The NBA's Most Efficient Scorers

By Michael Hogan

There are many approaches to assessing the effectiveness of an NBA player. Some of these can quickly become complicated, but one simple approach involves evaluating the number of points scored per shot attempt.

As evidenced by the recent attempts of somewhat normal people to defeat retired NBA benchwarmer Brian Scalarbrine one-on-one, it's possible to at least attempt shots against NBA-level competition. But it isn't always possible to attempt quality shots that won't be altered by defenders and that will actually find their way into the net. 

Water Drop 

By gcardinal from Norway

[CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

With this in mind, points per attempt gives us a window on an individual player's effectiveness based on whether a player is capable of finding and making quality shots. Note that I consider a quality shot either a shot that is likely to fall OR a shot that is likely to result in a foul, so I didn't remove points scored via foul shots from the data below. Points are points. Also note that for this view of player effectiveness, I focused on  the players with 100 or more field goal attempts as of January 22, 2013.

Getting right to the bottom line, the top 20 players in the NBA are noted in the following table, along with their positions, age, team, field goal attempts, points, and points per attempt. The data comes from basketball-reference.com.

Rank	Player	Pos	Age	Team	FGA	PTS	PPA
1	Tyson Chandler	C	30	NYK	261	477	1.8276
2	Dwight Howard	C	27	LAL	397	649	1.6348
3	Kevin Durant	SF	24	OKC	777	1241	1.5972
4	Greg Smith	C	22	HOU	134	214	1.5970
5	Tiago Splitter	PF	28	SAS	279	438	1.5699
6	Carl Landry	PF	29	GSW	324	479	1.4784
7	James Harden	SG	23	HOU	748	1088	1.4545
8	Nick Collison	PF	32	OKC	167	240	1.4371
9	Meyers Leonard	C	20	POR	100	143	1.43
10	Kevin Martin	SG	29	OKC	430	614	1.4279
11	Boris Diaw	PF	30	SAS	179	255	1.4246
12	LeBron James	PF	28	MIA	703	1001	1.4239
13	Kyle Lowry	PG	26	TOR	279	397	1.4229
14	Brandan Wright	C	25	DAL	136	193	1.4191
15	Tyler Hansbrough	PF	27	IND	191	271	1.4188
16	Nene Hilario	PF	30	IND	230	326	1.4174
17	DeAndre Jordan	C	24	LAC	267	378	1.4157
18	Chris Bosh	C	28	MIA	457	646	1.4136
19	Andrei Kirilenko	SF	31	MIN	330	463	1.4030
20	Andre Drummond	C	19	DET	221	309	1.3982

It's no surprise that the top scorers are mostly centers or power forwards, with the key exceptions being Kevin Durant, James Harden, Kevin Martin, and Kyle Lowry. These four guys stand out above their positional peers, and all four happen to be current or former members of the Oklahoma City Thunder or Houston Rockets. Both the Thunder and Rockets are known for number crunching, so perhaps this table gives us a window into one statistic that both teams value.

It's also interesting to note that both Durant and LeBron James, his primary competitor for this season's MVP award appear near the top of the list, which includes a total of 295 players. Other players who are also occasionally mentioned as possible MVPs but who don't appear in the top 20 include Chris Paul (#26), Carmelo Anthony (#33), and Kobe Bryant (#39). It's interesting to note that Bryant has taken 1,199 shots compared to Howard's 649, which might indicate that it's time for Kobe to pass the ball more. Since Steve Nash also ranks ahead of Kobe (although barely, at #36), Kobe might also want to consider passing the ball back to Nash, who has only taken 190 shots this season.

Age and Efficiency

Age appears in the above analysis because I expected it to show up as a variable that made a difference. My assumption is that age makes a given player smarter and therefore more efficient. The average age of all players who qualified for this list was 27, so while 13 of the 20 top players are at or above the average NBA player's age, the evidence above isn't enough to suggest that age makes a player more efficient. In fact, if you chart the points per attempt of all players with over 100 shot attempts versus their ages, nothing suggests any meaningful trends about age and efficiency. Maybe a more detailed analysis would show trends at specific positions (e.g., guards), but my time for preparing this post is limited, so I'll stick to the basics.

The All-Stud Team

An All-NBA Team of efficient scorers comprise of the top player at each position would look like this:

C: Tyson Chandler, Knicks
PF: Tiago Splitter, Spurs
SF: Kevin Durant, Thunder
SG: James Harden, Rockets
PG: Kyle Lowry, Raptors

As Sean O'Connor observed on Twitter, this would be a solid team. I wholeheartedly agree with Sean. As a Mavericks season ticker holder, I've seen my fair share of the players on this All-Stud Team, and I would be more than happy to go to battle with this group. 

The All-Dud Team

It's all well and good to recognize those players who succeed, but since the Internet also likes to reward futility, let's take a quick look at the least efficient players in the NBA at each position.

C: Kevin Seraphin, Wizards
PF: Lamar Odom, Clippers
SF: Michael Beasley, Suns
SG: Will Barton, Trailblazers
PG: John Lucas, Raptors

These guys would likely defeat a very good college team, but they also probably don't make their owners and coaches very happy (am I right, Lamar)?

Others of note include Eric Maynor, who ranks 291st and demonstrates that the Thunder don't do everything perfectly, coach's son Austin Rivers, who clocks in at number 289, and the Knicks' Raymond Felton, who ranks 281st.

Also, for those who were wondering, JaVale McGee actually ranks pretty high on this list, showing up at #30 overall.