Golden State Rookie is Top NBA 3-Point Shooter

By JOE KUKURA

Updated 6:15 AM PST, Thu, Apr 16, 2009

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The Warriors' 2008-09 season ended typically Wednesday night with Don Nelson taking another night off and Golden State losing their last game on the road. Few of this year's starters even played or made the trip, and the roster appeared checked out for the season.

In fact, Nelson is probably already on his eighth scotch and soda on a Maui beach as you read this.

But maybe the nicest bright spot to this moped wreck of a 29-53 season was the emergence of Anthony Morrow, the rookie nobody shooting guard who finishes the season as the top-ranked three point shooter in the NBA. It's literally true, the best three-point shooting percentage in the NBA this year goes to a Golden State Warrior who wasn't even selected in this year's draft.

Deal with it, Steve Nash.

Morrow finishes the year with 83 three-pointers on 179 attempts, good for a .464 percentage that leads the NBA. Jameer Nelson of Orlando is nearly a dozen percentage points behind him. Our old "friend" Troy Murphy finished in third. And look -- there's Azubuike in fourth place!

It's not exactly Tim Lincecum winning the Cy Young, but Morrow earning this distinction makes a lousy season stink a little less in retrospect.

Morrow was red hot Wednesday, too, scoring a crazy-delicious 33 points and likewise grabbing 12 rebounds. It was reminiscent of his watershed, out-of-the-blue 37-point debut in November against the Clippers -- the highest-scoring debut ever for an undrafted NBA rookie.

"He's right up there with the Reggie Millers, Chris Mullins and Ray Allens," Warriors assistant Keith Smart told the Chronicle's Janny Hu, in a really nice Morrow profile piece that ran Sunday. "He can shoot with those guys."

According to the completed 2008-09 NBA regular season statistics, he can shoot better than those guys.

Joe Kukura is a freelance writer who is only two scotch and sodas behind Don Nelson.