Texas Basketball: 3 best shooters for the Longhorns for 2023-24 season

Max Abmas, G

The first two shooters on this list among the best floor spacers for the Longhorns on the projected roster next season will primarily serve as catch-and-shoot threats.

Yet, senior standout guard and former Oral Roberts transfer Max Abmas will be the high-volume primary facilitator that does it all for the Texas offense next season. The two-time Summit League Player of the Year Abmas is one of the best and most proven offensive threats among guards returning in college hoops for the 2023-24 campaign.

Abmas is one of the rare guards that can consistently threaten opposing defenses with high-volume, efficient three-point and mid-range shooting. He can pull up from almost any distance in the halfcourt offense, drive the lane and finish through contact, or find open teammates thanks to his impressive court vision and ball-handling skills.

The fact that Abmas is such a capable ball-handler makes him an even more potent threat to pull up from multiple regions of the floor. That’s because opposing defenders must respect his ability to drive the lane and cross them up while defending the threat of his pull-up jump shot.

There isn’t a level of the floor that Abmas isn’t capable of splashing the ball from. He’s shot better than 36 percent from beyond the arc in the four seasons he spent at Oral Roberts. And that came on an extremely high volume of attempts, at least seven per game in each season of his career thus far.

He’s also shot better than 46 percent from two-point range and at least 83 percent from the line in each season of his career. Abmas actually leads the Summit League in career three-point field goals and free-throw percentage.

One of the most impressive numbers that Abmas put up at Oral Roberts was his deep-three-point shooting percentage. Abmas shot better than 40 percent on three-point attempts at least 25 feet from the rim, which is a very long distance in layman’s terms.

Since CBB Analytics first tracked the stat during the 2018-19 season, no one else has shot better than 40 percent on three-pointers at least 25 feet from the basket while taking over 200 attempts from that range.

That is a Steph Curry-esque statistic.

There is often a misconception that pure bucket-getters like Abmas can’t be efficient shooters from all over the floor. Abmas has busted that myth with the numbers he’s put up, shooting from every distance on the offensive end.

Last season, Abmas ranked in the 55th percentile or better among Division I guards in terms of field goal percentage from every major region of the floor on the offensive end.

Last but not least, it’s important to note that Abmas is also a capable catch-and-shoot threat and a good tough-shot maker. When junior guard Tyrese Hunter is taking the ball up the court as the primary ball handler while Abmas is on the floor, he can still serve as a big-time off-ball shooting threat. Abmas shot better than 40 percent from the mid-range and nearly 44 percent from deep on catch-and-shoot field goal attempts last season.

Furthermore, pure shooters often threaten opposing defenders regardless of whether they take contested shots. Obviously, great shooters are probably less likely to make a contested shot than an open one, but they should be proficient in this area either way. Abmas fits the bill as a guard that is an efficient shooter regardless of whether he’s taking contested looks.

Abmas shot 46 percent from deep on guarded catch-and-shoot three-point attempts last season, which is better than his total three-point shooting percentage by a margin of almost 10 percentage points.

Regardless if he’s running the pick-and-roll, iso, driving the lane, or finding an open teammate, Abmas will find a way to get him and his teammates high percentage looks to get the ball in the bucket.

While he is a very efficient pure shooter, Abmas’ skill set brings way more than that to the table for the Longhorns.