Revenge of the NBA's Guards who can't Shoot

How a quintet of below-average marksmen are finding ways to contribute to contenders despite their limitations.

Shooting is at a premium in the NBA. Gone are the days where teams play multiple lumbering bigs incapable of hitting from outside the paint, and for good reason. Shooting breathes space into offenses, opening up passing and drive lanes and significantly increasing the pressure opposing defenses feel when scrambling in rotation.

Players that can’t shoot are becoming rarer and rarer, particularly among perimeter options. But several of the NBA’s top contenders have found smart ways to fit guards who are ineffective shooters into their rotations.

We’re excluding some bigger name stars - namely Russell Westbrook and Ben Simmons - from this list. They’re both very much bad shooters, but the spirit of this exercise is to highlight players fitting into smaller roles rather than serving as a foundational piece that needs to be built around, the value of which is less clear.

Let’s take a look at who they are and what they’re doing.

Alex Caruso, Chicago Bulls

(Shooting Splits: .404/.289/.875)

The myth of the CaruShow is well established by now. He’s a balding, pasty athletic freak who blends his quickness, strength, and smarts to make life miserable for opponents. Caruso is a very good on-ball defender who is hard to get around off the bounce and tenacious in navigating screens and handoffs.

He’s a menace clogging up passing and driving lanes away from the ball as well. Caruso is currently averaging 2.4 steals and 4.2 deflections per game, the first and second overall rates for those respective statistics in the entire NBA.

Offensively Caruso mostly stays out of the way of his more skilled teammates. The Bulls employ two big-time scorers in Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan, both of whom need only the smallest of windows to get shots off. Caruso spends a good amount of time standing in the corner, where he’s just enough of a threat to provide the small slivers of space that LaVine and DeRozan need to cook.

When he does play a more active role in Chicago’s offense, Caruso does lots of little things to keep things running smoothly. He’s a dutiful screen setter, a smart cutter, and a quick decision maker who always has his head up in transition. Outside of the occasional highlight dunk, nothing Caruso does offensively is particularly glamorous, but his low-usage, workman like approach is a good fit within the context of the Bulls’ roster.

Marcus Smart, Boston Celtics

(Shooting Splits: .376/.273/.725)

Of all the players on this list, Marcus Smart is the one who approaches the game most like a player that can shoot. He’s not afraid to hoist up threes, both off the dribble and as a spot up threat. The Celtics’ offense has needed that at times. They’re not a team with many long distance marksmen, and the only thing worse to a team’s spacing than a bad shooter is a total non-shooter (shoutout to Ben Simmons).

Smart has looked at times like he’s improved his stroke enough to be counted as a roughly league average shooter. When he’s taking primarily open looks he plays that part rather convincingly. Occasionally he’ll veer into reckless shot selection territory though, a fact that bogs down his percentages and can become a real drag on Boston’s offense.

It’s worth putting up with for his defense.

Smart is long, strong as all hell, consistently in the right spots, and psychotically competitive. He’s got good hands, is incredibly versatile, and has a knack for making defensive plays in big moments. When he’s healthy and fully locked in Smart is just about as good of a perimeter defender as there is.

He’s got some useful tools on the other end of the court as well. Smart is a good passer, and the Celtics like to let him facilitate pick-and-roll actions. He doesn’t inspire a ton of fear as a midrange threat or potential finisher by the basket, but Smart uses his feel to keep defenses on their toes just long enough to open up cracks to find teammates.

Boston will post Smart from time to time as well, letting him bully smaller defenders with his strength (note: they’re just dipping their toes into running actions away from the ball while he posts to open up options for facilitation a la Draymond Green with the Warriors).

The Celtics rely on Smart more than any of the teams represented here depend on their respective non-shooting guards, and they have the worst record amongst them. Perhaps that’s an indication that there are limits to how central of a role such a player should play, but Smart leads Boston in on/off differential by a wide margin, so presumably he’s not the problem (per Cleaning the Glass).

Terance Mann, Los Angeles Clippers

(Shooting Splits: .459/.347/.783)

Terance Mann made a name for himself knocking down triples and scoring 39 points in an elimination game victory against the Utah Jazz in the playoffs last year. His typical offensive output is something much more modest.

He’s served as a high-energy, low-usage option for the Clippers in most situations, dialing up his on-ball responsibilities when playing with bench-heavy units and mostly standing in the corner or lurking by the basket for dump-offs or offensive rebounds.

