Caitlin Clark shoots from 28 feet, and nobody else is within two
Her average made three-pointer travels 28.1 feet: roughly two feet beyond every other WNBA player, and deeper than the career-long average of Stephen Curry, Damian Lillard, or Trae Young.
In her 2024 rookie season, Caitlin Clark's average made three-pointer left her hand 28.1 feet from the rim. The WNBA three-point line is 22 feet, 1.75 inches. So her average make was a full six feet behind the line, and roughly two feet deeper than any other player in the league.
Two feet does not sound like much until you see the spread. Almost everyone who shoots threes for a living lives within a couple feet of the arc. Clark sits alone in the next zip code. There is no second dot near her.
import pandas as pd
made = pd.read_csv("wnba_made_threes_2024.csv")
avg = made.groupby("player").shot_distance.mean()
gap = avg["Caitlin Clark"] - avg.drop("Caitlin Clark").max()
print(f"Clark shoots {gap:.1f} ft deeper than anyone else")
# Clark shoots 2.0 ft deeper than anyone elseShot-distance figures: Indiana Fever shot tracking, 2024 season (compiled by @StatMamba; reported by Sports Illustrated).
Here is the part that should not happen. For almost every shooter alive, accuracy falls off the farther out they go. Clark's climbs. The deeper the shot, the better her percentage.
For scale outside the WNBA: a 28-foot average make is longer than the career-long average three-point distance of Stephen Curry, Damian Lillard, or Trae Young, the three players most associated with the deep, demoralizing logo three. Clark's ordinary attempt is their extreme.
That is what an anomaly looks like in a single number: not "very good," but somewhere the distribution says almost no one should be.