Who is the second-best shooter in basketball history? We break down the candidates

HoopsHype breaks down 11 candidates to be considered second-best shooter in basketball history behind Stephen Curry, including Ray Allen.

The debate as to who is the NBA’s greatest shooter ever is done and dusted, with Stephen Curry earning the distinction already even with some of his prime still left to go.

The all-time leader in three-pointers made, Curry changed the game with his shooting prowess and ability to hit jumpers from 35 feet out, off the dribble, with defenders in his face, whatever.

That his style of play has not only led to two league MVP awards but four championships only furthers his stronghold on the honor of best shooter in NBA history.

So what we’re here to discuss is: Who is the second-best shooter ever in basketball?

Below, we break down 11 strong candidates

MVP vote: Who got screwed up the most in NBA history?

HoopsHype uses Global Rating to break down the players who didn’t get as much MVP love as they deserved, including LeBron James and Kareem.

Voting for MVP is never easy, though some years there are more clear winners than others. And yet, there are also times when a player might seem like an obvious choice for MVP but he still doesn’t win the award. To determine which players were most overlooked for the MVP title, we looked back at each season and identified the player with the highest Global Rating.

For those unaware, Global Rating is a metric we’re using to measure the on-court impact of NBA players. And if you’re wondering how it accurate it might be in selecting MVPs, it correctly predicted the last two recipients of the award (both Nikola Jokic).

As it turns out, it was the megastars who got hurt in MVP voting the most. Per our research, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt ChamberlainLeBron James and Michael Jordan, winners of 19 MVP awards, should have actually combined for 37 Maurice Podoloff trophies (now renamed after Jordan).

For this exercise, we awarded 10, seven, five, three or one point to the Top 5 finishers in both Global Rating ranking and the actual MVP vote and found the difference.

All the active NBA players who have already done enough to have their jerseys retired

HoopsHype breaks down all of the active NBA players deserving of having their jerseys retired by teams.

Getting your jersey retired is one of the top honors that can be bestowed on an NBA player. What’s interesting about that, though, is that different franchises have different barometers for the level of career that warrants getting your jersey retired.

Regardless, some active players are already locks to have their jerseys not just by their current teams, but by their former teams, too.

In NBA history, only Wilt Chamberlain has had the honor of having his number retired by three different clubs. However, we believe two active players could eventually join him on that list.

Below, check out the current NBA players deserving of jersey retirements one day.

Nine players taking a leap this season

HoopsHype breaks down nine players taking a huge leap this NBA season, including Luka Doncic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

One of the most exciting parts of being an NBA fan every year is seeing which players take what is known as The Leap – going from being good to great or great to elite.

In some cases, we’re talking about role players becoming stars. In others, we mean when All-Stars turn into All-NBA players – or even MVP candidates.

You’ll see different examples below when we break down the nine players taking huge leaps in the 2022-23 NBA season.

The ultimate one-club man for each NBA team

HoopsHype presents the player with the most games played for each NBA team who never played for another franchise.

There are few bigger honors in major professional sports than spending your entire career with one team. That usually means not only are you loyal to the franchise or club, but they are loyal to you back. And in a day where all that matters in pro sports are winning and revenue, those franchises valued you for a reason, probably because you were an all-time great at the sport.

So we decided to take a look at the players who played the most games for each franchise in the NBA without ever playing for another NBA team. These aren’t the high-quality selections for each team, but the player who played the most games for each NBA team without ever playing for another. (Sometimes that was because their careers were short due to a lack of interest from other NBA teams, though).

In some cases, the player that honor belongs to remains active, opening up the possibility they eventually play for another team. In those cases, we included the inactive one-franchise player with the most games played.

Which players went fastest from lottery picks to waived?

In light of the Josh Primo news, HoopsHype presents 14 of the lottery picks waived the fasted since they were drafted by their NBA teams.

In light of the shocking – and ugly – news regarding the San Antonio Spurs waiving former lottery pick Josh Primo late last week, we decided to take a look at other lottery picks who were cut quickly after being drafted.

The Spurs obviously had good reason to waive Primo, but in other instances, it was simply about teams realizing they may have made a mistake with their valuable draft asset by choosing the wrong player and selecting to cut their losses. In some cases, the players were already on their second team when waived.

Below, check out the NBA players waived the fastest since being drafted in the lottery.

NBA ranking: Most years on a team without reaching the Finals

HoopsHype presents research on the players with the most years on an NBA team without reaching the NBA Finals, led by Kevin Garnett.

In the era of the championship-or-tank mentality, it has become increasingly rare for NBA players to spend a lot of time with one team if that team isn’t close to contending.

So we decided to take a look through the annals of NBA history to find out which players have spent the most time with a single franchise without even reaching the NBA Finals.

Of course, a lot of these instances occurred before the title-or-tank method of doing business became so prevalent in the NBA, but there are some more recent cases, too.

Below, check out the players with the most years on an NBA team without reaching the Finals.

NBA Finals: The games with the highest ratings of all time

HoopsHype presents the 20 NBA Finals games with the highest TV ratings ever, a list featuring a lot of Michael Jordan.

With the advent of the internet and online streaming, TV ratings across the board are not what they once were.

Still, as followers of the NBA can attest to, it’s still fun to learn about which games still draw a ton of viewers in the traditional sense – on TV.

So with the 2022 NBA Finals on the brink of being decided, we decided to take a look at the NBA Finals games with the highest ratings in league history.

Spoiler alert: A lot of them involve His Airness, Michael Jordan.

Check out what we found below.

Source: SportsMediaWatch

The worst-performing NBA stars at the draft combine

HoopsHype presents the 25 statistically worst-performing eventual NBA All-Stars at the draft combine.

We recently took at the eventual NBA All-Stars who performed the best at the draft combine, a list led by none other than Isaiah Thomas, who surprisingly went last in his draft class anyway.

Others featured on that list included James HardenJimmy Butler and Victor Oladipo, indicating that the draft combine can be a solid indicator of future NBA success.

However, that isn’t always the case.

Below, we present the NBA All-Stars who performed the worst at the combine. To determine the worst performances, we took the percentile scores for each star in the following drills: lane-agility drill, three-quarter sprint, standing vertical leap, max vertical leap and max bench press.

Again, many stars skipped draft combine drills, so it’s not as comprehensive a list as it could be. Either way, it’s a fun exercise. Let’s check out the results below, featuring the likes of Kevin DurantKawhi Leonard and a historically bad performance by Rudy Gobert.

The best-performing stars ever at the Draft Combine

HoopsHype ranks the best star performances at the NBA Draft Combine, including Stephen Curry, Dwyane Wade and Chris Paul.

Keep in mind many stars skipped draft combine drills, so it’s not as comprehensive a list as it could be.

But among those who did go through the process, these were the best who eventually became All-Stars.

To measure the best performances, we took the percentile scores for each All-Star in the following drills: lane-agility drill, three-quarter sprint, standing vertical leap, max vertical leap and max bench press.

Check out the interesting results below.