Three-point shooting is a commodity now more than ever in the NBA, and teams quickly snapped up most of the best shooters in a free agent market that made few of them available. Mike Miller went to the Cavs, the Thunder signed Anthony Morrow, and an injury to Patty Mills helped short-circuit his free agency and lead him back to the Spurs.
Still, there are several proficient long-range shooters who are still available. Ray Allen, the league’s all-time leader in three-pointers made, might be the most notorious among them, but he had a down season last year, and at 39 years old, his continued effectiveness is questionable. Three-point shooting is among the many skills that made Suns restricted free agent Eric Bledsoe the No. 4 player on the Hoops Rumors Free Agent Power Rankings, but Phoenix will make the final decision over where he’ll play this coming season.
There’s one name that appears on the list below as well as the compilations of the top scorers and top rebounders on the market that I’ve put together in the past week: Michael Beasley. The former No. 2 overall pick carries some baggage from his flameouts earlier in his career, but when he saw playing time for the Eastern Conference champion Heat last season, he was effective.
Here’s the list of the top remaining free agents in descending order of three-point percentage. I’ve limited this to 10 players instead of the 15 available scorers and rebounders I listed, given the paucity of effective veteran long-range shooters who don’t already have NBA deals. Players must have attempted at least 50 three pointers last season to qualify, and that’s precisely the number taken by Hedo Turkoglu, who sits at the top.
- Hedo Turkoglu (44.0%)
- Rasual Butler (41.9%)
- Doron Lamb (40.0%)
- Michael Beasley (38.9%)
- Chris Douglas-Roberts (38.6%)
- Ray Allen (37.5%)
- Francisco Garcia (35.8%)
- Eric Bledsoe (35.7%)
- E’Twaun Moore (35.4%)*
- Rashard Lewis (34.3%)
* — Moore is reportedly expected to sign with the Bulls, but it’s not entirely clear whether the sides have an agreement.
Honorable mention:
- Earl Clark would be next on the list, having made 33.6% of his three-pointers. No other available free agent who took at least 50 attempts from behind the arc made at least 33% of them.
- Derek Fisher met the qualifying criteria and would have been sixth on this list at 38.4%, but he’s now the head coach of the Knicks. Shane Battier made 34.8% of the 210 three-pointers he took, which would put him 10th on the list at 34.8%, but he announced his retirement.
- Byron Mullens (37.1%), Nando De Colo (34.0%) and Al Harrington (34.0%) have all agreed to deals overseas, but if they hadn’t, they’d appear on this list.