Ranking the NBA's 5 Best and Worst Shooters This Season
Shooting is basketball's most important skill, and in this era of supercharged offenses and high-volume three-point shooting, it's become even more vital.
If an NBA team doesn't have the shooting necessary to space the floor for slashers and keep pace with opponents' outside attack, it's going to lose a lot.
Entering Saturday's action, each of the top 11 teams in effective field-goal percentage was .500 or better. Eight of the bottom 10 on that list are below .500.
So, which players are helping the most (or least) in this critically important area of the game this season?
To answer that question, we'll employ a formula we've used before:
Takeย every player's points per shot on attempts from 10 feet and out and subtract the league-average points per attempt from the same range this season. Then, multiply by the number of attempts.
That gives you the number of points above or below a perfectly average shooter from that range would've gotten.
The 10-foot cutoff may be a bit arbitrary, but it's probably safe to assume that any shots (or at least the vast majority) from that range are jumpers. And the rest of the formula is simply a way to give players credit for both efficiency (the rate at which you hit shots) and volume (the number of shots you get up).
It may not be a perfect way to find the five best and worst shooters in the NBA this season, but it will get you a lot closer than many others.
5th Worst: Anthony Davis (-74.0)
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As outlined above, this exercise accounts for volume. So, Anthony Davis being here is even more notable.
AD has appeared in barely over half of the Los Angeles Lakers' games, but he's taken and missed enough jump shots in those appearances to sink farther than all but four players in the NBA.
The league-average effective field-goal percentage on all shots from this range is 49.5. AD's is 35.9, which ranks 287th among the 292 players with at least 100 attempts (onlyย Obi Toppin, Bam Adebayo, Marvin Bagley, Jalen Suggs and Naji Marshall are below him there).
As soon as this Lakers roster was assembled, it was clear Davis might have to do a lot of floor spacing, but L.A. probably should've looked for ways to get him around the rim more often (even if that meant splitting up him and Russell Westbrook).
4th Best (Tie): Cameron Johnson (+100.4)
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Cameron Johnson has proved to be more than "just a shooter" for the Phoenix Suns (who are running away with the West's best record), but his proficiency from the outside remains his most impacting skill.
Among players with at least 100 three-point attempts, Johnson is tied for 15th in threes made per 75 possessions (3.6) and second in three-point percentage (44.8).
When he shares the floor with the Suns' other sweet-shooting wings (Devin Booker and Mikal Bridges), Phoenix scores 120.3 points per 100 possessions (95th percentile) and has a 57.0 effective field-goal percentage.
With that much floor spacing, Chris Paul and Deandre Ayton have been able to dice up defenses in the middle of the floor. When opponents can clog that up, they often get burned by Johnson outside.
4th Worst: Reggie Jackson (-79.0)
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After all the progress he made as a shooter in recent years, it's kind of a bummer to see Reggie Jackson here.
In the first four years of his career, Jackson shot 29.4 percent from three. In the next four, he was at 35.4. And over the two prior to this one, that number was all the way up to 41.9.
Jackson deserves a ton of credit for getting his outside shooting to that level, but it must've helped to play off Paul George and Kawhi Leonard too.
With those two out for all (or in George's case, most) of this season, Jackson's responsibility soared, while his efficiency plummeted.
He's taking a career-high 6.9 three-point attempts per game and shooting 33.5 percent on threes (a mark that falls shy of the league-average 35.1 three-point percentage).
4th Best (Tie): Desmond Bane (+100.4)
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In just his second season in the NBA, Desmond Bane is already establishing himself as one of the game's best shooters.
Right now, Stephen Curry is the only player in league history who matched or exceeded both of Bane's marks for threes made (312) and three-point percentage (42.2) in his first two seasons. And with a few games left to play in 2021-22, Bane might even eliminate Curry, who made 317 threes in his first two years, from that list.
Those deep shots aren't the only reason Bane finds himself in this slideshow, though. He's upped his volume from the mid-range too. Over 20 percent of his attempts are two-pointers from 10 feet and out, and his efficiency in that range is above average.
3rd Worst: Jalen Suggs (-88.1)
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Jalen Suggs has been a bit more available than AD, but he finds himself in a similar situation here. Despite missing 25 games to injury, Suggs' abysmal 32.6 effective field-goal percentage from the range in question pushed him to the bottom five.
