Average players, and even good players who hoop purely out of talent, have a fixed mindset while great players have a growth mindset.
Average players stop trying hard and learning after college, good players keep playing, but great players keep looking for new ways to improve.
Average shoot don’t rely on coaches or instructors for criticism; good players take criticism from coaches and players but don’t actively seek to be yelled at; great players face the brutal truth eagerly because they know it’s for their best.
Average shooters don’t rely on tools and supplements; good players try them out; great players try them, and if they find them useful, they make it a habit to consistently train with them.
Average shooters measure their accuracy, they go by their gut feel and small boosts of positive reinforcement when they make the occasional basket during games to believe they know how to shoot; good shooters use mental counts to track their makes/misses in practice; great shooters, however, have a natural ability to calculate their accuracy in their heads, they use paper and pencil (or the automatic Shot Tracker) in practice, and they’re always looking to find ways to improve the percentages no matter how small.
Average shooters realize the value of fundamentals, good players practice the fundamentals, but great players work to master the fundamentals and more. Extraordinary shooters like Kyle Korver go on grueling misogis even after mastering the skill at the highest level to stretch their limits.