I plotted points per game vs true shooting for all players above 10 PPG (who have played in at least 75% of their games so far). The faces are larger the closer they are to the frontier of points/efficiency. Red = below league average efficiency (TS), green = above.

What stands out so far?

Outlier-level volume and efficiency- Stephen Curry - 27.8 PPG, 71.9% TS- Luka Doncic - 38.6 PPG, 66.3% TS

Efficiency champion- Ziare Williams - 11 PPG, 72.1% TS

High volume, low efficiency- Darius Acuff Jr., 26.2 PPG, 52.6% TS

Really low efficiency- Peyton Watson - 11 PPG, 46% TS- Brandon Miller -20.6 PPG, 46.5% TS

Source: https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2027_per_game.html

HokageEzio | NYK

42 | 7 hours ago

It’s crazy that Zion is good and not missing games anymore but everybody has just moved on completely at this point. He’s just not the superstar people expected.

It’s not unwarranted either, it’s just kinda crazy when you actually see it. Said the same last year.

jdiddy_ub | BKN

11 | 7 hours ago

Availability as everyone is expecting him to miss significant time at some point but also his team isn’t good. If the pelicans record was flipped and was 8-4, he would be talked about.

TimothyN | NOP

4 | 6 hours ago

It will always be my belief that Zion and his camp’s goal was to get traded to a marquee destination. But instead of being a good pro and having teams want to get him, he spent years out of shape and conditioning thinking it’d make it easier. By the time they realized it wouldn’t, it became too late for any of those teams he probably wanted in the beginning to want him. Like do people here really think no one tried to get him to be healthy for 7 years? His camp’s selfishness destroyed his early career.

kl08pokemon | LAL

3 | 6 hours ago

Want to see him on a new team yesterday

Doten1

1 | 5 hours ago

He is good but never took that top 5 jump everybody expected

Much-Philosopher-935 | Kawhi Leonard

20 | 7 hours ago

didn’t realize acuff was averaging 26 lol that’s absurd for a rookie even given the fact he has the green light for it

inightyDAB | Luka Dončić

9 | 7 hours ago

Ziaire has been such a nice surprise for us on the offensive end

GuestBadge | GSW

22 | 7 hours ago

Steph playing 5min and then going out with injury screwd his averages. He was at 30ppg on absurd efficiency. Hopefully he comes back and doesnt miss a beat.

TomatoSecure192 | CHI

13 | 7 hours ago

It also skews his mpg, 28 ppg on 26.3 minutes is still extremely elite

GuestBadge | GSW

2 | 5 hours ago

True. Good call.

Reason-Over-Rage

6 | 7 hours ago

you forgot schroder in the “really low efficiency” category lol

Much-Philosopher-935 | Kawhi Leonard

6 | 7 hours ago

Also I realized luka is stretching the X axis by a lot, most other seasons steph would be at the top right corner.

CrunkJuiceSommelier | LAL

5 | 7 hours ago

Over 20ppg on 46.5% TS is outrageous

ObiOneKenobae | NYK

5 | 6 hours ago

I’m glad Mikal isn’t shooting enough to make any of these lists lol

ironyisdeadish

5 | 6 hours ago

Lebron will turn 42 on December 30, 2026. Seeing him in the bottom left of this grid…and feels like it matches eye test on the games I’ve watched. # LeExpiration Date. #LeSadness #LeInevitability

Tom_Gibson | LAL

12 | 7 hours ago

What stands out to me is the Lakers have the most efficient player and also the highest-scoring player, who is also very efficient

wallysmith127 | LAL

11 | 7 hours ago

Reaves, Mamu and Kessler are also highly efficient as well.

That’s what’s kinda wild about this offense is that even when Luka “carries”, the pieces around him are also raising the team’s overall ceiling.

maiq--the--liar | NBA

3 | 6 hours ago

Mamu is a hair over league average

wallysmith127 | LAL

2 | 6 hours ago

For true shooting % yes, but he’s one of four lakers in the top 6 for ESPN’s overall offensive rating, which measures more than just shooting

srhdt

5 | 6 hours ago

They have the #1 offensive rating while having one of the fewest possession numbers in the league. You basically can’t do that unless the team is hyper efficient and scoring almost all possessions.

bbank8744 | NYK

4 | 6 hours ago

Good thing there was a 10ppg cutoff Mikal is off the charts in a number of (bad) ways (6PPG on 40% TS)

Scuttleduck | GSW

1 | 5 hours ago

OP do you have a bbref account? I’d love to see if Steph and Luka are at historic locations on this plot. Can you find the record for highest TS% for a player with >25ppg, >26ppg, >27ppg etc and plot that curve on here?

hallisky [OP]

1 | 5 hours ago

I can try to check that!

