Phoenix Suns wing T.J. Warren has added a 3 point shot to his game, and it’s resulted in the most efficient shooting season of his career.
In T.J. Warren‘s first four seasons with the Phoenix Suns, he never posted a True Shooting Percentage higher than 55.1 or lower than 53.9. This season, Warren’s True Shooting Percentage is 60.9, a 6.8 percent jump from last season and by far his best career mark. This increase in efficiency can be traced directly to his new (and frequently used) 3 point shot.
Prior to this season, Warren was a career 28.3 percent from beyond the arc, including last season’s career worst 22.2 percent. But this year, Warren has exactly doubled last year’s clip, shooting 44.4 percent from 3. What’s most impressive about his new shot is the sustained success he’s had with such high volume.
Coming into this season, T.J. Warren had never attempted more than 98 threes in a season, and he had never attempted more than 1.5 per game. This year, he’s already taken 108 threes in just 26 games, which comes out to 4.2 per game. He’s also upped his 3 point attempt rate from 8.5 last year to 29.7 this year.
It should be noted that of Warren’s 4.2 attempts per game, 4.0 of them come with at least four feet of space. That’s a testament to Warren’s off ball movement to get open and to his teammates for finding him for those quality looks. It also shows Warren is playing within himself and not forcing up threes.
Adding the 3 point shot to his arsenal has completely changed Warren’s value. He’s no longer an outdated scorer who excels at shooting from the midrange. In fact, his percentage of points from midrange twos dropped from 19.5 last year to 9.1 this year. He’s proving himself to be a wing capable of scoring efficiently at all three levels, and he’s already outplaying his four year, $50 million contract extension.