The Heavining

The Heavining

Heave History

• Heave Heroes (most attempts): Stephen Curry (166), Jamal Crawford (147), JR Smith (109), Andre Miller (107), Raymond Felton (105)
• Most heave makes: Stephen Curry and Trae Young (20)
• Long-Distance Legends: Andre Miller and Steve Blake have the most full-court (70+ ft) attempts (27) from 2003 through last season (pre-rule change), ahead of Vince Carter (15), Nikola Jokic (14), and Dwight Howard (12). Not included: 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). Note: excludes 2025-26.
• Dry Heaver: DeMar DeRozan has made 0 heaves in 61 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 (all-time, including 2025-26). Earlier in his career he was throwing up double-digit heaves a season. 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. He's also responsible for the longest made heave (82 ft) since 2003.

Terminology

• Heave: Heaves: Any shot from 36+ feet. The NBA Heave Report uses a broader definition, counting all 36+ ft shots regardless of situation; the NBA’s 2025–26 rule applies only to end-of-quarter attempts. The league does not publish individual heave data.
• Halfcourt: Any shot beyond the NBA midcourt line (47 feet from the baseline).
• Full-court: Any shot 70+ feet (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 attempted within the flow of a halfcourt offense (think Trae Young), though this could also include shot clock heaves where a player has to launch from deep to beat the clock.

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 excluded from the dataset.
• 2025-26 Season Data: Collected via NBA API and ESPN play-by-play data. Shot location coordinates (x, y) are not available for most heave shots, so location visualizations and detailed breakdowns (halfcourt vs. lite heaves) are not available for the current season.
• 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.

About Me / 320 Insight

Mr. Cells, 320 Cofounder

Hi there. I'm Eric Goldwein, a former journalist and basketblogger turned data storyteller. With 320 Insight, I turn spreadsheets into stories, mostly around nursing homes and public health. This site lives in the 320 Playground — the space where I build side projects with data and AI.

Spot a data error? Want to collaborate on something cool? Or vent about the cowardly new NBA heave rule?

Reach out: eric [at] 320insight [dot] com