NBA big men expanding their skills from three-point range

Luis Scola is 35, looks 45, has that old-school game of someone 55 and savvy enough to evolve so he can stay on the court and succeed against players who are 25.

Considering adding the three-point shot to his repertoire for the past four seasons, the 6-9 Scola has implemented it to a reasonable degree of success this season. Scola is 14-of-28, making enough to force defenses to pay attention to him at the three-point line.

This, from a player who never took more than 20 three-pointers in a season before 2015-16, never shot better than 25% from that distance and took less than 10 six other times in his nine-year career.

“Houston loves analytics and is big on that. I tried to learn from them a lot,” the former Rocket said. “They planted that seed and said, ‘You’ve got to do this if you want to move forward with the NBA.’ ”

The development of Scola as a capable and effective three-point shooter is a perfect example of a big man with not much previous success from that range expanding his skills. With NBA teams placing high value on three-pointers, it is also a lesson in understanding trends and adapting.

There are other NBA big men — once previously shy from three-point range — taking and making more three-pointers:

• Washington Wizards Kris Humphries had 27 career three-point attempts and made just two (both in his 2004-05 rookie season) coming into this season. The 30-year-old Humphries is 15-for-41 this season.

• Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins is averaging 4.2 attempts, up from 0.1 per game last season, and shooting 38.1%.

• Through 2013-14, Atlanta Hawks center-forward Al Horford had never taken more than 11 threes in season. He took 36 last season and has attempted 62 this season.

• New Orleans Pelicans forward-center Anthony Davis and Portland Trail Blazers forward-center Meyers Leonard are each taking 1.6 more threes per game this season than they did last season. Both need to improve their percentage but that should come with experience.

• This season, 16 players 6-10 and taller are shooting at least 2.5 threes per game, up from just seven in 2006-07, according to basketball-reference.com, and 7-3 New York Knicks rookie Kristaps Porzingis is on pace to shoot just as many threes this season as Larry Bird did in any season of his career.

“I’ve seen so many guys over the years do that — create another niche for themselves,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said.

He named former NBA player Sam Perkins, who went from 71 threes in 1992-93 to 270, 343 and 363 in successive seasons.

But it’s more than just developing a niche. It’s also understanding where the game is headed. Scola noticed. Many teams want to spread the floor, move the ball, get the defense scrambling and utilize three-pointers.

"I just wish I would have started shooting threes earlier,” Humphries, who made five against Orlando on Nov. 14, told reporters. “This is really like the first summer where I was like ‘I'm going to work on my three-point shooting.’ Before you might shoot a few corner threes or something in a workout. This year I was like, ‘I'm going to work on it.’ ”

It took time for Scola to feel comfortable and confident taking threes during games even though he made them in practice.

“Games are different. It’s a different rhythm, a different pace,” he said. “My confidence wasn’t there. But this year, I said ‘I’m going to work really hard at it like I’ve been doing and we’ll see what happens.’ This year, it happened naturally. The year I didn’t try to force it.”

Cousins sided with Scola on confidence. Once the confidence was there, he felt better shooting threes.

“I felt like it would help the team, spreading the floor a little bit more, so I tried to add it to my game this season,” Cousins told NBA.com

Players such as Scola, Cousins and Davis are not living at the three-point. You still want those players making shots in the low and high posts. But they’re making enough threes to keep defenses honest and potentially create better opportunities for their teams.

“Everybody comes with a package of skills and you try to utilize them as much as you can, become effective and then teams learn how to play against you,” Scola said. “Then you try to adapt and you continue the process. It’s an evolution.”