There are several debates that are constantly making the rounds when it comes to basketball fans, and one of the more prominent questions in this regard is the distinction between pure scorers and shooters. In effect, shooting is a form of scoring, however, there is a difference between the two. While elite shooters excel at putting the ball through the hoop, pure scorers are more the type of players that can hurt opponents in a number of different ways.
For example, Mark Price was one of the greatest shooters of all time, but he isn’t in the same conversation as a player like Ray Allen when it comes to scoring. NBA fan balldontstop on Instagram has used some modern examples including Golden State’s iconic Splash Brothers, Klay Thompson, and Steph Curry.
“There’s a difference between scorers and pure shooters. Look at Curry creating off the dribble and mixing it up, then look at Klay getting his off catch and shoot, little cuts, and being set.
“The pure shooter doesn’t even need to dribble. The scorer uses the three-ball as a weapon, but is able to do it at all three levels and go off for 25-30 a night in a variety of ways.”
The rise of three-point shooting in the league has made space for players that are simply focused on being elite at shooting the ball from range. More recently Duncan Robinson of the Miami Heat falls into this category. In a lot of ways, he is a pure shooter, since that is a majority of what he brings to his teams on the floor.
This is in contrast to players like Devin Booker and Damian Lillard, both of whom have pure strokes but can put up points in a number of different ways and in a hurry. The lines between these players are obviously blurred since no matter how specialized a player may be, they will still be involved in other ways, but this is a fairly great distinction between shooters and scorers.
