It may only be one season, but this year LeBron James has taken at least one outside shooting honor from Stephen Curry.
Owen Phillips of FiveThrityEight did a deep dive on LeBron’s outside shooting, specifically how he’s performing on deep 3-pointers, which have been part of his repertoire all season long.
And Phillips found that not only is LeBron shooting better than ever on deep 3s, he’s also shooting better than Golden State’s star Stephen Curry and shooting better than anyone has since 2000 on shots from 28-feet or further.
Through Monday, James has made 52.3 percent (23 for 44) of his shots from 28 feet or farther from the hoop,1 according to Basketball-Reference.com. That’s not only the best this season among players who have taken at least 15 of those shots, but it’s also the best anyone has shot from that deep since the 2000-01 season, the furthest back play-by-play data is available on Basketball-Reference.com.
Even Curry’s other-worldly 2015-16 season, in which he routinely rained threes on opposing defenses shortly after crossing half-court, can’t compare to what James is doing this year.
That is insane! In addition to his incredible outside shooting this season on deep 3s, he’s also shooting almost 77 percent on shots at the rim, according to Basketball-Reference.
So, this season, James is producing shooting numbers that we haven’t seen in almost two decades and is on the cusp of playing 82 games for the first time in his career. In addition to his excellent shooting, LeBron is on pace to finish with the highest assist rate of his career at 44.4%.
And yet, he’s not the favorite to win the MVP.
