About NBA Heave Report
NBA Heave Report
NBA Heave Report tracks every NBA heave (36+ feet) from the 2003–04 season to the present. It shows when and where each shot was taken, who took it, and whether it dropped. The 36-foot cutoff comes from the new NBA heave rule (effective 2025-26), which records shots from beyond that distance as a team attempt rather than an individual one. The result: players are heaving more than ever, with attempts up 58% and average distance up 7 feet from last season. The Heavining is upon us.
What You'll Find
- Player & Team Reports: Advanced heave stats including trends and heat maps for any player or team dating back to 2003. See which players are the Heaves and the Heave Nots. Check out the Greatest Heaver of All Time.
- Heave Recap: Stats and video of the latest heaves — misses, swishes, and everything in between.
- 2025-26 Heave Report: See which players are heaving the most and hoarding the end-of-quarter freebies now that they don't count against their field goal percentage.
- Heave Records: Career and single-game records, longest heaves, and more, dating back to 2003.
- Trend Analysis: Charts showing the heavolution of the most beautiful shot in basketball. See how leaguewide heaving has changed from 2003 through the 2025–26 post-rule-change era.
The Joker was heaving before it was cool.
The Heavining
The Heavining
NBA players are heaving more — and deeper — than ever. Leaguewide attempts are up 58% while the average heave (+7 ft.) and made heave (+4 ft.) are further out compared to last season (updated 3/1/26).
Heave Attempts Over Time
Prorated to 82 games (updated 3/1/26) Prorated to 82 games (updated 3/1/26)
Heave Makes Over Time
Prorated to 82 games (updated 3/1/26)
Heave Leaders (2025-26)
| RankRk | Player | Heaves | Pace | Proj. Δ vs. 2024-25 |
2024–25 | Pre-Rule Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Luka Dončić | 15 | 21 | +13 | 8 |
66 (9.4/season) |
| 2 | Nickeil Alexander-Walker | 13 1 md. |
18 | +14 | 4 |
21 (3.5/season) |
| 3 | Royce O'Neale | 11 | 15 | +10 | 5 |
34 (4.2/season) |
| 4 | Anthony Edwards | 10 | 14 | +2 | 12 |
29 (5.8/season) |
| 5 | Tyrese Maxey | 10 1 md. |
14 | +10 | 4 |
20 (4.0/season) |
| 6 | Alperen Sengun | 9 | 12 | +11 | 1 |
10 (2.5/season) |
| 7 | Bennedict Mathurin | 9 | 12 | +9 | 3 |
9 (3.0/season) |
| 8 | Donovan Mitchell | 9 | 12 | +3 | 9 |
47 (5.9/season) |
| 9 | Jalen Brunson | 9 | 12 | +12 | — |
4 (0.6/season) |
| 10 | Julius Randle | 9 | 12 | +11 | 1 |
11 (1.0/season) |
Proj. Δ = projected change vs. 2024-25
Heave History
- Heave Heroes: Stephen Curry (170), Jamal Crawford (147), JR Smith (109), Andre Miller (107), and Raymond Felton (105) have the most heave attempts (36+ ft) since 2003.
- 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) since 2003, 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 59, 23.7%) 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 64 attempts. This would-be game-winning heave was ruined by an unfortunate timeout.
- I Think You Should Heave: Kevin Durant has attempted 18 heaves in his entire career, only 2 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 11 attempts since 2015. 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 reported made heave (82 ft) since 2003.
Terminology
- Heave: Any shot from 36+ feet. 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 buzzer-beater from Manu Ginóbili (0 for 53 regular season since 2003) are excluded from the dataset.
- 2025-26 Season Data: Collected via NBA and ESPN play-by-play data.
- 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.
- Halfcourt shot classification: Halfcourt shots are identified using the
ZONE_NAMEfield (which contains "Back Court" for shots beyond midcourt), with a fallback toBASIC_ZONEifZONE_NAMEis unavailable. Halfcourt data not available for 2025-26. - 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
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
