he was able to play. I mean, he played in the era, but if he played today, he would be one of those that just simply come off the bench and just, yo, just go fire up six threes and just have it. Well, even 10 years ago, like we they take way more threes now than did 10 years ago. All right. So, he in that 31point game, he made 10 shots. How many do you think were from three-point range? Seven. Eight. Eight. Okay. Yeah. Seven. Yeah. Incredible. Incredible confidence. Murray State. Yep. Murray State. He and campaign. Murray State alums, former Sixers right there. All right. I’m next. I’m going with two seasons in the 90s from 93 to 95. This is who if I was taking a a real answer and not just a he was fun to watch because the team didn’t know. But I knew it was one that this is where I would have gone. Yes. But I knew it was one that you wanted to talk about. I knew it was one that certainly tugs at my short guy strings as as a guy at 5’11 like Isaiah Cannon. He made his all-star team here in Philadelphia that year. He was the most improved player that year as well. We got to go with released a rap song as well. Yes, he did. Yes, he did. I forgot about that. It’s my guy, my Cape Verdian brother from up in the Northeast. And that is Dana Barrows. Yes. Yes. Dana Barrow. Dropped a 50 spot. One of the most improbable 50 spots you will ever see. Shot six of eight from three-point range in that game. Like you mentioned, Dana Baros made an all-star team. This is a guy who averaged 10 points for his career. Only exceeded double digits four times in his career. Only once did he ever exceed 13 points per game. And that was a four-year stretch. Doing the inverse out of Devon. Now I’m rounding down. Um only once exceeded 13 points per game. Yeah. And that was one year where there obviously had no talent. That was post Barkley trade. 20.6 points per game for Dana Baros. Run it up. Earned an all-star spot. Yes, he did. 20.6. What did he shoot from three that year? 46.4% on five attempts, man. In that era, that was a lot. Yeah. So, the two seasons in the Sixers uniform, he averaged 16.9 points uh in the Sixers uniform for those two campaigns. And he shot from three in those years, 42% from three. And uh Dana Barrows, shout out Dana Barrows. Let’s get one more in. You have one more. All right. So, I This breaks the spirit of what we were talking about because it’s not supposed to be like not just stars, but not even really like highlevel guys like And JJ wasn’t a star. JJ was a high No, JJ was a high level. JJ was a star in his sense of name name recognition and role. So I think JJ was a star but not an allstar even though he kind of was in those couple years. Yeah. Um where we JJ should make an all-star team maybe because they were still at the top of the Eastern Conference. That being said, are you going JJ? I’m going JJ. Got to go JJ. Uh 17 over two seasons with the Sixers, 17.6 six points per game, 7.3 three-point attempts per game, which is almost 60% of his field goals, and shot 40.7%. And what to me made JJ special wasn’t just that he could shoot. It’s how he was able to create shooting opportunities with his movement. I have never seen, we talk about athleticism a lot with basketball, gravity. And a lot of times athleticism is like how well can you explode at the rim or how quick is your first step. It’s not very often we talk about athleticism in terms of like balance and footwork and you know your ability to contort your body midair and the way that he would go on a dead sprint in transition hit the corner you know after running after sprinting like legitimately like 50 feet come to a stop rise up and shoot and maintain balance was a work of art. Yeah. And he just he was in constant motion. That was the only way he was getting open. You know, he was a guy with a negative wingspan who really wasn’t like an elite vertical or explosive athlete. He had to be able to run constantly and he had to be able to shoot under control off of movement and he did that so well. And the combination of those two, you know, we don’t necessarily give Brian Kangelo a ton of credit here on this show. He screwed up a lot, but for him to pinpoint JJ and some people like, “Oh, well, he overpaid for that first year.” It doesn’t matter. They had cap space. They went out there and they got maybe the perfect fit for Joel Embiid. Both because it was a perfect fit for somebody who could have gravity and open stuff for Joel and was a leader where Joel’s gravity could then open up scoring for him and where Joel’s defense could help overcome some of JJ’s limitations and he had the experience and the leadership qualities you needed for that young team. He was a phenomenal shooter. Yes, he was. So JJ Reic, I totally agree. my favorite player at that time, it was him just because of what he was doing to open things up for Simmons and be and the rest of that team. Couple honorable mention ones, Seth Curry uh for what he did career years in the Sixers uniform uh from three where he shot 45% in 57 games in 2021. We know about the whole uh uh the break there that they had because of the health stuff going on. And he also shot I think it was 40% in that next year but he had career years in scoring. 15 points per game was a careerhigh in scoring. That was next to Joel Embiid, Seth Curry. Anybody else that we mentioned? James Harden, Tyrese Maxi. Yep. Yeah. Those and those two we didn’t bring up mostly because they were stars and they get their accolades in many different ways. 100%. Jody Meeks. Jody Meeks shot about 38% from three with the Sixers. Uh he had certainly had some good years. Lou Williams was a pretty good three-point shooter as well. not star but he was that he was a star of course underground star but he was a star because of that role as a sixman that would get those accol two others I’ll bring up and we’ll get out of here just because they were part uh they came almost together late in the season and led to a pretty exciting run at end of the season and were pretty important to that team Marco Bellanelli and Ursan Iliova two pretty good ones if that’s the case man I’m going to headband headband guy Mike Scott Mike Scott and George I feel like George Nang. We got to point those guys out. Other honorable mention guys there. George Nang gets a shout out just because of the trash he would talk every time he connected on one and friend to the show. George Niang. So that’ll do it for us here. Actually two of the people we’ve mentioned have been on the show. JJ was on on on my show back in the day and a couple more on your show as well. Yep. Absolutely. Yep. So good stuff everybody. We appreciate it. That is it for us. Tim Leggler is again reportedly getting moved up in the chair on the broadcast. So congrats to him. 2K26 in honor of Tim Leggler. One other shout out. Maybe the most important shots in Sixers history or recent Sixers history. Look at you. Mike Mscala. Recently retired Mike Muscala on that one. So sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt. I just want to get that interview. We wanted to give you all our our non-star if you will. Stars of course to you non-star roles maybe non-stars of course here and Dana Baris was an all-star but we know that was a that was one season that it was our the best Sixers shooters from three-point range as well in history. That’ll do it for us right here on the PHY Sixers podcast. See you.

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