Fantasy Basketball Unicorns: Unique Three-Point Shooters

October 16, 2026

Thunder Dan Palyo dives into the data to find players who can help in multiple different categories that are not usually correlated. These Fantasy "Unicorns" can be a league-winners.

The season officially starts here in a matter of days, and I don't think I have ever been as excited about an upcoming NBA season as I am right now. Not only are my Cleveland Cavaliers poised for another deep playoff run (I mean, I think they are - the Eastern Conference just got really interesting this offseason), but I have spent more time working on fantasy basketball content than ever before. Not only did I embark on this unicorn project, but I also built custom rankings and projections for 250 players, revamped my weekly waiver wire schedule matrix to include matching ratings, and retooled my daily NBA projection models for my betting content.

I also just love hoops and always have - since I was old enough to shoot outside on the basket that my dad put up on the telephone pole outside my childhood home. I remember when my mom let me pretend to be sick and miss school so I could go see Michael Jordan and the Bulls play against the Cavs. I remember fouling out of a game in high school in the second quarter; some of my best friends will never let me forget it. Basketball is a fantastic game, and getting to write about it, even if it's through the fantasy statistical lens, is still a very cool thing and not something I take for granted. This is a great community of folks, and it's been pretty awesome to meet so many great folks along the way.

Anyways, thanks for clicking on this article and taking the time to read this analysis. You're here for the third installment of the Fantasy Basketball Unicorn series, and in it, we'll examine some of the most unique three-point shooters in the game, while also reflecting on what we've learned throughout the series at the end.

Correlational Matrix

This has to stay here as a handy reference, and I'll refer back to it at times. Quick reminders that positive correlations are in green, negative in red, and that the closer the correlation coefficient is to 1.0 or -1.0, the stronger the relationship.

But in 9-CAT, turnovers are bad! So what we would actually want to see from turnover stat combinations is a negative number. The only category that did not correlate (basically neutral) with turnovers was FG%, so the other seven combinations all get added to our list of negatively correlated combinations, giving us a total of 16.

Featured Stat Combinations

If you're reading this without having read the earlier parts of the series, it will still make sense, but you can check out the other category combinations in those other articles.

Part one focused on all of the assist combinations as well as the combinations of defensive stats and efficiency.

Part two focused on scorers who were efficient (low turnovers) and who help out in both FG% and FT%, while also looking at unique FT% combinations with other big man stats.

In this final entry, we have just four category combinations left, and all of them have to do with three-point shooting! How convenient! So the plan is to look at each unique three-point shooter prototype, find some super rare three-point shooting unicorns, and then look at some final unicorn rankings and data tables.

Not All 3-Point Shooters Are Alike

Punting threes in the modern NBA is a much tougher task than ever before. It's not an approach that I'd take in 9-CAT leagues, personally, as the type of players that you need to make it work are the last of a dying breed. Jimmy Butler III and DeMar DeRozan were staples of that approach in the past as players who were super efficient scorers.

DeMar, the mid-range assassin, and Butler, the free-throw-making machine, could help you win points, percentages, and counting stats. The fact that they didn't take many threes is what allowed them to shoot so well from the field.

But in today's league, most players on the floor at any given time are three-point shooters. In fact, if you're not able to stretch the floor and knock down threes, even as a big man, then you might need to learn how to. Just look at a player like Andre Drummond, who was a traditional center when he entered the league and has now added the three-pointer to his arsenal and effectively extended his career because of it.

The average number of made threes per game in our 445-player data set is 1.3. For years, we figured that if a player could add 1.0 threes per game, while contributing other stats, they were really good for fantasy basketball. But 1.3 is the new baseline per my calculations, and the players on each of our leaderboards are all making at least 1.3 threes per game in addition to adding value above the mean in another category.

FG% and Threes

As you probably already know, I value efficiency! So while LaMelo Ball's 3.8 threes are elite, his 41% shooting is not something I can stomach. Here's our efficient three-point shooter leaderboard, with one important caveat.

I upped the cutoff here to 2.0 made threes per game (about one standard deviation more than the mean) or more to make it a bit more exclusive. That chops off well-known unicorns like Nikola Jokic, Victor Wembanyama, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

We're left with the other member of the "big four, " Luka, as well as some first- and second-round talents in Ant, KD, Spider Mitchell, Jamal Murray, and Austin Reaves. And there's Kawhi Leonard again, a guy being drafted in the third round only because of his age and health.

Speaking of health, it's a shame that Kon Knueppel is hurt to start the season, as he's very much a unicorn candidate based on his incredible rookie season. There's some concern that he won't be able to repeat that type of sharpshooting without LaMelo Ball drawing the defense, and I think that's valid. But his game is super smooth, and he knows how to create space. I think he's going to be just fine and a really good NBA player and fantasy player for the right builds.

The old small sample size warning is in effect for Ty Jerome, who went in the 60-range last night in a competitive industry mock draft I participated in. The hype is substantial, and you can see why, as his per-minute stats last year were silly good.

Shout out to Lauri, who I really wanted like in round three this year. We discussed him quite a bit in part two, so I won't go on about him now. But spoiler alert, he shows up again at the end of the article!

Threes and Blocks

Wemby is lapping the field here, and his combined z-score of 7.15 is one of the highest I came across during this whole experiment.

Jay Huff, who replaced Myles Turner last season in Indiana, being right ahead of Turner is objectively funny. Turner is a maddening player for fantasy, but it's a good reminder here that his skill set and impact on these two categories are unmatched by most humans (Wemby is an alien?)

Derrick White (our cover boy) is the ultimate guard who can impact blocks (1.3), while still drilling threes (2.7), while Anthony Edwards and Tyrese Maxey are our other guards to make the list.

