Joe Ingles on track to become the greatest shooter in NBA history

The use of the word “greatest” is used flippantly in media circles. As recently as this week we’ve had to hear talks about Bryce Cotton and if he is the greatest NBL import of all-time despite playing a mere 4.5 seasons compared to legends of the NBL like Leroy Loggins, Ricky Grace, Mark Davis, James Crawford who all played 15+ years in our league and all have just as many, if not more, NBL titles to their credit.

But we’re serious here… Joe Ingles is on track to become the greatest shooter in NBA history.

After a slow start to the season, Joe Ingles has quietly been putting up a career-best number despite being 33 years old.

The Aussie forward recently notched a career-high 34 points while going 8-for-10 from 3 in the Jazz’s loss to the Washington Wizards. He followed that performance with another efficient night of 19 points on 5-for-6 shooting from deep against the Toronto Raptors, and now the 33-year-old is on pace to make NBA history because of his efficiency.

While being a man of many monikers “Headband Joe”, “Jinglin’ Joe”, “Slow-mo Joe” and more recently, “The Dad Bod God” Joe is averaging a career-high 12 points and 2.7 3-pointers made per game and shooting a career-best 49 per cent from beyond the arc

He’s having the best shooting season of his career… He’s having the greatest shooting season in NBA history.

According to StatMuse, Ingles’ current true shooting percentage of 73.2 per cent, a statistic that measures the combined shooting efficiency for field goals, 3-point field goals and free throws.

Comparing Joe’s numbers to some of the NBA’s all-time greatest scorers, that’s better than the most efficient seasons of Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, James Harden and Stephen Curry’s careers.

• Michael Jordan: 61.4%
• LeBron James: 64.9%
• Kevin Durant: 65.1%
• Steph Curry: 67.5%
• All Non-centers: 69.9%
• Joe Ingles this season: 74.0%

Want an even crazier statistic?

True Shooting Percentage has always been a big man statistic with centres who score the majority of their points from layups and dunks having a clear advantage in their shooting percentages ie. it’s a lot easier to shot 10 from 10 layups than 10 from 10 three-pointers.

Only 29% of Ingles shot attempts come from inside the three-point line compared to Mitchell Robinson and Tyson Chandler who sit second and third respectively, who took 100% of their shots inside the arc.

He’s shooting three’s at a better clip than big guys are making dunks.

Ingles’ effective field goal percentage of 73.1 per cent (which adjusts for the fact that a 3-point field goal is worth one more point than a 2-point field goal) also leads the entire NBA.

His 49.0 per cent shooting from the 3-point range ranks second-best in the NBA, only trailing Atlanta Hawks forward Tony Snell (56.8%), who has 130 fewer 3-point attempts and 58 fewer 3-point makes than Ingles.

Since returning to the team’s second unit in mid-February, the Aussie forward has flourished, envigorating the Jazz, averaging fifteen points, five rebounds, three assists this month while shooting a crazy clip of 65% from the field, 64% from the three-point line and 86% from the free-throw stripe.

The Jazz, who along with Ingles started slow this season, now owns the league’s best record at 30-11.

Dan Boyce (821 Posts)

Dan Boyce is a die-hard Sydney Kings fan who grew up in Melbourne during the roaring 90's of Australian Basketball and spent far too much time collecting Futera NBL Basketball cards.