New Orleans Hornets Can't Rely Too Much On Ryan Anderson's 3-Point Shooting

If New Orleans Hornet forward Ryan Anderson has made the most 3-pointers in the NBA, that makes him the most dangerous outside shooter, right?

Hardly, although he’s not a bad offensive player, obviously. But if just shows shooting a lot of threes isn’t going to win games for a team, unless you make a lot of them. Even that doesn’t guarantee victory.

But while Anderson hits a lot, he also misses a few and missed 3-pointers usually result in easy defensive rebounds for the other side.

Anderson entered his team’s game Saturday against the Minnesota Timberwolves having hit 16 triples in the Hornets most recent four games. He tried to get his team back in the game against the Timberwolves but didn’t have the scoring touch this night, going 1-for-5. He has 144 triples which leads the league but on Saturday, he failed for the first time in five games to get at least three.

Anderson is having a productive season with 17 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. He’s averaging 5.5 points a game more than  his career average.

But generally speaking, the Hornets probably need Anderson to keep shooting the threes to provide production they’re not getting from other sources.You don’t win titles hitting 3-pointers but the Hornets simply need to worry about getting enough points to stay competitive.

As long as his 3-point shooting percentage remains close to 40 percent, which it is now, and not too far below his field goal-shooting ark of 39.6 percent, New Orleans probably needs Anderson to shoot more triples. But more threats in the offense would put less pressure on Anderson and decrease the Hornets’ reliance on his 3-point shooting.

The Hornets don’t need more 3-point shots. They need more weapons.