James Anderson has been turning heads at the early games of the Impact Basketball workouts in Las Vegas with strong work.
After a fast start in preseason camp last season, Anderson’s stress fracture effectively ended his season. He struggled to earn his way back into the rotation after Gary Neal developed into a strong perimeter threat as the season continued.
But according to Project Spurs.com, Anderson’s numbers in Las Vegas. In his first three games with Team Royal, Anderson is averaging 21.0 points per game while shooting 76.5 percent from the field.
Those numbers are a huge improvement over last season, when Anderson was among a handful of NBA players who had better shooting percentages from beyond the 3-point stripe as they did from the field.
It’s unclear how much defense is being played at the Impact games. But 76.5 percent from the field and 21 points per game would be impressive if Anderson was throwing up Nerf balls. So it’s a good step for Anderson and his improvement heading into his second season.
Only 14 NBA players had better 3-point percentages than from the field last season. Included in the list were Anderson and Steve Novak.
Here’s a list of those players and their percentages during the 2010-11 season.
Player, team 3P% FG%
Steve Novak, Dallas-Spurs .565 .522
Brian Cardinal, Dallas .483 .430
Carlos Arroyo, Miami-Boston .449 .440
Mike Bibby, Atlanta-Miami .440 .431
Brian Cook, Clippers .430 .424
James Jones, Miami .429 .422
Daniel Gibson, Cleveland .403 .400
Derek Fisher, Lakers .396 .389
Cartier Martin, Washington .394 .390
C.J. Watson, Chicago .393 .371
James Anderson, Spurs .391 .383
Steve Blake, Lakers .378 .359
Roger Mason, New York .364 .338
Rasual Butler, Clippers-Chicago .338 .333