[Quick Hit] A Nice Way to Show Shooting Accuracy and Shot Selection

In working on writing my NBA shooting accuracy article I came up with a neat way to visualize different NBA player’s shot distributions and how good they are from a specific distance. It is always easy to show two-dimensional data; you just put one variable on the x-axis and the other on the y-axis and you get a scatter plot. However, whenever you want to show a third variable you have to get creative.

A technique I like to use is to alter the size or the color of the points to represent the value of a third variable.

In the plots below, I’ve plotted distance versus shooting accuracy relative to league average. Then, the size of the points indicate the relative frequency of shots from that distance. Big points mean that player took a high percentage of their shots from that distance. The red line is league average. Lots of big points above the red line indicates a really good shooter.

I’ve selected the following players and used their 2018-2019 data to show this visualization and I’ll comment on what I notice and how this fits that player’s ‘narrative’. The players are: Steph Curry, James Harden, Ben Simmons, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic, and Rudy Gobert.

Steph Curry

If you look at my SAPC rankings, Steph Curry was by far the best shooter in 2018-2019 and this chart bears that out. Not only is he above average near the rim, he is way above average from 3. The only distances he shot below league average from that year were ones he hardly shot at all.

James Harden

James Harden has been the most prolific scorer in the NBA for a few years now. He is certainly an above average shooter, but his scoring doesn’t come entirely from being an all-time great shooter like Steph. Rather, his point production mainly comes from (a) shot selection and (b) drawing fouls. The first thing, shot selection, you can see above. Harden takes almost all of his shots from 7 feet or closer or right behind the three point line. These are the most bang-for-your-buck shots and thus James Harden scores a lot of points.

Ben Simmons

Ben Simmons is famous for never shooting a three that wasn’t a buzzer beater (until recently?). This shows him never taking threes and also him being a significantly below average shooter anywhere outside 8 feet. However, near and at the rim Ben Simmons is probably one of the best. At least he compares to the next guy….

Giannis Antetokounmpo

No one is as good at Giannis at finishing at the rim. Those dots, from at the rim or one foot away, represent 576 of his 1247 attempts that year. In 2019-20, Giannis started shooting threes quite a bit more. However, this data shows that maybe he shouldn’t have.

Luka Doncic

This one surprised me a bit, I thought Luka was a better shooter than this indicates. Granted, this is his rookie season so it is still very impressive to already be almost at league average from three. His shot selection reminds me a lot of James Harden, though not quite as compact around the rim and three point line. I wouldn’t be surprised if his chart looks much crisper if you take his 2019-20 data. Still, not what I expected when my Wife’s brother told me Luka was already top 5 in the league.

Rudy Gobert

I wanted to include Rudy Gobert because he often leads the league in true shooting percentage and I wanted to show why. If you are a center and know you aren’t a good shooter from more than a few feet, this is exactly what your shot chart should look like. The man is ungodly good from 0-2 feet, and about average out to 6 feet. However, his attempts trail off sharply with distance after 2 feet. This is a guy who knows his role, accepts it, and excels at it. This chart is one of the reasons Rudy Gobert is so good and why the Jazz have been good for a few years now.

If anyone wants to see other players charts, I would be happy to create them, they don’t take too long, but please tweet at us @JocksData asking for who you want to see.