Shoutout to Washington Wizards head coach Scott Brooks for wanting Bradley Beal to shoot all the three-pointers.
Yes, this is apparently a thing. Beal revealed on BradleyBeal.net that his head honcho has basically encouraged him to launch 20 treys in single game:
He’s really encouraging, too. We played against Cleveland back in early February and lost in OT, and I scored 41 points. Two days later, we won in OT against Brooklyn, and I had 31. Afterward, he used those games as an example for why I needed to stay aggressive.
“Never change your mindset or your approach to the game,” he said. “Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it.”
He made a bet with me at the start of the year that I won’t shoot 20 threes in a game. Like, he actually wants me to shoot 20 or more threes, and if I do, he wins. So that’s just one example of what I mean when I say he believes in us as players.
Only a handful of players since 1983-84 have ever jacked 20 threebies in one night, according to Basketball-Reference: Michael Adams, Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter, George McCloud, Damon Stoudamire and, of course, J.R. Smith. Kobe was the most recent to do it, during the final game of his career last season.
Beal himself has never attempted more than 14 at once, which he did this past February. He is, however, shooting 39.8 percent beyond the arc, an accuracy rate that climbs to 41.5 percent when he’s firing off the catch, according to NBA.com.
Will he join the club of extreme three-point chuckers? If so, will it be this season?
Truth told, I find myself thinking less about any of that, and more about how we can get J.R. Smith to play for Scott Brooks.
