Kawhi Leonard has never really needed the three-pointer to score effectively. His mid-range game is a big part of what makes him so difficult to guard, and his defence made him a star in the first place. However, his shooting from beyond the arc deserves a little more attention.
Bleacher Report recently released its list of the top 30 shooters heading into the 2026-27 NBA season, and Leonard made the cut at the 18th ranked spot. He’s also the only Toronto Raptor to crack the list.
It’s easy to overlook just how good Leonard has been as a shooter. He’s a career 39.1 percent three-point shooter, and he shot 38.7 percent from deep last season while averaging a career-high 27.9 points per game. Not bad for a player who has built so much of his reputation around other parts of his game.
Leonard’s numbers from last season are even more impressive when you consider how often he was shooting from the perimeter. For the first time in his career, he attempted at least seven three-pointers per 36 minutes. Despite taking more shots from deep, he still managed to score more than ever before, finishing the season with a career-best scoring average and a personal high in true shooting percentage.
His ability to create his own shot was a big part of that success. On pull-up attempts, only Kevin Durant and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander posted better field-goal percentages among players with at least 600 attempts last season. Durant ranked second on Bleacher Report’s list, while Gilgeous-Alexander landed at No. 10.
Leonard has also been a strong three-point shooter for years. He shot above 41 percent from deep in three of the four seasons before last year, with his 38.7 percent mark in 2025-26 coming during a season in which he took on more attempts.
It raises an interesting question: how much better could Leonard’s shooting numbers have looked if he had started taking this many threes earlier in his career? We’ll never know for sure, of course. However, at 35 years old, he’s still finding ways to expand his offensive game.
Leonard’s inclusion on the list is nice recognition, and it gives hope that he could help solve a major problem Toronto needs to address. The Raptors haven’t been particularly effective from three-point range under head coach Darko Rajakovic. Over the past three seasons, they’ve finished 21st, 23rd and 27th in three-point percentage. Their ranking in total threes made has been even worse, placing 26th, 29th and 26th over that same stretch.
Last season was their best shooting campaign from deep under Rajakovic, with Toronto making 35.4 percent of its attempts. Even then, the Raptors were still below the league average of 36 percent.
It’s obvious that the Raptors need more production from the rest of the roster as well if they want to make significant improvement. However, having a player who can make difficult shots from deep is certainly a good place to start.
