Oklahoma City Thunder superstar guard Russell Westbrook is now working on adding a 3-point shot to his repertoire.
If you had to do a double take due to the endless clunkers he's shot over his 10-year career, then that is because it's fair — the former MVP has shot them ill-advised for the last decade at a measly 31.1 percent clip — making it perhaps one of his worst habits on the floor.
According to ESPN's Royce Young on The Lowe Post podcast, the do-it-all scoring machine has made an emphasis on becoming more of a catch-and-shoot 3-point shooter — something Young himself has problems fathoming due to his sheer usage rate and ball-dominant tendencies.
Via Chris Bengel of 247 Sports:
“He’s been working on it this summer, I’ve been told,” Young said. “That’s been a big time offseason focus, we’ll see.”
“They want him to be a… what they’ve stressed is work on a catch-and-shoot, become a little bit better of a catch-and-shoot guy. But obviously, in order to do that, there needs to be a catching before the shooting, and it’s hard to catch it from yourself.”
Westbrook's best season shooting the three came in his 2016-17 MVP season, where he shot it at 34.3 percent — still a mediocre mark in terms of today's 3-point shooting.
For the exception of his MVP season, the L.A. native has shot under 30 percent from deep in three of his last four seasons, attempting four or more shots from beyond the arc in each of them (attempted a career-high 7.2 per game in 2016-17).
Westbrook made the effort to dial back his propensity to shoot 3-balls on the move last season, but it mattered little, as he still shot woefully from distance and had a huge regression on his free-throw percentage, shooting 10.8 percent lower than in his MVP season.
If this move somehow pans out, Westbrook will be best served to turn those 3-point attempts into trips to the foul line, assuming he can bounce back to his 80-plus-percentage shooting ways.
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