Suns guard shares his long-shot secrets
Suns guard has been delivering from beyond arc
LOS ANGELES – Suns guard Troy Daniels can shoot the ball.
Daniels ranks 12th in the NBA in 3point shooting percentage (44.1) and for his career is a 41.3 percent shooter from 3-point range. This season, among bench players, only Cleveland’s Kyle Korver and Miami’s Wayne Ellington have made more 3s than Daniels (67).
That singular talent is why the Suns acquired Daniels from the Memphis Grizzlies in late September.
Daniels talked to azcentral sports Wednesday about the art of shooting: Q: Who taught you how to shoot? A: I’d say my father and my mom. In our backyard, I used to shoot from below my chin as a little kid. Say, 5 of 6 years old. I tried to master a form when I first started out, and I air-balled every time. But I ended up mastering it as time went on and just fell in love with shooting. I played in a rec league when I was, I want to say, 10 or 11, and I had 22 points. I’ll never forget it. I hit every shot. I think that’s when I wanted to be a shooter because I always wanted to make shots.
Q: How many hours does it take to perfect the shooting form?
A: Wow. It’s tough to say. As a kid, you have a ton of energy. I was always trying to be around basketball. I have no clue, but if I had to say, at least five to six hours a day, just playing around, shooting.
Q: When, through high school and college, did you finally master your stroke?
A: To be honest, I would say once I got to middle school. I could always shoot the ball. It’s just something that kind of came natural to me over the years. Even to this day, nobody has ever touched my shot. Ever.
Q: That’s interesting that nobody tried to change your form.
A: I guess just because when I was in high school, I made a lot of 3s. There wasn’t any point to changing my shot, especially when it works. I think once you get past high school, there’s no point in trying to change anyone’s shot. I always say you can master whatever shot you can shoot. You just have to get the repetitions in. But when I was in college (at Virginia Commonwealth), we had this like 5-by-6 board and (coach Shaka Smart) had the top shooters in the nation on the board. I had a thing when I leaned back a lot when I shot, so every shootaround or whatever we had he had an assistant hold the board against my back so I wouldn’t fade back. He did that, and it helped me out tremendously.
Q: There are certain things good golfers have to do with their swings. Are their certain things good shooters have to do with their stroke?
A: I’m a firm believer that I don’t really think it matters what shot you shoot. If you shoot your shot, if you work on it every single day, literally get up 1,000 to 1,500 shots a day, you’ll master that shot. I really think that, honestly. I don’t think there’s a certain way to make a lot of shots. (Stephen) Curry shoots a different shot, Klay (Thompson) shoots a different shot, J.J. Reddick, they all shoot different shots and come from different places. Their stance and their balance, everything is different. So I think if you just
“The confidence plays a huge part. When you’re in that zone, you feel like you can do anything.” Troy Daniels Suns guard, on getting into a shooting mindset
master what you do, I think the sky is the limit.
Q: Is there a certain place on the basketball you like to have your hand when you’re shooting?
A: Obviously, every shooter wants the laces lined up with your hand.
Q: Is that because of the spin you’re trying to impart on the basketball?
A: It just feels comfortable for me. I think it’s one of the reasons the laces are on the ball, so it feels comfortable coming off the hand. If you shoot without the laces, it’s a different feel. Sometimes in the course of a game you’re not going to catch the ball with the laces. But I think that’s a skill you also develop as a shooter. As soon as you catch it, you quickly rotate it in your hand. You feel it and think, OK, now it’s comfortable, shoot it. That’s almost a split second thing.
Q: Do you know as soon as the ball leaves your hand whether it’s good or not?
A: I do. Every single time. I should get a lot more offensive rebounds because I know exactly if I miss left or right, if it’s going to come off hard or an airball. I know every time it comes off my hand. I mean, we shoot thousands of shots every month of every year. It’s like a golfer. He knows as soon as he makes his swing. He knows.
Q: So what’s it like for a shooter to be in the zone?
A: The rim feels a lot bigger, honestly. The confidence plays a huge part. When you’re in that zone, you feel like you can do anything. When I’m in that zone, I feel like I can (do a windmill dunk). It just gives you that confidence in your mind that nobody can stop you. If I get it up, it’s going in. That’s how it really feels.
Q: Do you study other shooters? A: I don’t study shooting but I do study how shooters play. I’ve watched a lot of film on J.J. Reddick, how he moves without the ball. I watched a lot of film on Kyle Korver. Everybody watches Steph, but you can’t be like Steph because he’s different. I think as a shooter, 75 to 80 percent of it is confidence. It’s all mind, all mind.
Q: Final question. What’s the most important shot you ever made?
A: The most important shot for me which catapulted me in the league was my rookie year when I played for the Rockets and hit the game-winner in the playoffs in Portland (Game 3 of 2014 Western Conference first-round series). Shot it, made a 3. That was the biggest 3 of my career so far. It was unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable.
On the run
Devin Booker, sidelined since December 5 with a strained left adductor muscle, took another step in his rehabilitation by running wind sprints while the Suns held their shootaround at Staples Center on Wednesday. Phoenix is still targeting Booker to return later this month, perhaps December 29 at Sacramento.