The best and worst shooters of the 2022-23 NBA season from everywhere on the floor

The 2022-23 NBA regular season was all about scoring. The league set a new record for offensive efficiency as teams scored a whopping 115 points per 100 possessions. And, it seemed like every night another player put up video game numbers. But in this season of historic offensive performances, who were the best and worst shooters? Let's divide the court up into eight zones and identify the leading scorer, the best shooter, and the worst shooter from everywhere. The league's historic scoring numbers have a lot to do with the continuing trend toward three-pointers. But, we'll still start in the pink because shots in this area remain the most important in the game. At 28, Giannis Antetokounmpo is squarely in his prime. As a scorer, Giannis racks up his points with one simple trick. He absolutely dominates near the bucket. He's the closest thing we've seen to Shaq since, well, Shaq himself. The numbers back it up. This year, Giannis made 588 shots in the lane the most in the league and averaged a whopping 18.8 points per game in the paint alone. Giannis was the only player in the league who accrued more than 500 dunks and layups. In other words, he's unstoppable. Nobody blends volume and efficiency in the paint like Milwaukee's MVP, but Brooklyn's Nick Claxton was actually a little more efficient in this key area this season. Claxton had a breakout year for the Nets on both ends of the floor, and as a finisher, he emerged as one of the best in the league. This season, he made over 71% of his paint shots, the single best such mark in the league among the 48 players that attempted at least 500 shots here this season. So who was the least efficient? Jalen Green's 49.7% mark was the least efficient in that group. Houston's second-year guard is a rising star, but like a lot of ascendant young players, he's still struggling to finish at the cup. When he does, it's often spectacular, but his overall paint efficiency is a key growth opportunity for him in the coming years. Let's move out to the midrange and examine the endangered species that is the two-point baseline jumper. Kevin Durant has the sweetest midrange game in the world right now, and KD led the league in both buckets and efficiency in this old-school area. Players like Michael Jordan, Tim Duncan, and Allen Iverson used to count this shot as their favorite jumper, but today's players rarely shoot here. Durant, on the other hand, thrives in this area. He made 81 shots here, but this is where it gets downright wild. He converted, are you ready for this, 61.8% of his 131 attempts in these zones. That's by far the best such mark we've ever seen. Simply one of the greatest shooters we've ever seen, and oh by the way, the guy's seven feet tall. As good as Durant is as a scorer, he will never catch his old friend and rival LeBron James on the league's all-time scoring list. But among the 28 players that tried at least 75 shots in these baseline zones, James ranked last in efficiency, converting just 31.5% of his tries, basically half of Durant's 61.8%. Oh, and his teammate Anthony Davis came in second to last at 36.7%. Make no mistake, James and Davis are both great scorers, but not in these baseline zones this season. Let's swing up toward the elbows and free throw line, a spot where Chicago's DeMar DeRozan has taken up permanent residence. No player in the league shoots or scores as much in this zone as DeRozan, who attempted 594 shots here this season. For context, Joel Embiid, who won the scoring title in part because he loves this zone too, ranks second in the league by trying 327 shots here. 594 to 327, that's a big gap, folks. Still, as prolific as DeRozan is here, he can't hold a candle to Durant's mid-range efficiency. Nobody can. Among the 67 players that tried at least 100 shots here, once again Durant reigned supreme. The easy money sniper made an absurd 55.1% of 254 jumpers in this area. These cartoonish mid-range numbers are a big reason why Durant became the NBA's first ever 55-40-90 scorer this season. Now for the bad news, the Grizzlies' Dylan Brooks ranked last in efficiency in this zone, converting less than a third of his shots here. Brooks made just 32.1% of 112 attempts. The only thing worse than this mid-range efficiency here might be this infamous outfit. Enough with the mid-range. It's 2023, and a vast majority of the NBA's jump shots are now coming from downtown. No shot epitomizes the modern NBA more than the corner three, and corner threes now account for 10% of the league's shots and 20% of the NBA's jump shots. It's a tactically vital shot for today's teams, and no player hit more of them for his team than the Mavs' Reggie Bullock, who made 44.5% of 209 tries, resulting in a league-high 93 made corner threes this season. Of course, Luka Doncic