Mann has a little more juice to his offensive skillset than most of the other players on this list. He’s got a fun and somewhat effective herky-jerky game off the bounce, can attack a closeout with his quickness, and is at least a nominal threat from beyond the arc.

Mann can be a handful when he gets hot, but he’s inconsistent offensively. His energy is always reliable. Mann’s an excellent rebounder for his size, a strength he applies to start fast breaks when cleaning up the defensive glass and to create second chance opportunities when crashing from the corner.

Mann uses his strong, spindly 6’5” frame very effectively defensively, directing opponents exactly where the Clippers need to execute their scheme. To start the year that’s meant funneling drivers toward fellow bench mate Isaiah Hartenstein, who through some combination of skill and luck is absolutely locking down the paint.

Away from the ball, Mann has good hands and likes to sneak around the court to steal the ball away from unsuspecting opponents. Add it all up and you’ve got a very impactful defender.

The Clippers’s defense has been 12.2 points per 100 non-garbage-time possessions stingier with Mann on the court (and 15.5 points better overall), per Cleaning the Glass. There is definitely some significant noise in that data, but it’s clear from whatching the team play that Los Angeles benefits significantly from Mann’s energy and reliability.

Gary Payton II, Golden State Warriors

(Shooting Splits: .696/.474.640)

Gary Payton II may be one of the most extremely one-way players in NBA history. He’s an insanely good defender who gets his hands on everything. Payton hasn’t played quite enough to hold the steals per game crown yet, but his 3.5 steals per 36 minutes ranks number one among players to see at least 10 games and 100 total minutes of action.

The Warriors initially used Payton as a low-minute defensive specialist, inserted to change the momentum of games or attempt to get a steal on the final possession before the end of a quarter. He’s performed so well that Golden State has carved out a bigger role for him.

Payton’s defensive prowess is nothing new. It’s allowed him to hang around the edges of the NBA for years. His offensive limitations have kept him from finding consistent playing time. Payton is shooting the ball well from beyond the arc in an incredibly small sample this year, but traditionally he’s been a total non-threat from deep.

As Zach Lowe likes to say though, “the normal rules of spacing do not apply to the Warriors.” Having the best shooter of all-time in Steph Curry, two basketball geniuses in Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala, and a whole bunch of role players who can shoot and pass will do that.

Golden State has asked Payton to serve primarily as a screener and offensive rebounder, roles he’s taken to well. He cuts hard when the scheme requires it, and uses his athleticism to attack the rim when he can find a runway to the hoop. Fifty-three percent of Payton’s shots this year have come at the rim, ranking him in the 97th percentile as compared to his positional peers, per Cleaning the Glass. He’s made an insane 78.0 percent of them.

The Warriors have essentially turned Payton into an extremely low-usage efficiency monster. His usage 11.8 percent usage rate lands him in the 0th percentile and his 1.5 points per shot attempt rates out in the 100th percentile, also per Cleaning the Glass.

There aren’t a lot of teams that can provide an ecosystem in which a player like Payton can thrive in the way he has this year, but Golden State is most certainly one of them. He’s giving them great minutes.

Bruce Brown, Brooklyn Nets

(Shooting Splits: .478/.318/.750)

Bruce Brown isn’t quite the same level of defender as some of the other guards on this list, but he’s undeniably tenacious and brings a boost of energy to a veteran Nets team that can be prone to coasting at times.

He’s good on the ball, solid away from it, and willing to take on any matchup that may come his way. Brown is strong enough to do a credible job handling bigger players when the Nets implement switch-heavy tactics.

Offensively Brooklyn frequently deploys Brown like a big, asking him to set screens or sneak into open space as the Net’s supernova offensive talents draw extra attention. Brown is a good decision maker in advantage situations.

Fail to rotate to him quickly on the short roll, and he can get to the rim to finish in a blink. Send additional help, and he’ll find an open teammate.

Brown is most effective when Brooklyn goes small and dots the floor with shooters. The Nets have done that less this year with Jeff Green gone and LaMarcus Aldridge playing a bigger role. Opponents have outscored Brooklyn by 18.2 points per 100 non-garbage-time possessions when Brown and Aldridge have shared the floor.

The Nets are still figuring out just how best to mix and match their personnel, a process made more challenging by the absence of Kyrie Irving. When they opt to go small and prioritize shooting, Brown is a real asset.