Aaron Nesmith's rise as a perfect Pacers fit next to Tyrese Haliburton

2. Aaron Nesmith's three-point shooting

As a prep player and college player, Nesmith was known as a sniper of a shooter. There are players who can shoot, then there are actual shooters, and then there are players who are snipers.

Snipers are players that are off-the-charts effective from deep. They hit at such a high clip from distance that they’re in a tier by themselves.

Nesmith shot 52% from distance on eight attempts per game during his last season at Vanderbilt. Yes, that qualifies as a sniper. It was half of the season for him, but 14 games on that many attempts proved to be real.

After being a lottery pick for the Celtics, Nesmith’s sniper level took a real dip. In his two seasons with Boston, he shot 34.6% from deep. I would say that’s a level of a player who can shoot not a shooter and certainly not a sniper.

Whatever the variables were that impacted this, it led to Nesmith’s worst shooting, probably since early high school.

Since being in a Pacers uniform, he’s shooting 39.6% from distance. If you want to go more recently, he’s shooting 47.5% this season. He’s doing that on just under 4.5 attempts a game. This is the sniper-level ability that Nesmith provided before his NBA career.

Now, with Nesmith in the starting lineup, we hope to see him get up even more attempts. I don’t expect his efficiency to dip much. I believe Nesmith is a legitimate 40% shooter from deep on high volume. There’s just too much proof for me to think otherwise.