The art of shooting a basketball is something that I have worked on for a good chunk of my life.  I spent hours a day during my teenage years trying to refine and perfect my shot so that I would be a great shooter.  I wasn’t very big at that age and wasn’t much of a jumper so I really tried to work on the quickness of my release.  I figured that was the only way that I could get my shot off against bigger, faster and more athletic players.

When I would go to the gym each day I warmed up By working on my mid range game and as I got loose moved out to beyond the three-point line and beyond.  I was fascinated with Dan Majerle during those days and wanted to stretch my range well past the three-point line like he did.

It took a long time before I got my shot to be where I wanted it to be.  At the end of each of my shooting workouts I would finish by shooting 500 threes.  I never settled for being mediocre when it came to finishing my drills.  I had to hit at least 70 percent of those threes before I could be done for the day.  It was a substantial amount of work but I thought it was worth it.  I love the game of basketball and had big dreams of playing in college.  Early on 70 percent was something that I could barely achieve.  I would hover right around 71 or 72 percent.  As I put in the work each day that goal no longer became a challenge for me.  It wasn’t very long before hitting at least 400 threes was the norm and the only thing that was acceptable to me.  Because of the extraordinary amount of work I put in, no matter how long I go without playing now, my shot has never left me.

Since I put in so much time growing up on perfecting my shot, I focus on the shooters in particular when I watch any basketball game.  That is the most impressive part of the game to me.

Much of the shooting in today’s game is nonexistent especially in the NBA.  The College game isn’t much better.  Very few players take the time required to become great shooters.  Most rely on their great athleticism and let the more pure parts of the game fall by the wayside.  How else can you explain that some of the great players in the game today can’t shoot the ball at all?  All-stars like Blake Griffin, Rajon Rondo and Dwight Howard struggle to make any shot outside of eight feet.  There is something supremely wrong with that in my mind.

Here are my favorite shooters in the NBA right now; the guys who have great touch from everywhere on the floor and make your team that much better.

Steve Nash- Nash wasn’t a great shooter coming out of Santa Clara and struggled with his jumper early on in his NBA career.  In fact, Nash shot just 36.3 percent from the field in his first season as a starter with the Mavericks.  Since then, Nash has become one of the greatest shooters in the history of the game.  Nash has shot over 50% from the field in seven different seasons and is a career 42.8% three point shooter.  Nash is also a remarkable free throw shooter, hitting more than 90% of his Attempts from the charity strip.

Ray Allen- Allen doesn’t have a great career percentage from the field but has one of the best looking shots of all time.  He is incredible from the three-point line, shooting better than 40 percent for his career.   Allen is that much more impressive from the free throwing shooting 89.4 percent over his 17 career.

Steph Curry- Curry’s field goal percentage was a career low last year but that doesn’t change the fact that he is an incredible shooter.  In fact curry broke the all-time record for three’s made in a season with 272.  What makes that more impressive is that he shot 45.3 % from deep.  Curry also shot 90% from the free throw strip and is only getting better.  You can really tell he spent his child hood in a gym.

Kevin Durant- Durant is another tall guy who can really shoot the ball.  Last season was his best from a shooting stand point.  He hit 51% percent from the field, 41.6% from three and over 90% from the line.  Not bad for a 24 year old who is just reaching his prime.

Dirk Nowitzki- when they compared Nowitzki to Larry Bird early in his career I thought people were crazy.  I didn’t think that was possible.  I was clearly wrong.  Although he never quite reached Bird status he has had a hall of fame career.  Dirk is one of the best shooting big men in the history of the game hitting more than 47% of his 18000 plus shots.  Dirk even managed to hit the near impossible 50, 40, and 90 percent barriers in 2007.

Mike Miller- Miller is long past his prime but still has a beautiful jumper.  He can’t create his own shot but when he is left open, he is almost deadly.  Shockingly, Miller isn’t a great free throw shooter, only making about 77 out of every 100 he attempts.