Nikola Jokić Owns the Most Efficient Shot in NBA History — and It’s Not Close
True shooting percentage is the stat that strips away the romance. No nostalgia, no “he just has a pretty jumper” — just cold math: how many points did you actually produce per scoring attempt, accounting for twos, threes, and free throws. Set the floor at 10,000 career field goal attempts to weed out the specialists and small-sample mirages, and the leaderboard reads like a roll call of offensive genius.
According to StatMuse’s career database, Nikola Jokić sits alone at the summit with a 64.1% true shooting mark — built across 810 games and 12,274 attempts. That’s not just first. That’s a chasm. The gap between Jokić and the No. 2 man is wider than the gap between No. 2 and No. 8.
Steph Curry owns second place at 62.6%, which is its own kind of absurdity. Curry has launched 19,155 field goal attempts — over 6,800 more than Jokić — and nearly 40% of those have come from beyond the arc. That he ranks this high while being the most profilic three-point shooter in history is a testament to his 42.2% career clip from deep and a free-throw rate (91.2%) that turns every foul into near-automatic points.
Karl-Anthony Towns (62.4%) and Kevin Durant (62.2%) round out the top four. Durant’s number carries the most weight of anyone on the board: 22,376 attempts across 1,201 games, a 20-year arc of elite efficiency that spans three franchises and every conceivable defensive scheme.
The list then descends through Adrian Dantley (61.7%), Reggie Miller (61.4%), Giannis Antetokounmpo (61.3%), and Charles Barkley (61.2%) — a cross-generational mix of post bruisers, perimeter snipers, and rim-running freight trains. Magic Johnson (61.0%) and John Stockton (60.8%) crack the top ten as pass-first players who simply chose their spots with surgical restraint.
What makes Jokić’s lead staggering is the context. He’s a center who doesn’t dunk with abandon, doesn’t sky for lobs, and takes a meaningful portion of his shots from the midrange — historically the least efficient zone on the floor. His 56.1% career field goal percentage and 82.5% free-throw rate do the heavy lifting, but the real story is shot selection. Jokić attempts 3.2 threes per game at a 36.2% clip, stretching the floor just enough to keep defenses honest while operating in the paint with footwork and touch that defies his 6-foot-11 frame.
The active players clustered in the top 12 — Jokić, Curry, Towns, Durant, Giannis, Harden, Kawhi Leonard (60.7%) — tell a story about the modern game’s efficiency revolution. Seven of the top 12 are still playing. A generation ago, Barkley and Dantley were outliers. Now, 60% true shooting is practically a prerequisite for max-contract stardom.
LeBron James sits at 59.0% — 24th on the list — which sounds underwhelming until you remember he’s done it across 31,502 attempts and 1,622 games. No one in the top 25 has taken even close to that many shots. Volume is the silent killer of efficiency, and LeBron has survived it for two decades.
Luka Dončić, at 59.2% through just 514 games, is the youngest player on the board. Give him time.
