Good news comes in twos for guard
Livingston thriving on shots from inside the arc
Amid the three-point revolution, as his celebrated Warriors teammates captivate the NBA with their majestic long-range shots, Shaun Livingston remains resolutely, stubbornly, productively old school.
He dribbles to one of his favorite spots on the court, between 12 and 15 feet from the basket. He rises above his defender, releases the ball high above his head and takes another straight-fromthe-archives, midrange jump shot.
And he makes it. And he makes it. And he makes it.
Livingston avoids the three-point line with curious and uncommon fervor, especially for a guard. He took exactly three shots beyond the arc all season. The one he made, April 5 in Phoenix, was meant as an alley-oop pass to JaVale McGee — until it caromed off the backboard and dropped through the basket.
In his 12-year career, spanning 698 regular-season games, Livingston has attempted only 66 three-pointers. Stephen Curry took more in his first seven games this season. The Houston Rockets launched nearly as many (an NBA-record 61) in one game Dec. 16.
So where did this start? In an age of almighty analytics, when the numbers demand players attack the rim or launch threes — and ignore all the hardwood in between — why did Livingston start shooting midrange jumpers and refuse to stop? The answer involves Michael Jordan. Like most kids, Livingston loved to shoot threes when he was young. He won several three-point-shooting contests between ages 8 and 12, mostly shooting from his hip because he was skinny and not particularly strong.
“As a kid, all I did was shoot threes,” he said. “It’s crazy.”
Then he hit a growth spurt, his arms became longer and his shot turned funky. About the same time, Jordan was in his second incarnation as a megastar, leading the Bulls to NBA championships in 1996, ’97 and ’98.
Jordan seldom soared to the hoop for dunks in those days, preferring pull-up shots off the dribble and post-up moves. One basketball-consumed teenager in Peoria, Ill. — on his way to reaching 6-foot-7, an inch taller than Jordan — noticed.
Livingston found success inside the three-point arc. Then in the summer of 2002, between his sophomore and junior years, he sequestered himself in the Peoria Central High gym. He prepared for the prestigious ABCD all-star camp with high school teammate Daniel Ruffin (who later played at Bradley) and Chuck Buescher, their coach at Peoria Central.
“I was working on midrange pull-ups, and it just kind of flowed,” Livingston said. “It flowed from my body and my height, shooting the ball. From there, I just kind of kept it going.”
Or, as Ruffin said, “His game hasn’t changed much. He’s obviously matured a lot, but what he’s doing in the NBA is very similar to what he did in high school.”
Livingston occasionally took threepointers at Peoria Central, but not often; his perfectionist nature got in the way. He developed a hitch in his shot, and his naturally high release also made it difficult to reliably sink threes.
“Most kids go in the gym and start shooting threes, but Shaun never did,” Buescher said. “He worked extra hard on his midrange game. He’d get mad at himself and let missed shots bother him. …
“I think that’s why he didn’t take more threes: He hated missing shots, and he didn’t think he’d shoot a high percentage.”
Livingston found his comfort zone, in other words. He resisted the revolution, even after jumping straight from high school to the NBA and becoming the No. 4 overall pick by the Los Angeles Clippers in 2004.
Fast forward to 2017, his third season as a valuable member of the Warriors, and Livingston, 31, spends as much time celebrating threes as any player in the league. He savors the show of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant unleashing their familiar torrent of long-distance shots.
“It’s fun to watch that side of basketball and boring as s— to watch my midrange game,” Livingston said, straightfaced. “I’m being honest with you. I know that. You’ve got to be a true basketball fan. …
“It’s knowing your niche, knowing your spot, getting to your spot. If you get there and you’ve got your balance, it’s cash.”
After nearly every Warriors practice, Curry rains down threes in one corner of the team’s downtown Oakland practice facility. At the adjacent basket, Livingston sharpens his 15-footers as a short, bespectacled man named Sammy Gelfand dutifully rebounds.
Gelfand is Golden State’s manager of basketball analytics. That means he was involved in the research and analysis when the Warriors decided to sign Livingston as a free agent in July 2014.
Gelfand remembered Livingston from high school, because Peoria Central whipped Gelfand’s alma mater (Von Steuben High of Chicago) in the Illinois state tournament. The Warriors knew Livingston didn’t fit the ideal profile of a modern NBA player, given his shot selection, but they also discovered the Brooklyn Nets were much better in 2013-14 when Livingston started (35-19) than when he didn’t (9-19).
It didn’t take long for Gelfand and his front-office colleagues to realize Livingston’s efficiency mostly offset his aversion to three-pointers. For one thing, defensive players rarely affect Livingston’s shot; Gelfand jokes that a “hand in his face” actually means a hand at Livingston’s chin, given his height, leap and high release.
For another thing, the Warriors suspected Livingston, beyond serving as an accomplished backup at point guard, could mesh well with Curry and/or Thompson when they were together on the court. That’s proven true in the past three seasons.
“We saw a guy who might not have shot a lot of threes, but he was able to generate those shots for his teammates,” Gelfand said. “That was really intriguing, an ability to play with a guy like Steph or Klay or Andre (Iguodala), as the ball handler who could open up shots for someone else. …
“Sometimes we get so sucked in by, ‘Everybody has to shoot the three,’ or ‘Everybody has to get to the rim,’ you forget about the diversity that is the beauty of basketball. The fact we have someone like that we can go to is just so invaluable.”
Gelfand insisted Livingston occasionally lofts three-point shots in practice, sometimes making as many as 10 straight from the corner. But though Curry thrives behind the arc, Livingston knows he earns his salary on the wing or one step inside the free-throw line.
If the roots of this habit trace to the summer of ’02 in Peoria, his NBA education occurred during his first three seasons in the league. That’s when he watched Clippers teammates Sam Cassell and Cutino Mobley shoot jumper after midrange jumper.
That’s also when Livingston horrifically blew out his left knee, in February 2007. The injury required more than a year of arduous rehabilitation and robbed him of considerable athleticism.
Livingston learned to adapt, play under control and use his basketball IQ. Post up a smaller defender, or stop and shoot before his defender can take a charge.
“Fortunately, I’m in a position where I can still do that and still be effective, especially with our personnel,” Livingston said. “It works. It’s kind of a lost art.”
Or, as acting head coach Mike Brown said, “When he shoots that (midrange) shot, I think it’s going in almost every time. When he misses, I’m really surprised.”
Livingston doesn’t shoot often — a career-low 4.2 attempts per game this season — but he’s more efficient than ever. He improved his shooting percentage in each of the past four years, culminating in a career-high 54.7 percent this season.
In his past 14 games — the final 12 of the regular season, plus Game 1 against Portland and Tuesday night’s series opener against Utah — Livingston has made 71 percent (39 of 55) of his shots from the field.
“That’s really been my defense mechanism to the three-pointer,” he said. “At the end of the day, I’m taking efficient shots and good shots, because it’s a highpercentage shot.”
The Warriors welcomed back Livingston’s efficiency Tuesday night, when he scored nine points on 4-for-5 shooting in their win over the Jazz. He missed the final three games of the Portland series, after bruising his right hand and spraining his index finger while diving on the court for a loose ball.
No matter what happens the rest of this postseason, the Warriors face a difficult decision when Livingston becomes a free agent this summer. Curry and Durant are the priorities, obviously, so will the team have any money left for its throwback guard?
General manager Bob Myers and head coach Steve Kerr have encouraged Livingston to expand his game and shoot more threes. They also know better than to expect this anytime soon.
“One of these days it may happen,” Livingston said, with a glint of a smile.