Los Angeles Lakers superstar Luka Doncic is one of the very best players in the NBA, and there isn’t much he can’t do on the offensive end. Shooting is among Doncic’s many strengths, and so content creator Ruben Reynes had him play a game recently.
Doncic had to stay silent until Reynes mentioned a better shooter than him, and he kept his mouth shut for quite some time. The Slovenian had nothing to say as LeBron James, Anthony Edwards, James Harden, Jalen Brunson, Tyrese Haliburton, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Austin Reaves, Victor Wembanyama, and LaMelo Ball were brought up.
It was only when Reynes mentioned Kevin Durant that Doncic finally spoke.
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Doncic was particularly dismissive of his good friend and Lakers teammate Reaves there. The six-time All-Star did just about shoot better from three than his backcourt partner last season, 36.6% compared to 36.0%, so he does have bragging rights.
Now, Doncic’s three-point shooting percentage isn’t all that impressive. He has shot 35.2% from deep for his career and has never hit that 40.0% mark in any season.
That’s partly down to Doncic taking a lot of difficult threes. He attempts too many from well behind the three-point line, and a lot of his threes are contested, too. Doncic doesn’t get a lot of those uncontested catch-and-shoot opportunities. His percentages would be much higher if he were a bit more selective. Doncic has never cared about that, but.
Now, Durant has been accused of trying to protect his percentages. There is no denying, though, that he is one of the greatest shooters we have ever seen.
Durant shot 41.3% from beyond the arc for the Houston Rockets in 2025-26. This was the ninth season in which he had shot over 40.0% from three, and he is now at 39.2% for his career. That’s highly impressive.
Durant would be in the conversation for best shooter of his era if Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry didn’t exist. Doncic here expected Curry to be the final name Reynes brought up, and the content creator said that was indeed the case. There likely isn’t a player alive today who’d pick themselves over him.
Curry has shot 42.2% from three for his career, which is mind-boggling considering the volume. He is the NBA’s all-time leader in threes made with 4,248. Harden is a distant second with 3,390 makes. The gap is almost 1,000. There are a lot of things we can argue about when it comes to the NBA, but there is no debating who the greatest shooter is.
Getting back to the names Doncic was silent for, Edwards is probably the player who has the strongest case to be better than him. The Minnesota Timberwolves superstar shot 39.9% from three on 8.4 attempts per game last season. That’s good efficiency on high volume.
Edwards takes difficult shots like Doncic, too, and his improvement from deep has been remarkable. It was one of his weaknesses when he entered the NBA.
As for Doncic, well, defense has always been seen as his weakness. The 27-year-old would argue that he has gotten much better on the defensive end, but his critics would disagree.
Whatever you may think of Doncic’s defense, his offense alone makes him a top-five player in the NBA today. He averaged 33.5 points, 7.7 rebounds, 8.3 assists, 1.6 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game for the Lakers in 2025-26. Doncic won the scoring title and finished fourth in MVP voting. It was a strong campaign and expect more of the same in the next one.
