In my last article I took a look at some of the league’s leaders in various “easy buckets” categories.  In other words, I found the players who had the strongest tendencies towards certain types of shots.  Today I will do the same thing with outside shots.

Let’s start with something simple: jump shots.  Which players have the most of their shot attempts come as jump shots?  Here are the top 20 (minimum 50 attempts):

Brevin Knight is small, even for a point guard, so it’s not shocking to see him top this list.  The top 20 includes a mix of big and small guys.  There are little point guards like Knight and Jason Hart, swingmen such as Richard Hamilton and Luol Deng, and plenty of big men.

Next is three pointers.  Although you don’t need the play-by-play data to calculate this information, I chose to do it anyways because it’s always enlightening.  Here are the top 20 (minimum 50 attempts):

We see a lot of names you would expect.  Guys like Donyell Marshall make their living with the long distance shot and the numbers reflect that.

Now it’s time to get more specific.  Here are the top 20 in fade away shot attempts (minimum 10 attempts):

Dirk Nowitzki is the leader of the pack by a wide margin.  His tendency to fade away along with his height make his jump shot nearly impossible to block.  The same can be said for Jermaine O’Neal and LaMarcus Aldridge, who also appear on this list.

Floaters are next.  They’re not exactly an outside shot, but they will be included anyway.  Here are the top 20 (minimum 10 attempts):

Most of the players on this list are point guards, who often have to float the ball over the outstretched arms of interior defenders in order to avoid having their shots blocked.  Mike Taylor appears to be particularly fond of this shot.  A few undersized big men such as Craig Smith and Antawn Jamison appear on this list as well.

I’ll finish off this article with two shots that are often taken from the post.  The first is the bank shot.  Here are the top 20 (minimum 10 attempts):

It’s no surprise Tim Duncan likes to face up his man on the post and use the glass.  His bank shot rate is considerably higher than Shaquille O’Neal’s, who has the second highest rate.  Either the Phoenix scorekeeper is confused about what a bank shot is, or the Suns teach their players to use the backboard often, because they have seven of the 20 players on this list.

Finally we have hook shots.  These come pretty much exclusively from the post.  Here are the top 20 (minimum 10 attempts):

If you’re guarding Dwight Howard, be ready for the hook shot.  Over 30% of his many field goal attempts are hooks.  The Big Cat is not far behind at 29.01%.  As you can see, the hook shot is a relatively common mode of attack for many big men.