Redacted-Jungle

6 | 7 hours ago

so you’re telling me that Darius Acuff Jr. is basically Jalen Brunson and Brandon Miller is a basketball terrorist…. and Watson is a Jokic merchant

gundam1983 | SAC

2 | 5 hours ago

Nets fans will tell you Brunson is just Cam Thomas 2.0

Niceguydan8

3 | 6 hours ago

Harden was catching a lot of heat for having a really rough start (which he did) but very few people were talking about how abysmal Watson has been offensively for the Cavs

Fit-Tooth-1101 | DEN

1 | 6 hours ago

And people wanted us to move Jamal Murray so that we could keep P Wat and grab another PG

What a travesty that would’ve been

hallisky [OP]

2 | 5 hours ago

Jamal has been great, happy to see him doing well

oldschool23

0 | 4 hours ago

When we get eliminated in the first round with Mal shooting like ⁴⁄₁₆ for a 4th playoffs in a row, maybe you will understand

Fit-Tooth-1101 | DEN

1 | 4 hours ago

TLDR: You’re just looking at the surface and not the deeper issues that caused all of that, of which there’s a multitude. From injury, to roster construction.

——————

2022-2023 (4 playoffs ago) wouldn’t have won the chip without him.

2023-2024: He literally played through a calf strain and sent the Lakers home in the clutch. If we don’t collapse to the Wolves in second half of game 7 we even had a title shot that year.

2024-2025 Playoffs: Literally his most efficient of the past 4 seasons with a +/- of 30…

He shouldn’t be immune from criticism for the last playoffs performance, because it was definitely shit. But so was almost everyone else other than Jokic, and even he was hella off coming off injury.

But maybe if we actually had a ball handler or serviceable backup, that level of load wouldn’t be on him in the first place lol When he is forced to run the offense, bring the ball up against full-court pressure, and be the primary perimeter scorer for 38 minutes a night what else is going to happen…

He was 6th in the league in MPG last season with Jokic, Cam, CB, and AG out for extended periods during that tenure. There’s a reason he was completely gassed lol

This year is on a similar trajectory too if Cam and CB underperform and AG remains injured, and he’s playing the 3rd most MPG this season too.

Also, the TWolves are literally a horrible matchup for us, they have the size, defenders, and stamina to completely wear our guys out, especially when they apply full-court pressure. Same thing happened in the 2024 WC semis. Even during our chip run, that baby MN team put up the best fight out of anyone we faced. They’re literally built to counter us (thanks Tim Connelly).

oldschool23

1 | 4 hours ago

Yes to all that. And we will still get the same result in the playoffs. It simply does not work. Trying the same thing over and over and expecting different result is lunacy.

Center without rim protecting ability is simply not compatible with no D shooting guard posing as a PG. We have burned AG with covering both their asses, Jok at the rim and Mal on the perimeter.

And you wouldn’t even try to entertain the idea for Jalen Brown trade. Doom

Mkaayy1986 | GSW

3 | 7 hours ago

Steph is ridiculous. He was at 30 ppg doing this til the injury game as well 🤯

ALotOfLobster

3 | 6 hours ago

It’s funny to see SGA efficiency dipping majorly since the officiating changes

Victor__Wembanyama | SAS

9 | 6 hours ago

since his whole team got injured

Doten1

2 | 5 hours ago

Ajay, IH, Caruso are still very good players tbh

sorendiz | HOU

3 | 5 hours ago

surely it has nothing to do with half his team being in the morgue and teams basically constantly doubling and sometimes tripling him

Sharp-Selection-3541

5 | 6 hours ago

Yes that’s the only difference between this year and last year. For sure. Yup.

Draconda | MEM

1 | 5 hours ago

Wow, Boozer is literally better than LeBron /s

fuzzythinker | DEN

0 | 6 hours ago

This tells me Wemby need to score a whole lot more

hallisky [OP]

1 | 5 hours ago

Agree, if not for Luka’s otherworldly scoring + efficiency, he would be at the pareto-frontier. He’s been doing excellent

[OC] Who are the least and most efficient scorers this year so far (above 10 PPG)?