What happened to Luke Kornet’s 3 point shot?

In the mailbag there were 2 questions about Luke Kornet’s lack of 3 point shooting.

PDCeltics: Why doesn’t Kornet shoot the 3? Used to be such a big part of his game.

klam05: Any chance Mazulla gets Luke to tap into his 3 point arsenal? He was used as a stretch big in his Knicks days. What are the odds Joe knows this and is saving this for the right moment?

Let’s dig into this for a second. At one point in his career, Luke Kornet made seven three-pointers in a game. We have video evidence.

This year he hasn’t even attempted a single 3 pointer. What gives?

Sometimes the stats page tells the whole story. In his first two years in the league, he shot a respectable 35.4% and 36.3% on pretty high volume (roughly 4 per game). After that, however, his percentages drop to the mid 20’s as he bounced around from team to team, trying to find a home in the NBA.

You’ll notice that his attempts fell off a cliff as well. After attempting 380 three pointers through his first three seasons, he’s attempted just 141 for the rest of his career (3.75 seasons). That might be a chicken/egg debate topic. Did he stop shooting because he wasn’t shooting well enough or are his shooting splits skewed by the low sample size of attempts?

Our own Bobby Manning actually asked Luke directly about his early career. He spoke about some injuries he had earlier in his career and the impact that they had on what he’s focused on.

“The time in Chicago was definitely very difficult, especially because it seemed like all your abilities, it’s like, alright what’s going on? You didn’t even know what was happening, but I think that in a lot of ways was great because it helped me be able to accept a certain role that I had that was different than what I’d done a lot in a lot of my career and be able to improve in that, and I think that’s actually become useful here in Boston, helping as a screener, roller, offensive rebounder and all that stuff. If it wasn’t for my injuries, I never would’ve taken the time to actually improve and address those things. At the time I wasn’t grateful for it, but I think now I’m appreciative. It was definitely very difficult and hard and some dark days.”

It sounds like he decided to focus his efforts on skills that could get stay on an NBA roster and get back on the court. That means doing the dirty work that he mentions (screening, rebounding, etc.) and generally using his 7’1” frame in more traditional ways. This speaks to the difficult decisions that some guys need to make to their game when they are on the fringe edges of the league.

From a Celtics perspective, this team has plenty of shooting from the perimeter. They need guys that can do the grunt work and guard opposing backup centers. Of course you see Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford out there stretching the court. But those are proven shooters with reputations that impact scouting reports.

If Luke and the coaching staff were confident enough in his shot, I would assume that he’d be encouraged to launch away. However, if he’s going to hit just 25% of his shots, that’s not going to stretch the defense and he would be more valuable focusing on pick and rolls and boxing out for rebounds.

Maybe that is something he could work on adding to his game in the offseason. But for now we’ll just have to live with his other talents... like his epic celebrations!

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