Why Dirk Nowitzki Was The MOST DOMINANT Midrange Shooter In NBA History

Michael Jordan’s iconic fadeaway is probably the first thing that comes to mind when we talk about unstoppable mid range scorers and moves.
And the 96-97 season is without a doubt the greatest shooting display from that area that the league has ever witnessed.
However, even tho Jordan is one of the best mid range shooters in NBA history, and had the highest peak in 97, he is not the most dominant. And there’s another player claiming this title.
Greatest peak, most dominant, what’s the difference? Well, let me explain. What up everybody, my name is Stefan and this is Heat Check. Let’s get into it.
During the 96-97 season, Michael fired away an astonishing (588) 1202 mid range shots, and hit 48.9% of those.
That ranked him by far the number 1 in makes and attempts, and number 3 in efficiency. Combine these mind blowing numbers with the fact that Jordan had to take impossibly difficult shots every night with the entire defense focused on him, and that makes this graph that much more insane.
But MJ only became a mid range assassin in the second half of his NBA career.
Leading the league in 1997, 1998 and funny enough, the two years that he came back from retirement 02 and 03. This is at age 39 and 40.
For the first few seasons however, he was primarily a high flier, and an inconsistent shooter. And on top of that took 2 breaks in 94 and 99 so he never really had a streak of consistently being the top dog from that area. The guy with the most mid range buckets season after season.
There’s a player with 6 consecutive seasons being the best mid range shooter in the league. Let me give you a hint. You already know, it’s Dirk Nowitzki.
Another guy with an iconic and instantly recognizable signature shot, Dirk had probably the greatest run when it comes to consistently stellar shooting from mid range.
Taking a look at this graphic, you see that starting from 2004 Dirk was always among the top in makes per game from that area, and during this 6 year stretch Nowitzki not only had the most buckets but also did it at a phenomenal efficiency- often in the high 40%, culminating in that unforgettable championship season in 2011 when he shot a staggering 52.9%.
Before you ask however Dirk only had 353 total makes compared to MJ’s 588. So despite the slightly lower percentage, this is why I give the greatest peak title to Michael. His volume was unbelievable.
Still, continuing on with Nowitzki, even beyond his 6 year run, you see that he’s in the top 3 every single season from 2004 to 2016. That’s more than a decade being the absolute elite shooter from mid range. Now that’s what I call dominance. This is why to me he’s the most dominant mid range scorer in NBA history.
It wasn’t until his body completely gave up on him and he started to limp up and down the court for the last 3 seasons of his career that he fell further back in this category.
Nowitzki went to his bread and butter the 1 legged fadeaway for countless big buckets including a few game winners as well. The fact that his opponents knew what he was going to do and still couldn’t stop it- made this move one of the most famous and players even started to add it to their arsenal. This is probably the highest praise that you can give to a player, the level of impact that he had on the game is undeniable, and his mid range dominance was unstoppable.
MJ, Dirk, Lamarcus, CP3…a lot of great ones in this category. Who’s your favorite? That’s it for now, subscribe and talk to you in the next one. Peace out.