Making Layups

The Suns are widely thought of as jump shooting team, but that is not really true. The Suns ranked 7th in the NBA in the number of "in the paint" baskets: layups, dunks, tip-ins, etc.

What is more important is that they were far and away the most accurate at 64.6%. No other team averaged over 60%. The Spurs averaged 59.5% on 103 fewer in the paint shots than the Suns. (Stats taken from http://www.nba.com/hotzones/popup.html)

Suns 1633 of 2573 for 64.6%
Bobcats 1520 of 2844 for 53.2%
Bucks 1752 of 3103 for 56.5%
Bulls 1303 of 2460 for 53.1%
Cavs 1560 of 2772 for 56.3%
Celtics 1474 of 2803 for 52.6%
Clippers 1287 of 2271 for 56.7%
Grizzlies 1625 of 2911 for 55.8%
Hawks 1466 of 2719 for 53.9%
Hornets 1589 of 2950 for 53.9%
Heat 1542 of 2608 for 59.1%
Jazz 1634 of 2844 for 57.5%
Kings 1444 of 2625 for 55.0%
Knicks 1780 of 3186 for 55.9%
Lakers 1602 of 2807 for 57.1%
Magic 1661 of 2847 for 58.3%
Mavs 1238 of 2208 for 56.1%
Nets 1419 of 2547 for 55.7%
Nuggets 1814 of 3074 for 59.0%
Pacers 1367 of 2538 for 53.9%
Pistons 1317 of 2345 for 56.2%
Raptors 1335 of 2293 for 58.2%
Rockets 1319 of 2457 for 53.7%
Sixers 1469 of 2588 for 56.8%
Spurs 1530 of 2572 for 59.5%
Sonics 1600 of 2846 for 56.2%
Wolves 1311 of 2335 for 56.1%
Blazers 1469 of 2714 for 54.1%
Warriors 1846 of 3197 for 57.7%
Wizzards 1496 of 2665 for 56.1%

As expected, the big number came from Stoudemire, Marion, and Barbosa. What may be surpising is to find that Diaw ranked ahead of Nash in terms of inside shots taken and percentage made.

Banks 47 of 77 for 61.0%
Barbosa 225 of 400 for 56.9%
Bell 73 of 131 for 55.7%
Burke 16 of 27 for 59.3%
Diaw 188 of 288 for 65.3%
James Jones 15 of 26 for 57.7%
Jumaine Jones 2 of 4 for 50%
Marion 371 of 547 for 67.8%
Marks 1 of 2 for 50%
Nash 170 of 256 for 66.4%
Pike 2 of 3 for 66.6%
Rose 2 of 3 for 66.6%
Stoudemire 462 of 715 for 64.4
Thomas 59 of 94 for 62.8%

Overall was 1633 of 2573 for 64.6%

Layups are a measure of how aggressive players are at attacking the basket, seen as a percentage of shots


Banks 39.3%
Barbosa 36.0%
Bell 13.8%
Burke 41.5%
Diaw 50.6%
James Jones 5.9%
Jumaine Jones 7.8%
Marion 51.1%
Marks 33.3%
Nash 26.4%
Pike 12.0%
Rose 3.5%
Stoudemire 67.8%
Thomas 36.3%
Total 37.5%

[As a side note, Grant Hill was very effective close to the basket last season, shooting 189 of 269 for 70.3%. The 269 shots as a percentage of his total of 660 shots which was 40.8%. As advertised he is also a very good mid range shooter which is why his overall shooting percentage is 51.8%.]

Obviously the Suns are better known for the great three point shooting 785 of 1965; but their 2355 points for three is dwarfed by their 3266 points from layups.