Nicolas Batum’s final season: 95.8% of his shots were threes, a three-point-era record for 1,000-minute players

LOS ANGELES — Oct. 20, 2026 — Nicolas Batum’s last NBA season ended with a number no 1,000-minute player had ever reached. With the Clippers in 2025-26, 95.8% of his field-goal attempts came from beyond the arc: 228 threes and 10 two-pointers in 1,295 minutes.

Basketball-Reference’s season tables cover all 47 seasons since 1979-80, when the league added the three-point line. In that span, no other player with at least 1,000 minutes had a three-point attempt rate above .901. Batum retired on Sept. 21, so the record will stand as the final line of an 18-year career.

Ten two-pointers in 74 games

Batum played 74 games, made six starts and averaged 17.5 minutes. He went 92-for-228 from three (40.4%) and 4-for-10 inside the arc. That works out to one two-point attempt about every seven games. Of his 293 points, 276 came on threes, or 94.2%.

• FGA: 238 (228 threes, 10 twos)
• Three-point attempt rate: .958, highest among 279 players with 1,000+ minutes in 2025-26
• Two-point attempts: 10, fewest in that group. A.J. Green was next with 64 in 2,270 minutes
• Free-throw attempts: 11 (9 made), also fewest among 1,000-minute players. Sam Hauser was next with 20
• Average shot distance: 24.2 feet. Every one of his 92 made threes was assisted
• Corner threes: 43.4% of his three-point attempts, made at 47.5%

His shooting kept him on the floor as a low-usage connector. He posted a 9.6% usage rate, a .603 true shooting percentage and a 14.1% defensive rebound rate. Defense remained his other job, with 47 steals and 23 blocks.

The all-time 1,000-minute board

In the three-point era, only one other 1,000-minute season reached .900. Batum beat that mark by 57 thousandths:

Player	Season	Team	3PA rate	Minutes
Nicolas Batum	2025-26	LAC	.958	1,295
Sam Merrill	2023-24	CLE	.901	1,069
A.J. Green	2025-26	MIL	.896	2,270
Dāvis Bertāns	2020-21	WAS	.895	1,464
Duncan Robinson	2019-20	MIA	.882	2,166
Shane Battier	2012-13	MIA	.873	1,786
Dean Wade	2023-24	CLE	.871	1,108
Sam Merrill	2024-25	CLE	.868	1,401

Batum also holds the No. 13 spot on that list with his .853 in 2024-25. The 2025-26 leaderboard behind him had a familiar group of specialists: Green .896, Hauser .839, Royce O’Neale .832 and Isaiah Joe .788.

From playmaking wing to pure spacer

This was not how Batum started. As a 20-year-old rookie in Portland in 2008-09, he took 46.5% of his shots from three. In 2013-14 he started all 82 games for the Trail Blazers and averaged 13.0 points, 7.5 rebounds and 5.1 assists, with only 49% of his attempts coming from deep. He was a ball-handling forward in Charlotte too, averaging 5.9 assists in 2016-17.

In Los Angeles, his game narrowed to the essentials. His rate went from .660 in 2020-21 to .832 in 2022-23, .853 in 2024-25 and .958 last season. His touches inside the arc almost disappeared: he took two shots within three feet of the rim all year.

Season	Team	3PA rate	3P%	Minutes
2008-09	POR	.465	.369	1,454
2013-14	POR	.491	.361	2,956
2016-17	CHA	.415	.333	2,617
2020-21	LAC	.660	.404	1,835
2022-23	LAC	.832	.391	1,709
2024-25	LAC	.853	.433	1,367
2025-26	LAC	.958	.404	1,295

In June, the Clippers declined Batum’s $5.88 million team option for 2026-27. He announced his retirement three months later in a video with his son, Ayden. He finished his NBA career with averages of 9.6 points, 4.7 rebounds and 3.0 assists, shooting 37% from three. His last season leaves the cleanest version of the modern spacer role in the record book: he was on the floor to wait in the corner, catch and shoot.

Green is the closest active challenger after his .896 last season. Merrill posted .901 and .868 in the two seasons before that. Either one would need to give up almost every remaining two-point attempt to catch Batum.