Former Timberwolves player would have excelled in today's game

In 1999, the Minnesota Timberwolves selected Wally Szczerbiak out of Miami (OH) with the sixth overall pick in the 1999 NBA Draft. The 6-foot-7 forward spent his first six seasons with the Wolves before being traded midway through his seventh year to the Boston Celtics.

During his time in Minnesota—and the NBA as a whole—Szczerbiak proved to be a long-range marksman. Unfortunately, he may have been born a decade or so too early to join an era where he could truly excel.

The volume of 3-point shots was a lot lower than it is today than during Szczerbiak’s playing days. On Thursday, Bleacher Report revealed its top 99 NBA shooters ever.

As a subjective list, the list is sure to cause much debate amongst fans, but Szczerbiak found his name on there at No. 66. One can only imagine how valuable he could have been if he had been given the green light to put up 8-10 3-pointers a night. 

Szczerbiak could have helped space any modern offense

With the Timberwolves, Szczerbiak was a solid scoring threat. He was often the second option on offense behind Kevin Garnett. He made the All-Star Game in the 2001-02 season and averaged 15.5 points in his tenure with the club.

In his time playing for Minnesota, Szczerbiak connected on 40.4 percent of his 3-point tries, an elite mark. In today’s game, somebody that accurate would be sure to be attempting well more than a handful of shots from beyond the arc each game.

Instead, Szczerbiak didn’t even quite average 1.9 3-point attempts per game with the Timberwolves. His highest number of tries per game in his first six seasons was 2.8. He attempted 3.6 threes in 40 games with the team before being traded to Boston.

In the 2002-03 season, when he attempted those 2.8 3s, the average team took 14.7 shots from deep per game. Last season, the average was 37.0 3-point attempts per game. Take Szczerbiak’s 2.8 3-point attempts in 2002-03 and change it to the current rate, and he’d be at over seven attempts.

You often hear about an athlete who has fit in so much better if they played in a different era. That seems to be the case for Szczerbiak, who made 41.6 percent of his 3s with Minnesota after his first two seasons. Szczerbiak was still a very good player, but today, he could have been even better.

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