NBA Heave Report

NBA Heave Report tracks every NBA heave (36+ feet) and halfcourt shot from 2003-04 to 2024-25. It shows when, where, and who took each shot, and whether it dropped. The 36-foot mark comes from the new NBA heave rule (effective 2025-26) that counts any attempt from that distance or beyond in the final three seconds of the first three quarters as a team shot rather than an individual one. Heave data from 2025-26 will be posted later in the season.

Quick Stats

• Most heave makes: Stephen Curry and Trae Young (20)
• Heave Heroes (most attempts): Stephen Curry (165), Jamal Crawford (147), JR Smith (109), Andre Miller (107), Raymond Felton (105)
• Long-Distance Legends: Andre Miller and Steve Blake have 27 full-court (70+ ft) attempts since 2003, ahead of Vince Carter (15), Nikola Jokic (14), and Dwight Howard (12). The heave dataset doesn't include Andre Miller's one-handed circus shot from 2001.

• Lite Heavers (excl. halfcourt): Trae Young (19 of 59, 32.2%), Stephen Curry (14 of 56, 25.0%) and Damian Lillard (13 of 31, 41.9%) have the most makes in the "4-point" range (36ft to halfcourt).
• Dry Heaver: DeMar DeRozan has made 0 heaves in 57 attempts. This would-be game-winning heave was ruined by an unfortunate timeout.
• I Think You Should Heave: Kevin Durant has attempted 17 heaves in his entire career, only 1 since 2019. Back in 2013 he said: "But if I'm like 8-for-19, I'm going to go ahead and dribble one more second and let that buzzer go off and then throw it up there."

• Late-career LeBron James is also a heave holder with 10 attempts since 2015. Earlier in his career he was throwing up double-digit heaves a season. You might recall the legendary (fake) video of LeBron hitting five full court shots in a row or when he tackled the fan who hit a halfcourt shot.

Terminology

• Heave: Any shot 36+ feet.
• Halfcourt: Any shot beyond the NBA midcourt line.
• Lite Heave: 36+ foot shots excluding those beyond halfcourt.
• Full-court: Any shot 70+ ft (my definition).
• Final 3 sec. (≤ 3s): Refers to the final 3 seconds of a quarter.
• Non-buzzer (≥ 5s): Excludes the final 5 seconds of a quarter. Designed to capture lite heaves (think Trae Young) attempted within the flow of a halfcourt offense, though this could include shot clock heaves.

Data & Methods

• Data Source: NBA regular season shot data, 2003-04 to 2024-25 via @DomSamangy. Playoff heaves like this one from Manu Ginóbili (0 for 53 since 2003) are not included in the dataset.
• Court dimensions: The NBA court is 94 feet long by 50 feet wide; midcourt is at 47 feet. The red-dotted line on the heat map shows the 36+ foot heave threshold. Shot data includes x and y coordinates: x ranges from -25 to 25 feet, y ranges from 0 to 90 feet.
• Halfcourt shot classification: Halfcourt shots are identified using the ZONE_NAME field (which contains "Back Court" for shots beyond midcourt), with a fallback to BASIC_ZONE if ZONE_NAME is unavailable. Both fields are normalized to handle variations like "Back Court", "Backcourt", and "Back Court Shot" consistently across all seasons.
• Prorated seasons: On leaguewide trend measures, the 2011-12 lockout season (66 games) and the 2019-20 and 2020-21 COVID-affected seasons (70.6 and 72 games respectively) were prorated to 82 games.