https://youtu.be/TnOaY77bm1w
De’Anthony Melton AKA DeMelto Anthony wasn’t even a good three-point shooter last season: 28.6% on 2.3 attempts per game. That percentage is low enough that he probably shouldn’t have even been shooting them. But this season, he’s shooting a mind-blowing 46.3% on 4.1 attempts per game. That’s an insane amount of improvement from one year to the next. He literally turned from a guy who makes you groan when he hoists one up from the triplezone to a guy whose triplezone splashage makes you jump up from your couch in excitement, spilling your gigantic bowl of puffy cheetos that was perched precariously on the armrest and disturbing the kitty who was taking a nap in your lap.
Whatever Melton’s recipe for success was, I want to know it. Did he rent out a gym from somebody and live in it, doing nothing but eating, sleeping, and practicing three-pointers? Somehow, I doubt it, because players do that all the time and they don’t get any better at shooting three-pointers. See: Marquis Daniels claiming to shoot 1,000 threes a day over the summer and then the season starts and he still sucks ass at them. Players claiming to “perfect their three-point shot” is like players claiming to “put on 20 pounds of muscle”. It’s just fake news.
I would be tempted to attribute Melton’s recent shooting success to him being in search of a new contract, but it turns out that the Grizzlies already gave him a big new contact that will see him getting paid a neat 35 million over four years. That’s pretty cool that the Grizzlies were willing to give such a big contract to a backup point guard who was a crummy shooter. Now they’ve got a backup point guard who’s a superb shooter and they don’t even have to pay him extra money for being so good. So congrats to Melton for getting the bag, and congrats to the Grizzlies for getting a good deal, but my condolences to Melton for not having the chance to get an even bigger bag were he to be a free-agent this upcoming off-season.
This guy sure has come a long way since his rookie year, where he started 30 games for the Suns and everybody blamed him and Elie Okobo for the Suns being a disappointment. I’ve got tears in my eyes. They grow up so fast.