NBA Storylines

NBA Storylines: Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey among top assist combos in 2023-24

Breaking down which players have the most assists to a single teammate this season and how often they assist each other.

The Pacers duo of Tyrese Haliburton (right) and Myles Turner nears the top of the list of most assists to a single teammate this season.

Teamwork is a wonderful thing, and some connections are more prolific than others.

Here are the players with the most assists to a single teammate through Thursday, along with how often they assist each other per 36 minutes on the floor together:

Most assists to a single teammate, 2023-24

Team Scorer Assisted By FGM MIN Per 36
HOU Alperen Sengun Fred VanVleet 63 596 3.8
IND Myles Turner Tyrese Haliburton 63 498 4.6
PHI Joel Embiid Tyrese Maxey 57 538 3.8
ATL Bogdan Bogdanovic Trae Young 52 325 5.8
DEN Michael Porter Jr. Nikola Jokic 50 657 2.7
DAL Dereck Lively II Luka Doncic 49 511 3.5
DEN Kentavious Caldwell-Pope Nikola Jokic 46 733 2.3
MIN Karl-Anthony Towns Mike Conley 46 513 3.2
MIL Giannis Antetokounmpo Damian Lillard 45 554 2.9
LAL Anthony Davis LeBron James 45 551 2.9
LAL Anthony Davis D’Angelo Russell 45 625 2.6

MIN = Minutes on the floor together
Per 36 = Assists per 36 minutes on the floor together
Through Dec. 14, 2023

Some notes:

  • According to Synergy tracking, Houston’s Alperen Sengun leads the league with 6.9 roll-man points per game. That’s up from 3.4 (13th) last season. And according to Second Spectrum tracking, he’s gotten a shot, made a pass or gotten fouled after 37% of the screens he’s set, up from 25% last season. It certainly helps to have a better passer (Fred VanVleet) running a lot of those pick and rolls.

Sengun isn’t a lob threat, but with a good pocket pass, he can find an angle and finish against a recovering big …

Fred VanVleet assist to Alperen Sengun

  • In his first seven seasons in the league, Myles Turner never took more than 49% of his shots from in the paint. But over the last two seasons, 60% of his shots have come in the paint. He’s playing bigger without another big on the floor, and Tyrese Haliburton has rewarded him for it. This season, Turner has rolled to the rim 71% of the time after setting a ball screen, up from 69% last season.

Tyrese Haliburton assist to Myles Turner

  • James Harden’s 244 assists to Joel Embiid last season were 89 more than any player had to a single teammate, and came at a rate of 5.9 per 36 minutes on the floor together. The Tyrese Maxey-Embiid tandem hasn’t hooked up nearly as much, but it’s still near the top of the list, and the Sixers have still been one of the league’s most improved offensive teams.
  • Trae Young is the only player with at least 25 assists to five different teammates and is often near the top of this list with Clint Capela. But Bogdan Bogdanovic has been the guy Young has assisted most, even though Bogdanovic (who’s started just two of the Hawks’ 23 games) has played 110 fewer minutes alongside Young than Capela has. A rate of 5.8 assists per 36 minutes on the floor together is very high.

The Hawks often run pick and rolls with two shooters on the strong side of the floor, making it more difficult to help from the weak side. If that weak-side defender does help, he’s got a long way to get back to his man …

Trae Young assist to Bogdan Bogdanovic

  • Per 36 minutes on the floor together, Giannis Antetokounmpo has more assists from Khris Middleton (37 total, 3.8 per 36) than he does from Damian Lillard (45, 2.9 per 36).
  • With the Nuggets’ point guard having missed 14 of the team’s 26 games, the Jamal Murray-Nikola Jokic combo isn’t on this list, but per 36 minutes on the floor together, the duo has more assists to each other (54, 7.2 per 36) than it has in any of its previous six seasons. The previous high was 6.1 per 36 last season.
  • Anthony Davis is the only player who’s been assisted by two different teammates at least 45 times, and D’Angelo Russell is one of three players – Haliburton and Jokic are the others – with at least 40 assists to two different teammates. He has 45 to Davis and 40 to LeBron James.

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John Schuhmann is a senior stats analyst for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.

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