Among the trivial performance measures to amuse me over the years is the notion that if you sum a player’s FG%, 3FG%, and FT%, then multiply by 1000, and get a result of 1800 or better, you’ve got an excellent shooter.
In other words, a player recording .500, .400, and .900 can shoot it.
If you wanted to be serious about it, the first adjustment you’d have to make is to establish some minimums (easy enough to say whatever the minimum attempts are for league leadership stats). Then weight 3FG% more heavily than FT%. But this is one of those back-of-the-envelope, in-your-head metrics that’s supposed to be taken with a shaker of salt.
The NCAA Division I leader in 3FG% and FT% is Gonzaga guard Brynna Maxwell. She totals .490 + .518 + .981, or 1.989. Times 1000: 1989.
For comparison’s sake: Gianna Kneepkens, Utah: 545 473 830, 1848. Caitlin Clark, Iowa: 460 360 830, 1650. Hannah Jump, Stanford: 473 455 750, 1678. Jump and Clark are outstanding shooters, and they didn’t reach 1700, while Kneepkens is having an outlier season (teammate Alissa Pili: 619, 359, 812, 1790).
I think Steve Kerr flirted with 2000 in an NBA season or two (when Stephen Curry was establishing himself, media asked Coach Kerr if Curry was the best shooter in the NBA, and in reference to himself, Kerr quipped that Curry wasn’t yet the best shooter in the practice gym). Steve Nash was 1830 for his 18-year career. Curry 1810 for 13 years.
In five WNBA seasons, Jennifer Azzi was close to 1860.
Allie Quigley: 1739 in 13 years, and that surprises me. In the 2015 playoffs, Quigley was 590 438 1000, 2028. Between 2015 and 2021, Allie Quigley didn’t miss a free throw during a playoff game. In 2021, the year Chicago won the thing, Quigley was 417 365 1000, 1782 in 10 games.
Elena Delle Donne: 474 392 937, 1803 across nine years.
Kerr, Nash, Curry, Azzi, Quigley, Delle Donne are six of the finest shooters in basketball history, and for 22 games in 2022-3, Brynna Maxwell is smoking them. 1989 is way, way out there. If you’ve watched Brynna, you expect this.
| Year | FG% | 3FG% | FT% | sum |
| 20 | 470 | 472 | 943 | 1886 |
| 21 | 360 | 336 | 924 | 1620 |
| 22 | 397 | 380 | 885 | 1662 |
| 23 | 485 | 509 | 944 | 1938 |
In her sensational freshman season, no one knew who Brynna was, and they left her alone out there. Bad idea. They caught on for the next two years, holding her to merely good percentages. Then she transferred to Gonzaga. 2000 is off the chart for a single game (Quigley did it for an entire postseason), and Maxwell is a hair off that for 21 games.
Would she do this in the Pac-12? Say Coach Roberts made a deal with her that as long as she did this 1800 thing, she’s get 28 minutes per game. How long would that last? The Big 10 road trip to USC and UCLA wouldn’t do anyone’s shooting percentages good.
Brynna had a wretched night in the Bulldogs’ 66-55 win vs. Loyola Marymount Thursday: 3-9 1-2 1-2, dropping her season numbers for the purposes of this entry to 485 509 944,1938.