Indiana Pacers: 15 greatest shooters of all time

Do you know who led the NBA in 3-point field goal percentage last year? Was it Stephen Curry? J.J. Redick? Klay Thompson? Kevin Durant? Kyle Korver? Those are the usual suspects, but actually, it was none of them. Believe it or not, last year’s 3-point champion was Darren Collison.

Sure, he may not have taken nearly as many threes as those players (3.0 per game to be exact), but he took enough to qualify for the league leaderboard, so that’s all that matters.

His track record suggests that his 46.8 3-point percentage — which was a single-season franchise record — was not a total outlier. Currently on his second tour of duty with the Pacers, Collison has been a reliable point guard during both stints, especially from long distance.

During his first run in Indiana back in the early 2010s, Collison averaged 11.9 points while shooting a ho-hum 34 percent from deep. However, he did show signs of improvement, improving his 3-point rate from 33.1 to 36.2 percent before the team traded him and Dahntay Jones to the Dallas Mavericks for Ian Mahinmi in 2012.

When Collison returned to the Pacers last season, he had become a much more consistent long-range threat, as he was coming off consecutive seasons of shooting 40+ percent from deep with the Sacramento Kings.

Just as he did in Northern California, Collison scorched the nets from downtown in multiple ways: on catch-and-shoot attempts (47.7 percent), pull-ups, (46.4), on open looks (43.8), wide open looks (50.4), in the corner (47.6) and above the break (43.0).

With Victor Oladipo and new signee Tyreke Evans around to keep opposing defenses busy, Collison should continue to flourish from 3-point range.