NBL Leading Scorers By Area

With the 2016-17 Regular Season now complete, I take a look at both the points and percentage leaders from each area of the floor whilst throwing in some other notes and tidbits. Restricted Area - Paint Non Restricted Area - Paint Nate Jawai 170 Casey Prather 148 Nick Kay 138 Jerome Randle 112 Torrey Craig 126 Daniel Kickert 100 Akil Mitchell 126 Alex Pledger 90 Brad Newley 122 Tai Wesley 88 AJ Ogilvy 116 Brad Newley 84 Jameel McKay 116 Torrey Craig 84 Casey Prather 112 Casper Ware 80 Daniel Johnson 106 Rotnei Clarke 76 Tom Jervis 100 Nathan Sobey 76 Restricted Area - Paint Non Restricted Area - Paint Nick Kay 78.4 Brad Newley 57.5 Mika Vukona 75.4 Daniel Kickert 56.8 Brad Newley 74.4 Jerome Randle 54.9 Greg Whittington 73.8 Alex Pledger 54.2 Daniel Kickert 73.1 Rotnei Clarke 52.8 Mitch Young 72.7 Mika Vukona 51.8 Rotnei Clarke 72.7 Angus Brandt 49.2 Tom Jervis 72.5 Tai Wesley 47.8 Jerome Randle 71.9 AJ Ogilvy 47.3 Akil Mitchell 71.6 Casper Ware 47.1 Nobody was able to match A.J Ogilvy’s scoring at the rim of last season but Nate Jawai once again converted his size advantage into plenty of deep seals, power moves and timely manoeuvres towards the rim. Jawai scored 46 points from dunks, alley-oops and tip ins via spatialjam.com’s play by play data.

Casey Prather went to another level this season with more play-making duties (for both himself and others) which saw him attacking off the dribble with far more regularity. The result was a league leading amount of points in the paint overall and a clear league leading amount from the tricky non-restricted area range where he showed off his footwork, strength and touch heading towards the basket.

All-NBL team members Daniel Kickert, Torrey Craig, Brad Newley and Jerome Randle also piled on the points at an efficient level in both paint areas. Kickert used his craftiness and insanely good touch, Randle his speed and evasiveness, Craig his athleticism, whilst Newley routinely gathered up a full head of steam to wreak havoc and get consistent results. Mid-Range Mid-Range Jerome Randle 174 Jerome Randle 52.1 David Andersen 54 Mark Worthington 47.5 Tom Garlepp 54 Brendan Teys 47.4 Nathan Sobey 52 David Andersen 46.6 Travis Trice 52 Corey Webster 42.6 Casey Prather 52 AJ Ogilvy 41.5 Josh Powell 52 Daniel Kickert 40.8 Kevin Lisch 50 Rotnei Clarke 40.4 Rotnei Clarke 46 Tom Garlepp 40.3 Corey Webster 46 Chris Goulding 38.5 Jerome Randle's season surpassed Ben Madgen (162 points in the 2012-13 season) for the most mid-range points in my database and he did it whilst also nailing over half of his attempts. Randle kept the mid-range alive almost single handedly as he led the number one offense in the league with a barrage of pull-up jumpers out of the pick and roll or isolation.

The percentage of a team's points scored across the league via the mid-range dropped 1.9% to 9.5 with last season's 'below the free throw line' points leaders, Corey Webster and Tom Garlepp, failing to log the same minutes due to role and injury. Former prolific mid-range scorers in Tom Abercrombie, Kirk Penney and Chris Goulding ditched the long two this season whilst David Andersen's fadeaway and face-up attempts were limited due to missed games as well. Above Corner - 3P Corner - 3P Kirk Penney 213 Todd Blanchfield 54 Rotnei Clarke 210 Kirk Penney 51 Chris Goulding 198 Tom Abercrombie 36 Kevin Lisch 174 Jaron Johnson 33 Jason Cadee 174 Greg Hire 27 Cam Gliddon 156 Chris Goulding 21 Casper Ware 144 Cam Gliddon 21 Oscar Forman 138 Jarrod Kenny 21 Jerome Randle 108 Greg Whittington 21 Nathan Sobey 102 Rob Loe 21 Above Corner - 3P Corner - 3P Daniel Kickert 46.6 Jaron Johnson 61.1 Oscar Forman 46.0 Greg Hire 60.0 Alex Loughton 46.0 Tom Abercrombie 50.0 Chris Goulding 43.1 Todd Blanchfield 47.4 Nathan Sobey 42.0 Kirk Penney 47.2 Torrey Craig 42.0 Stephen Weigh 46.2 Adam Gibson 40.8 Shaun Bruce 46.2 Kirk Penney 40.1 Greg Whittington 41.2 Tom Abercrombie 40.0 Owen Odigie 35.7 Rotnei Clarke 39.8 Jarrod Kenny 33.3 Kirk Penney had a forever changing roster around him but he still nailed triples and was the team's best player at the age of 36. Kevin Lisch had an indifferent season (after an almost flawless 2015-16), with his percentages nose-diving from both the paint, mid-range and three, but his jumper was still awesome from the right wing where he nailed 46.1%.

Corner three point shots have always been a bit of a hit and miss prospect, in terms of the league’s stats crew tracking them accurately, but Todd Blanchfield coming out on top is certainly correct. Blanchfield was seemingly always open with Melbourne’s play-makers creating plenty of room for him. This was on full display in what was the most memorable corner three point shooting performance of the season against Illawarra in October where he nailed seven.

Daniel Kickert surprisingly halved his three point attempts this season, Alex Loughton and Torrey Craig had bounce back years, whilst Nathan Sobey’s breakout party included squashing any thoughts of his three point jumper needing work.

Percentage leaders were subject to minimum shot requirements. Full shot chart numbers are available at crunchtimeshots.com.