10 NBA players with a surprising skill

Jalen Brunson, Naji Marshall, Tyrese Haliburton, Keegan Murray, and more!

It’s time for one of my favorite articles of the year! I’ve gathered an assortment of oddballs — guys who are better at something than they should be or have a skill or tendency that the general public doesn’t recognize enough.

A few years ago, Derrick White and rim protection would have been a good example. But playing a key role on a contender tends to shine a spotlight on every quirk of the roster, and White, once clad in shamrock green, quickly became celebrated for that same prowess. That’s the general idea, though.

Disclaimer: I’m not always saying that these players are the best at a thing. I’m simply highlighting unexpected skills that aren’t well-known outside the team’s following.

I keep notes throughout the entire season for this article and look through tons of film and stats to put it together. It’s a lot of work, but a lot of fun, too. If you haven’t, please follow me @bballispoetry on X/Twitter.

Let’s start with arguably the least meaningful but most enjoyable surprising skill.

Naji Marshall, Dallas Mavericks

Attempting half-court heaves

One of the most infuriating things about the NBA is players’ refusal to shoot long-range end-of-quarter heaves. I can’t stand how guys look at the clock, take an extra dribble, and then fling some nonsense a half-second after the buzzer expires in order to protect their three-point field goal percentage. Some websites, like Cleaning the Glass, strip heaves out of relevant stats, and you’d better believe that teams and agents already do so. It will not impact a player’s next contract. So why not go for it?

It’s a minor thing, but it’s so freaking annoying. That’s why I want to salute my man Naji Marshall, king of the half-court heave attempt:

Marshall might be the bravest soul in the NBA. He tied for the league lead in both tries (eight) and makes (one) last year and also threw up six attempts in 2022-23. Only Fred VanVleet has equaled his 14 attempts over the past two years combined, and only Kyle Kuzma (two) has more makes.

(I’ll note here that Basketball Reference, which I’m using for this section, has a stricter definition for heaves than Cleaning the Glass. They require it to be behind half-court, a true Hail Mary.)

Marshall’s penchant for prayers is even more astounding when you consider that A) he’s a role player who barely touches the ball in the backcourt normally, and B) he shoots so few times. Out of the 11 players with double-digit heaves in the last two years, Marshall and Nikola Jokic have the fewest three-point attempts by far — and Jokic is an MVP and supermax player:

Removing heaves from Marshall’s three-point attempts over the last two seasons increases his deep-ball accuracy by more than a point. In other words, doing what everyone else does actually would meaningfully impact Marshall’s three-point percentage — but he keeps chucking anyway!

Coach Willie Green famously said, “Naji’s just a knife — he comes in the game and he’s cutting everybody.” You’d expect a guy like that to not give a damn about his percentages, and you’d be right.

Sure, he’s only made one. That’s why nobody takes them. Shots from half-court and beyond are exceedingly unlikely — but in how many games do three points matter? A lot. So good on you, Naji Marshall, for sacrificing for the team.

(Side note: did you see who Marshall’s opponent was in the clip above? His new team, the Mavericks! Did that have any bearing on them signing him? Almost certainly not, but they’re at least aware of his willingness to fire when so many others would falter.)

Kyle Kuzma, Washington Wizards

Hooking

Get your mind out of the gutter, please.

Shot classification is a tricky business. The line blurs between step-backs and side-steps, floaters and runners. Some people use different taxonyms interchangeably, while others adhere to strict definitions.

However, the NBA does its best to bucket every shot taken into one of several different categories, making it easy to quantify my suspicion that Kyle Kuzma had one of the best hook shots of any non-big last season.

Per play-by-play data I compiled, Kuzma took 77 shots the NBA classified as a hook and converted 60% of them. That’s tied for the 17th-most in the NBA, and while he dabbled at center in small-ball Wizards lineups, he’s still a more perimeter-oriented player than anybody on the list above him. His 60% conversion rate ranks fourth out of the top 20 hookers (stop it). For comparison, Karl-Anthony Towns and Giannis Antetokounmpo also shot exactly 77 hook shots last season, and they only made 52% and 43%, respectively!

If you’re picturing sweeping sky hooks, don’t. In today’s world, only Zavier Simpson practices that shot with any regularity. But Kuzma is happy to bludgeon defenders with his large frame before spinning to either side for a little push hook:

When defenders keep him away from the rim, he can fall back on a runner:

Again, we’re not talking about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar here. And plenty of big men, particularly Nikolas, are still avid practitioners of hook shots in general. But you don’t see too many non-traditional centers utilize a hook shot this often or this effectively. It’s a fun quirk!

Tyrese Haliburton, Indiana Pacers

Blocking three-pointers

Tyrese Haliburton had a strange but ultimately successful season, battling injuries to make both an All-NBA team (ah, that sweet, sweet supermax money) and the Eastern Conference Finals.

Despite that success, however, Haliburton is widely (and correctly!) known as a terrible defender. He posted the worst Defensive EPM of any player in the top 25 for total EPM, and opponents routinely targeted and torched him.

But he’s not a total loss on that end. Haliburton is bizarrely good at one very specific thing: blocking three-pointers.

Last year, Haliburton had the second-most blocked threes for the season with 19. For comparison, he had more blocks in slightly fewer minutes than either Herb Jones or Derrick White.