had a lot to do with that. Dallas' key playmaker led the league by assisting on 119 corner threes this season, including 25 of Bullock's. Denver's Michael Porter Jr. is one of the most accurate catch-and-shoot threats in the NBA, and this season, he made a ridiculous 53% of his 100 corner three tries, good enough to lead the group of 65 players with at least 100 corner three tries this year. He, too, benefits from a teammate with pretty good court vision. Now, for the coldest corner man of the year, and that icy distinction goes to Atlanta's John Collins, who converted a frosty 28.8% of his 104 corner three attempts this season. Those numbers won't scare anyone, well, except for Hawks fans. Buddy Heald is officially one of the league's greatest shooters. He may not ever be Stephen Curry or Kevin Durant, but he's consistently among the most prolific and most efficient wing shooters in the league, and that's exactly what he was this year along the left wing, where he led the league in both makes and conversion rate. Heald made 46.2% of his 225 left wing threes this season, resulting in the top marks in both made shots here and efficiency. Houston's Jabari Smith Jr. is a great young player with a bright future, but his jump shooting numbers still have a ways to go. Among the 63 players with at least 100 left wing attempts this season, no player hit a smaller share of their shots than Smith, who made a lowly 22.4% of 107 shots here. That's not good, folks, but again, young players like him get a pass. He's gonna get better. Steph Curry is the greatest shooter in the history of the world, and it should come as no surprise that he's the league's most prolific shooter at the top of the arc, an area where point guards often dribble into their own self-made three-point drives. Curry is the master of that art form, and this season he racked up 109 makes here, the most in the league. And he was efficient, too. He saw 44.4% of his top of the arc attempts, the second best mark in the league. Second to only the Knicks' Emmanuel Quigley. The finalist for sixth man of the year was the league's most efficient from this spot, hitting 46.5% of his shots here. Quigley's breakout third season was a crucial factor in New York's run to the 5-seed in the East. Back in 2019, Kyle Lowry helped the Raptors pass Curry's banged-up Warriors for an unforgettable NBA title. But these days, Lowry is in Miami, and his three-point numbers are not championship caliber, especially in this area, where he made just 28% of 107 tries, which ranks last among the 60 players with at least 100 shots here. As we move over to the right wing, it's Curry's splash brother, Klay Thompson, who blends volume and efficiency at ridiculous levels. This is Klay's spot, and this season he made 112 threes here, 40 more than the second-place scorer in this area, Julius Randle. That's not all. Thompson made 43.2% of his 259 tries in this zone, which was also tied for the best efficiency mark in the league with the Clippers' Paul George. Sure, Klay did it on more than twice the attempts, but PG deserves credit for knocking down 43.2% of his tries from this zone as well. Oklahoma City's Lou Dort is a great young defender, but if there's a weakness in his bag right now, it's his three-point shooting. Dort was the least efficient shooter here, converting just 28.7% of his 129 attempts in this area, despite being left wide open on many occasions. If he can develop a more reliable catch-and-shoot game, he will become one of the league's premier 3 and D players, but his shot just isn't there yet. Last but not least, let's go to outer space, where shooters like Stephen Curry, Damian Lillard, and Trey Young have proven that you can find buckets at distances that we would have considered ludicrous just a decade ago. But none of those three guys made the cut from way downtown this season. Eric Gordon, who left a spot up further out than almost any other catch-and-shoot guy in the association, made 95 threes from 27 feet or further this year. That's the most in the league. Gordon launches from way outside, knocks down the three. The Pelicans' Trey Murphy proved he's got elite range too, converting 42.5% of his deep threes this season, which was best in the league and a good sign for his future. Murphy showed a lot of improvement in his second year, especially from way downtown. On the flip side, Fred Van Fleet shot a ton of deep ones too. The problem? Not many of them went in. Toronto's guard hit just 25.1% of his 27-plus footers this season, worst among the 29 players who launched at least 100 deep balls this season. There you have it, folks. I'll leave you with my favorite long-range shot of the entire season, Stephen Curry's ridiculous halftime buzzer beater in Boston. Oh, and now Curry gets it right back from half court, and it's good! A Curry moment in Boston.