In today's era of high-volume jump-shooting, there's much reason for debate and discussion regarding the NBA's best shooter. Is it based on pure quantity of shots made? In that case, Golden State's Stephen Curry has converted a staggering 1,449 three-pointers at a rate of 43.9% over the last five seasons. Should the NBA's best shooter be determined by percentage? Cleveland guard Kyle Korver has shot 44.9% on 2,115 attempts from deep since the 2012-13 season.
Bleacher Report columnist Adam Fromal took it open himself to gather the most important factors in crowning the Association's best shooters during the 2016-17 campaign so far:
Averaging a career-high 23.5 points per game this season, Portland Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum is on the verge of a 50/40/90 season as one of the league's most efficient high-volume shooters with percentages of 47.8% from the field, 41.8% from behind the three-point arc and 89.1% from the free throw line. McCollum is sixth in the NBA in 2016-17 in effective field goal percentage among players with at least 700 attempts at a clip of 54.8%.
But according to Fromal's parameters, McCollum is, in fact, the NBA's best all-around shooter ahead of names like Curry, Kevin Durant, JJ Redick and Kyle Lowry:
- Points Per Shot from 10-16 Feet: 1.01
- Points Per Shot from 16-23 Feet: 0.968
- Points Per Three-Point Shot: 1.266
- Points Added on Jumpers Per Game: 2.351
McCollum addressed his shooting and the praise from Bleacher Report with reporters following Tuesday's practice:
See Fromal's full ranking of NBA shooters at Bleacher Report.
*All stats courtesy of Basketball Reference // **Casey Holdahl provided quotes for this post