If we limit the sample to players who took at least 100 attempts from 10 feet and out (as we did with Davis), Naji Marshall is the only one who's generated fewer points per shot.
And if we just look at efficiency on three-point attempts, the picture might be even bleaker.
His 21.6 three-point percentage is dead last this season and 5,189th among the 5,199 seasons in NBA history with at least 100 attempts.
Of course, it's too early for sweeping judgments on what that means for Suggs as a player. He's just a rookie, and he had his first season interrupted by injury. There's plenty of time for a course correction.
3rd Best: Stephen Curry (+102.0)
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It may be strange to see Stephen Curry anywhere but first on a list like this, but for much of this season, he also looked very little like himself.
For three months, from December through February, Curry shotย 41.4 percent from the field and 35.4 percent from deep. For the entire season, he has a 38.0 three-point percentage that would be 3.1 points below his career low.
And yet, even a season well below his historic standards earns him a spot in the top three of this exercise, thanks in large part to volume.
Among players with at least 100 three-point attempts, Curry ranks 64th in three-point percentage, but he's still above average. And that's enough for his league-leading (by a wide margin) 11.7 three-point attempts per game to pile up way more points than the average three-point shooter would.
And for Curry, that's where the bulk of those extra points come from. Fewer than 15 percent of his shot attempts are two-pointers from 10 feet and out.
2nd Worst: Russell Westbrook (-89.0)
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Russell Westbrook is scoring with below-average efficiency from almost every part of the floor, but he's been especially bad in the range we're sampling here.
Just over 20 percent of Westbrook's attempts this season have been two-pointers from 10 feet and out, and his 36.6 field-goal percentage there ranks 91st among the 108 players with at least 100 attempts.
But the bigger problem might be Westbrook's inaccuracy from three.ย Among the 252 players with at least 100 three-point attempts this season, Westbrook's 28.6 three-point percentage ranks 239th.
Being bad from both ranges, while continuing to hoist shots from everywhere, is a combination that takes points away from your team.
2nd Best: Seth Curry (+108.2)
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Seth Curry is already higher than his brother on the all-time three-point percentage leaderboard. And this season, he's combined his typical efficiency with more volume and overtaken his brother as a jump shooter in 2021-22.
Like others listed here, Curry's rise isn't all about threes, either.
His shot chart is covered in green, and that includes the mid-range.ย Just over 13 percent of Curry's shots have come in the 10-16 foot range, and he's shooting 52.7 percent from there.ย On twos from 16 feet out to the three-point line, where 21.4 percent of his shots have come from, Curry is shooting 53.8 percent.
That kind of accuracy combined with a 41.9 three-point percentage has generated over 100 extra points for his teams this season.
Worst: Julius Randle (-112.4)
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In hindsight, Julius Randle's All-NBA campaign in 2020-21 looks like a massive outlier.
From his rookie campaign through 2019-20, Randle had a 38.6 effective field-goal percentage on all shots from 10 feet and out. That mark somehow soared to 51.0 last season. And this season, he's back down to 41.4.
Of course, that number is better than that of AD, Suggs and Westbrook, but those three are nowhere near Randle in terms of volume. His 699 shots from this range trail only 11 players.
Despite his struggles as a jump shooter, Randle has still taken nearly 60 percent of his shots this season from 10 feet and out.
Best: Luke Kennard (+117.3)
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After struggling to secure a consistent role for much of his first season with the Los Angeles Clippers in 2020-21, Luke Kennard has re-established himself as one of the league's very best shooters this season.
With Kawhi yet to play a minute in 2021-22 and George limited to 26 games, Kennard has taken 486 attempts from the range in question (86.8 percent of his total) and has a blistering 61.5 effective field-goal percentage there.
While he's been solid in the mid-range, that's far from the biggest reason he's risen all the way to the top of this leaderboard.
Nearly two-thirds of Kennard's shots this season have come from beyond the three-point line, and he leads the league in three-point percentage at 45.2.
Now that Tyronn Lue has gotten an extended and up-close look at how far Kennard's shooting can move the needle, he may be more inclined to play him alongside Leonard and George in the future.
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