Visualizing Player Shot Selection and Efficiency

By Stephen Shea (@SteveShea33)

February 16, 2017

Good teams need high-volume scorers—players that can put up more than 20 points a night. Of course, players can arrive at their points in a variety of ways. For example, Giannis Antetokounmpo relies heavily on his ability to get to the hoop, while Steph Curry will happily launch from deep.

To get a sense the shot selection and efficiency of the NBA’s top scorers, we created the following visualization for players that have taken at least 600 FGA. The player’s location on the image is determined by their shot selection. Note that players near the origin (the bottom left) are the most reliant on mid-range jumpers.

Each player’s efficiency as measured by True Shooting % (TS%) is reflected in the color of their dot. The image demonstrates that players that rely heavily on mid-range jumpers struggle to be efficient. DeRozan, Carmelo, Barnes, Vucevic, Aldridge, and Wade are in this category.

The following table contains the relevant stats for all of the players in the image.

Player	TEAM	%FGA at Hoop	% FGA from 3	%FGA from (other) 2s	TotalFGA	TS%
Kevin Durant	GSW	0.28	0.30	0.42	948	65.2
Isaiah Thomas	BOS	0.36	0.42	0.22	1035	62.8
Stephen Curry	GSW	0.23	0.54	0.22	958	62.8
Kyle Lowry	TOR	0.24	0.51	0.25	869	62.4
Kawhi Leonard	SAS	0.19	0.29	0.52	900	61.8
LeBron James	CLE	0.43	0.25	0.32	933	61.6
James Harden	HOU	0.26	0.48	0.27	1094	61.5
Lou Williams	LAL	0.23	0.43	0.34	732	60.9
Giannis Antetokounmpo	MIL	0.52	0.16	0.32	866	60.5
Gordon Hayward	UTA	0.25	0.33	0.42	778	60.2
Myles Turner	IND	0.33	0.15	0.52	611	59.9
Bradley Beal	WAS	0.26	0.43	0.30	833	59.8
Klay Thompson	GSW	0.17	0.46	0.37	933	59.7
Karl-Anthony Towns	MIN	0.42	0.19	0.39	1001	59.4
CJ McCollum	POR	0.19	0.33	0.48	1012	59.1
Jimmy Butler	CHI	0.29	0.20	0.51	820	58.8
JJ Redick	LAC	0.10	0.52	0.38	622	58.7
Goran Dragic	MIA	0.30	0.25	0.45	743	58.4
Mike Conley	MEM	0.23	0.40	0.38	655	58.4
Kevin Love	CLE	0.22	0.46	0.32	681	58.2
Anthony Davis	NOP	0.30	0.08	0.62	1068	57.9
Brook Lopez	BKN	0.28	0.33	0.40	800	57.9
Zach LaVine	MIN	0.29	0.44	0.27	710	57.6
Jeff Teague	IND	0.34	0.25	0.41	623	57.6
Tobias Harris	DET	0.22	0.29	0.49	741	57.4
Paul George	IND	0.16	0.34	0.50	850	57.2
Hassan Whiteside	MIA	0.50	0.00	0.50	660	57.2
Bojan Bogdanovic	BKN	0.35	0.45	0.19	611	57.2
Damian Lillard	POR	0.29	0.38	0.33	986	57.1
Eric Bledsoe	PHX	0.32	0.29	0.38	885	56.9
Eric Gordon	HOU	0.21	0.65	0.14	734	56.9
Serge Ibaka	TOR	0.18	0.30	0.51	703	56.9
Kyrie Irving	CLE	0.29	0.31	0.39	959	56.8
Kemba Walker	CHA	0.35	0.38	0.27	975	56.7
Marc Gasol	MEM	0.15	0.22	0.62	884	56.4
Jabari Parker	MIL	0.45	0.21	0.33	810	56.3
DeMarcus Cousins	SAC	0.40	0.24	0.36	1115	56.2
Kristaps Porzingis	NYK	0.23	0.33	0.44	732	55.1
Ersan Ilyasova	PHI	0.28	0.47	0.26	664	55.1
Wesley Matthews	DAL	0.14	0.56	0.30	677	54.8
DeMar DeRozan	TOR	0.18	0.07	0.76	1057	54.7
Carmelo Anthony	NYK	0.15	0.29	0.56	1065	54.6
Russell Westbrook	OKC	0.32	0.27	0.42	1361	54.5
Evan Fournier	ORL	0.32	0.35	0.33	610	54.5
Andrew Wiggins	MIN	0.30	0.19	0.51	1056	54.4
John Wall	WAS	0.37	0.19	0.44	951	54.1
Dennis Schroder	ATL	0.41	0.24	0.35	819	54.1
LaMarcus Aldridge	SAS	0.24	0.05	0.70	727	54.1
Harrison Barnes	DAL	0.18	0.17	0.64	957	54
Nicolas Batum	CHA	0.13	0.40	0.47	647	53.8
Paul Millsap	ATL	0.28	0.26	0.46	757	53.7
Victor Oladipo	OKC	0.29	0.39	0.32	671	53.7
Markieff Morris	WAS	0.29	0.22	0.48	638	53.7
Wilson Chandler	DEN	0.30	0.32	0.38	669	53.5
Devin Booker	PHX	0.24	0.29	0.48	992	53
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope	DET	0.17	0.45	0.38	635	53
Jordan Clarkson	LAL	0.28	0.31	0.42	699	52.8
Andre Drummond	DET	0.54	0.00	0.45	670	52.5
Derrick Rose	NYK	0.44	0.07	0.49	741	51.8
Marcus Morris	DET	0.12	0.36	0.51	707	51.6
Dwyane Wade	CHI	0.28	0.15	0.57	794	51
Jamal Crawford	LAC	0.13	0.36	0.51	619	50.9
Elfrid Payton	ORL	0.44	0.19	0.37	652	50.6
Nikola Vucevic	ORL	0.24	0.07	0.68	720	49.9
Zach Randolph	MEM	0.34	0.09	0.56	652	49.7