|
One Of The Finest Long Distance Shooters Ever - Dale Ellis
One of the most excellent "catch and shoot" players of all time, Dale Ellis dropped many long distance bombs on opponent squads during the 80s and 90s.
When Dale Ellis came into the league in 1983 shooting from downtown was not as popular than it is now. The 3 point shot was introduced only a few years ago and it took some time for it to gain popularity. Dale Ellis was one of the first players who started using three point shot as one of his main weapons.
Dale wasn't recognized as a 3 point shooter while playing for University of Tennessee but he always had the 3 point shot in his ammunition dump - he was just forced to play center as a boy because of his height. He spent his first 3 seasons in Dallas and never averaged more than 10 points per game. In his 2nd and 3rd season he combined for 1175 points and 315 of them came from 3-point shots. In those two years only 3 players (World B Free, Bird and Hodges) made more threes than Ellis.
In 1986 he was traded to the Seattle SuperSonics and it turned out to be a career defining trade for him. He had suddenly become one of the league's top scorers as he averaged almost 25 PPG. It didn't come as a surprise that he also won the NBA Most Improved Player Award that season. Unexpectedly, Seattle went as far as the Western Conference Finals after missing playoffs the previous year.
Following season Ellis was one of three Seattle players who averaged more than 20 points (Ellis at 25.8 ppg, McDaniel at 21.4, and Chambers at 20.4). It was the first season when Dale hit more than 100 threes but still he demonstrated that he has become a much more multifaceted scorer - only 16% of his points came from threes. Unfortunately, SuperSonics lost to the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs.
1988-1989 was quite likely his best season. He made his only All-Star game and won the 3-point competition. Just Micheal Jordan and Karl Malone averaged more points in 88-89 than Ellis (27.5 PPG). That season he made 162 3-pointers and had an outstanding 0.478 percentage from behind the 3-point line. Sonics made it to the second round of the playoffs in 1989.
He played only 55 games in the next season and then he was traded to Milwaukee. Dale's playing time was significantly reduced there but it was still solid - not far from 30 minutes per game. His minutes went up again when he was playing for the San Antonio Spurs from 1992 to 1994. Dale was a quite effective scorer in San Antonio shooting just about 50% from the field but he wasn't getting any younger.
After these two seasons in San Antonio, when he was 34 years old, he signed with the Denver Nuggets. Most of the players retire when in their mid-30s but Ellis however managed to put together a sequence of 3 quite good seasons in Denver. In 1996-1997 he averaged almost 17 points every night and that was his second best scoring season since he left Seattle in 1990. However, he didn't shot very well - 0.414 from the field. Dale certainly fell in love with the three ball that season as he made career high 192 3-pointers.
In the twilight of his career, Ellis returned to Seattle to play there for two seasons. Dale was just a couple of years removed from his 40th birthday but he was still good for 10 points every night.
|