This isn’t just a one-year trend, either, as he was 18th in the league last year, second in 2022, and 13th in 2021. Haliburton’s height (6’5”) and wingspan (6’8”) give him a strong attack angle for shorter players loading up, but the reality is that opposing players don’t think of Haliburton as a shotblocker. They don’t respect him. Most of his swats come when opponents get too casual:

You may remember this high-profile block on White during the Eastern Conference Finals, which at the time felt like a potential dagger (whoops!):

This still isn’t a high-probability event; we’re talking one every handful of games. But it is noteworthy that in an Association of long-armed defensive specialists, Haliburton consistently ranks among the very best at smacking triples.

(For those curious, Matisse Thybulle is the best on an absolute and a per-minute basis, and led the league with 25 blocks behind the arc last season).

Trey Murphy, New Orleans Pelicans

Turnover avoidance

This isn’t a sexy stat, but it is an important one. In his third year, Trey Murphy upped his usage and assist rates while decreasing his turnover rate. The result is a rising offensive machine.

In fact, nobody in the entire league (min. 1,000 minutes) posted a lower turnover percentage than Murphy’s 5.1%. Three-point-bombing wings typically post low turnover rates; their job is to shoot after an advantage has already been created. But Murphy turns it over less than other snipers like Sam Hauser and Keegan Murray despite dribbling the ball more.

Avoiding turnovers is the simplest way to generate good offense. Players can’t always control if their shot is going in, but they can always limit bad passes and sloppy ballhandling. Some turnovers, of course, are the necessary byproduct of aggression, but those tend to accumulate to the playmakers and ballhandlers. Play-finishers, like Murphy, are usually better off getting a shot up than taking risks with the rock.

(Arguably, the most impressive performer in this category is Tyrese Maxey, who played point guard for most of last season for the first time in his career and still posted a turnover rate nearly 40% lower than Chris Paul’s and just a bit behind Murphy.)

Murphy has long been a favorite of mine, combining electrifying deep shooting with the ability to yam on folks like he’s bringing a Thanksgiving side dish. I don’t care what it takes. Murphy simply must start next season if the Pelicans want to reach their ceiling.

Keegan Murray, Sacramento Kings

Isolation defense

If you followed the Kings last season, you know that Murray’s rise as a defender was a prominent storyline and a big part of the Kings’ defensive rating rising to 18th overall (still not great, but much better than any recent years).

Lineups with Murray were right around the median defensively (and in the 68th percentile when he shared the court with Keon Ellis, the other major defensive presence in the rotation), but he shone statistically in one particular area: isolation defense.

According to Synergy, Murray allowed the fewest points per possession (0.681) of anybody in the league (min. 60 possessions) despite entering the one-on-one arena the fifth-most times (113). And he wasn’t playing on easy mode. His top defensive matchups were a murderer’s row: Devin Booker, Luka Doncic, Jalen Williams, Stephen Curry, Donovan Mitchell, Anthony Edwards. Murray held his own.

Isolation defensive stats are a funny thing, reliant upon small samples, hazy categorization, and both opponent and team schemes. Sometimes, the defender is in a position of strength; other times, weak links are maneuvered onto the perimeter by opposing offenses. I certainly wouldn’t say Murray is the best isolation defender in the league, as opposing offenses try to avoid those players when possible — for example, Kawhi Leonard faced just 25 such possessions. The fact that Murray was involved in so many isolations, particularly early in the season, proves that opposing stars didn’t fear him.

But, notably, he kept succeeding. Murray’s strength is his length, a 6’11” wingspan that helps make up for merely okay lateral quickness. He is excellent at crowding ballhandlers while keeping his hands high, taking hits to the chest without folding:

Murray is a little jumpy, but that’s something that will improve with more experience in the role. Murray had a Defensive EPM in the 90th percentile and even posted above-median block and steal rates.

To be clear, Murray isn’t likely to make an All-Defensive team anytime soon. But coach Mike Brown threw Murray in the deep end in his second year, and he didn’t just survive; he thrived. He also improved in almost every single offensive metric besides three-point shooting. Don’t look now, but Murray is quickly becoming one of the better two-way young players in the league.

Darius Garland, Cleveland Cavaliers

Nasty shot fakes

Garland had an up-and-down season last year, hindered by a broken jaw that forced him to eat from a feeding tube for weeks and caused him to lose a ton of “where-did-it-come-from” weight.

One positive thing that still popped was his filthy shot fake. Garland sends people into the Upside Down with his trademark full-extension, one-legged shot fakes:

Good lord, that’s mean.

He’s not always that flashy, of course, but Garland has immaculate pump-fake footwork, getting his second foot down and raising the ball in front of him in a perfect simulation of his real shot. From a purely aesthetic point of view, Garland’s shot fake might be the prettiest in the league, and it’s wildly effective:

I don’t have hard data on points after shot fakes (and if you do, please share!). There are plenty of other people with great illusions, from Steph Curry to Joe Ingles. Garland’s not even the only one with a one-legged fake; I called Alperen Sengun a flamingo for his fake Nowitzki fadeaways. But anecdotally, I see it far more from Garland than anyone else.

Back and presumably healthy, I’m betting on a big comeback season from my favorite goldfish.

Jalen Brunson, New York Knicks

(Editor’s note: this article culminates months of note-taking, ball-watching, and statistical deep dives. Please consider supporting me with a paid subscription to see the rest of the article and get full access to all my work each week!)