In his one season at USC, Onyeka Okongwu made exactly one 3-pointer. In his first two seasons in the NBA, he made exactly zero. In year three, he made four of them, and in years four and five he started to get a bit more comfortable stepping behind the line, but defenses mostly let him shoot whenever he wanted to.
In his sixth season, that's no longer an option. Okongwu will likely triple his previous career high in 3-pointers made, and unless he goes on a historically cold streak in the next few weeks, will smash his career-high in percentage, too. Currently shooting the longball at 38 percent (and shooting over 5 per game) he's become a threat from outside, not just a frontcourt player "who can hit those," as announcers love to say.
Perhaps more impressively, Okongwu's shooting has improved as the season has progressed. That's pretty rare for someone who is still working to integrate a 3-pointer into their game. But since the start of February, OO is shooting well over 40 percent from outside, and if he didn't have one bad shooting month (December, when he shot 32%) his percentage for the season would be flirting with 40. If this is the extent of Okongwu's 3-point shooting, that's totally fine considering he's already one of the highest-volume big men from deep.
Onyeka Okongwu's two-point shooting has cratered
That's okay, for the record. Of course, you'd rather a player be great from outside and inside, but it's not uncommon to see a guy focus so much on expanding his range, that he starts to unintentionally neglect shots inside the arc.
Okongwu is shooting considerably fewer two-pointers, as his shot diet has been diversified to include many more 3s. About 56 percent of his shots are coming from inside the arc, compared to 78% last year and above 80% the year prior. He hasn't been considerably worse from any specific location, his efficiency is just down a tad around the rim and in the midrange.
But all in all, that's small potatoes and part of the growth process for Okongwu, who still likely hasn't reached his ceiling as a player yet. In a league where players are expected to become stars unfairly quickly, Okongwu is a prime example of a team trusting a player's developmental plan and being patient with the results. Still only 25, the Hawks big man has become startlingly underrated around the league because he didn't pop the second he stepped on an NBA court.