A shot from the NBA logo when the MBA added the three point stripe in 1979 3 idea was to open up the game and to give smaller players a chance to become dangerous perimeter scorers.

But in those early years of the York, eh?

NBA players barely use the three point shot because even in the best basketball league in the world, not many guys could actually shoot the ball effectively from 24 ft away.

41 years later, pro basketball is chalk full of the wheat shooters that can and will knock down threes with ease.

But even amidst an amazing cohort of snipers logo Lillard special shooting stands out.

Forget 24 ft.

Forget 27 ft.

This guy could easily hit shots from 30 ft and beyond.

No player in the history of the sport has been this effective or this active from the distances that Lillard is.

Don't believe me.

You will, after you hear these two stats from last season coming into last year, no player in NBA history had ever made more than 25 shots from 30 ft or beyond.

But last year Lillard made 54 of them, second as a whole.

MBA shooters made just 22.9% of their shots from 30 plus feet.

Last year.

Lillard made get this 41.5% of his 130 attempts from that deep range.

While other shooters like Trae Young and Steph Curry can also drain shots from freaky distances.

Lillard's recent numbers are unprecedented.

He may not have started the movement, but he is the king of the deep ball right now.

His feet are on the logo, and it's easy now.

The seminal moment in the Deep three movement happened back in February 2016, when Curry calmly pulled up from a seemingly unreasonable distance and drained this unforgettable bucket in O K C.

Way.

Sorry.

Curry's dagger was one of the most influential shots in a decade, defined by three point shooting in his back to back M V.

P.

Campaigns curry single handedly changed the perception of appropriate shooting distances before steps break out, pulling up a yard beyond the arc would get a player benched and mocked and a starring role on shacked and a fool.

But just a few years later, these long Rangers are exploding in popularity, and nobody is now driving that train more than Dame, who added another very special dagger into the cannon in the 2019 n B.

A playoff e o E o.

The most iconic jump shot of 2019 was recorded as an unassisted 37 ft, three point field goal in its sent Paul George and the Oklahoma City Thunder packing in the first round of the playoffs.

That's a bad shot, Um, E care what anybody says.

That's a bad shot.

E understand what apologize coming from because it's bad shots really bad shot for everybody else, about four game.

But somebody that is not present when that that work is being done.

You know they might do it that way, But you know, people around here who see me practice this and work on it all the time, you know, day in and day out, and then they raise your confidence Like a lot of MBA makeovers.

Lillard's Deep three projects started with disappointment following a nightmarish playoff sweep by the Pelicans in 2018, Willard was motivated to expand his range.

The pelican stifled Lillard with traps, and he needed new ways to get his own shot against aggressive opponents.

If Lillard could get his shot from further out, he wouldn't always have to overcome double teams and blitzes to get his looks from downtown.

It was just about trying to make it more difficult to defend me.

I know that I got the quickness, um, an ability to get around people, Um, but if I could pull them out further by, you know not just being ableto shoot the ball from there, but being a good shooter from there, I could put a defense out further and make it harder for teams to guard me that way.

Thanks to hundreds of hours and practice gyms with his shooting coach, Phil Beckner, Lillard has intentionally built the most dangerous long range arsenal in the MBA.

It started with Beckner taping down a makeshift four point line in a Vegas gym about 4 ft beyond the MBA's actual three point strip.

Then the two went toe work, ensuring Lillard shooting form could hold up further and further from the rim the pair's core belief.

If Lillard could keep his form type from deep, the ball would find the net.

Paul George didn't know that, and neither did most of the league, who watched Lillard expand acceptable shooting distances with four distinct types of deep threes.

I've done it so much that it's a comfortable shot.

So in transition it's available off pick and rolls.

It's available in ISO situations.

It's available in the quarter is available.

Halfway through a game against the Philadelphia 70 Sixers in November, Lillard casually unleashed his now routine.

Ben Simmons was waiting for him just outside the three point line, but Lillard would never get there.

Instead, he rose up for a 33 ft jump shot with 20 seconds left on the shot clock.

I mean, just look at this Millard running right into a deeper These transition threes are the most brazen, and Dame often breaks them out after a made basket or on the first possession of the game.

There's an element of premeditation.

You can sense his pride and the chip on his shoulder when he launches the seemingly shocking jumpers.

Dame loves using a high screen.

Eight Really high screen to put defenders in an impossible predicament.

Watch Marcus Smart here, a great defender trying to ask for help as use of Nurkic screens.

Smart goes under Daniel.

Thais sags and dangerous launches fluid way outside comics on a three.

Even if the big does come all the way up, Dame is more than happy to beat these dudes in a foot race to the rim advantage.

Willard, as Paul George knows Dame will also launch these deep threes from isolation, especially in late clock situations.

Watch all 10 players essentially stand still for 10 seconds is Lillard casually rocks his defender to sleep.

Lillard that is a bomb.

He got it.

Damian Lillard with confidence oozing out of his veins as he put in countless hours to integrate these deep shots into his arsenal.

Even his end of quarter shots became more intentional and more accurate.

A male Lillard at the buzzer thes deep, audacious threes arm or than just highlights, though, and is Mawr and Mawr Players develop these skills?

Defense is we're gonna have to adapt.

The whole game is gonna change.

I don't know if Forbes just hasn't watched enough of the scouting report of tape or what?

But that man will pull up from logos.

E defenders still aren't trained to defend shooters from that far away.

They picked them up near the York and folks, that's not gonna cut it anymore.

These deep threes will open up the game even more.

As shooters continue to expand the scoring area, they will force defenders to stretch out to giving everyone more space to operate, freeing up more passing lanes and pathways to the rim.

When the MBA added three point stripe in 1979 the goal was to give guards a chance to score from the perimeter and open up the game Mission accomplished.