Daniel Dunn-Imagn Images There’s shooters, and there’s Shooters (with a capital S). Long-time PtR readers know that when I am not watching Spurs games on television (often on tape-delay) or playing in my own games, I am a Los Angeles trial lawyer. Late last week, I had an interesting conversation with a very well-respected Los Angeles Superior Court judge. The conversation was not about the dispute the judge is mediating for a client of mine. Instead, the judge started the conversation by saying that he had heard something very interesting about me. I smartly remained silent — one must be careful when speaking to a judge. Thankfully, what he had heard about me was good, not bad. “I hear you are a great three-point shooter”, he said, “A real assassin from distance”. Among all the possible things the judge could have heard about me, the thing that he heard — that at least one person in Los Angeles described me as a capital S Shooter — is pretty high on the list. As I wrote back in 2021: A Shooter is different than a shooter. Shooters give a team’s fanbase much happiness. One of a fan’s greatest joys in life is seeing their team’s Shooter rising up to shoot from distance. The fan knows that in a few seconds the ball will drop through the net. Like the Shooter himself, the fan imagines himself back-pedaling to defense even before the ball splashes through. When a Shooter comes into the game, the opposing coach alerts his team, points at the Shooter and says one word: “Shooter”. In a city league or pick-up game, the other team does the same thing when assigning match-ups and tells whoever is covering the Shooter, ‘Do NOT leave him open’. **** One of a Shooter’s greatest joys in life is hearing the other team’s players yelling at each other, with a rising crescendo with each made shot, after the Shooter has lit them up with a barrage of three-pointers. “I told you not to let him get open!” Even better is when that barrage of shots leads the other team into an angry time-out. Since my original Shooter piece, I have added some other attributes of a true Shooter. First, a Shooter must have a quick release. Because the defense is so conscious of the Shooter, the Shooter must be able to get the shot off quickly. For a Shooter, being open enough to get a shot off lasts less than a second. From my coaching days, I learned that a quick release depends on proper footwork. When the pass hits the Shooter’s hands, the Shooter’s feet must already be in the proper position. Only with proper footwork can the Shooter immediately rise into the shot. Second, although not as imperative as proper footwork, a Shooter should be able to shoot both off the pass and off the dribble. I say it is not absolutely imperative to be able to shoot off the dribble because one of the NBA’s great Shooters rarely shoots off the dribble. Klay Thompson, who clearly has the requisite quick release, famously took only 4 dribbles on a night he made 7 threes, went 18 for 29 overall, and scored 43 points. He dribbled an exorbitant 11 times when he scored 60 (in only 29 minutes). But for mere mortals, being able to shoot off the dribble, perhaps coming off a ball-screen, perhaps after a pump fake, perhaps after a cross-over or step-back, really helps. Third, a Shooter must Let it Fly. A player cannot be a Shooter if only shooting one or two threes a game. With those additions, the judge’s comments triggered something I have been wondering about our favorite team. Do the Spurs have a true Shooter? Doug McDermott was a Shooter, but he is gone. And even if the present Spurs’ roster does not include a Shooter, who is the Spurs’ best small “s” shooter? In my previous Shooter post, PtR readers voted Patty Mills as the Spurs best shooter of all time — the correct decision in my opinion. My Man Manu Ginobili came in second, with DannyGreen!! third. At the end of this, we will poll PtR readers on these questions. For the second question (best shooter on the roster), I suggest that the answer should depend on your answer to this question: When that player rises up to shoot a three-pointer, do you expect the shot to splash in? This season’s Spurs have only 5 candidates for (1) Shooter designation and (2) even if not worthy of the capital S, the best shooter on the team. The candidates. listed in order of threes per game: Victor Wembanyama — 35% (from three) on 9.1 attempts per game Julian Champagnie — 35% on 7.2 attempts per game Devin Vassell — 41% on 5.8 attempts per game Chris Paul — 36.5% on 4.9 attempts per game Harrison Barnes — 43% per game on 3.5 attempts per game.