Is everyone ready for the Buzelis blow-up? I am! He's going to be awesome, but everyone is on him, so be prepared to reach for him or risk getting sniped!

Chet and JJJ are known commodities here, as well as Porzingis, who was an early pioneer in the stretch-five prototype. Get healthy, OG unicorn!

Okongwu and Naz Reid are targets of mine if I go guard-heavy early, but I still want to be competitive on the boards and in blocks. Jabari Smith Jr. and Wiggins can be had much later, and I actually managed to draft Reid, Smith, and Wiggins in this Rotoworld mock last night.

Here’s the team I drafted from the 8 spot today. https://t.co/HRB0OMUdoZ

— "Thunder Dan" Palyo (@ThunderDanDFS) October 16, 2026

Walker Kessler just misses here with 1.2 threes, but I am not sure we are expecting that this year, and it was a tiny sample size (five games). I hope he fires up some shots from behind the arc this year, but his value is really tied more to his FG%, rebounds, and blocks than anything else.

Donovan Clingan is just off the list, too, with 1.1 made threes per game. He's already on the unicorn list, but is a nice option a little later if you miss out on Kessler (and be prepared to reach on both). Evan Mobley is a near-miss as well with 1.0 made threes. I love Mobley's game, and I hope he continues to expand his shot to include more three-pointers.

Reed Sheppard and Brandon Miller are guards who just missed the blocks cutoff (0.7 per game). Miller is going to be awesome this year, I think, and a popular pick in the late third round. Don't forget about Sheppard entirely, even though his path to consistent playing time is a bit obstructed with the return of Fred VanVleet and the signing of Marcus Smart.

Threes and Rebounds

So the cutoff here was 5.0 rebounds and 1.3 threes per game, which left off some decent rebounding guards like LaMelo Ball, Jamal Murray, and James Harden. I'm trying to keep the leaderboards somewhat exclusive, but also make sure players are not falling through the cracks.

At this point, I am trying to save the analysis for players who are not already being identified in other areas. So Luka, Jokic, and Wemby show up again here, but the players at the top I am more interested in highlighting are Jayson Tatum (my favorite pick at number five overall), KAT, and MPJ.

Jalen Johnson and Bam Adebayo deserve their flowers for pounding the glass and increasing their range from behind the arc. Bam went from 1.0 threes in 2024-2025 to 1.7 last year, while Johnson also drilled 1.7 last year after being around 1.2 in the two years prior.

Josh Giddey is a player who doesn't fit the prototypes of "three-point shooting big" or "guard/wing who can rebound," but his 1.9 threes last year was a career high and a positive development for his fantasy game.

Threes and Turnovers

We wrap it up here with our best three-point shooters who also take care of the basketball. This is easily the narrowest prototype, as all of these players can easily fit into one mold - the catch-and-shoot guard who doesn't handle the ball much (therefore, the low turnovers).

These are all late-round picks, and some probably aren't even going to be rostered in standard leagues. But I always highlight these Sam Merrill types in my waiver content as streaming options. Threes are pretty easy to find on the waiver wire, but when streaming, I think you should be cautious about the turnovers that you're picking up as a result of trying to win those counting stats.

If you want extra threes, but don't want to lose turnovers in any given week, these are your guys!

Three Point Shooter Unicorns

Let's first start with the players who show up the most often on our leaderboards. We didn't have any hits in all four category combos, but we had one player who made three lists.

Anthony Edwards is HIM. I've seen him go as high as sixth in drafts. He's primed for a huge year, and I think LaMelo's presence is a net positive for his fantasy output.

Other players who made two lists:

• Luka Doncic
• Victor Wembanyama
• Chet Holmgren
• Kevin Durant
• Kon Knueppel
• Kawhi Leonard
• Lauri Markkanen
• Onyeka Okongwu
• Jabari Smith Jr.

And of course, I had to blend all the data into an all-inclusive three-point unicorn rating! Here is our leaderboard for those ratings.

I filtered out players who didn't hit the averages in at least three stats, or at least come close. This is the final list, with a lot of really good fantasy players who have multiple strengths to their fantasy game beyond three-point shooting.

Final Unicorn Data and Rankings

Alright, since we had fewer stat combos to go through, and because this is the final installment in this series, it feels like we need some type of conclusion!

I created three final top-10 leaderboards. The first one here is the ten players who had the most number of positive combined z-scores across the 16 combos that I analyzed.

Most Positive Combinations

Only one player was a hit in all 16 - Mikal Bridges! Trey Murphy was the only player who did in 15 categories, while the rest all were hits in 14 categories. You can see the z-scores there for all category combinations in case you wanted to see where their impacts were the greatest.

Who stands out? I'd have to say I wasn't expecting Vooch or Mamu to be on this list, but they definitely are unique players. Shout out to Ty Jerome and Kel'el Ware as well - draft 'em if you can!

Speaking of identifying the greatest impacts, I made this leaderboard, too.

Isolated Unicorn Value

What I did here was isolate the category combinations where players had a positive impact and then created a metric that evaluated just how impactful they were in those areas. Players like Walker Kessler and Giannis Antetokounmpo show up here as a result because they are not punished for their negative impacts in other areas.

And if you need evidence for reaching for Walker Kessler early, here you go. I think he could be really special.

I think it's pretty cool that Jokic, Wemby, SGA, and Luka show up here in the exact order of their ADP!

There's Lauri Markkanen and Donovan Clingan again! I told you that they'd be back! I love both guys this year, and Kawhi Leonard in Toronto, too.

Lastly, here is the final model that measured the impact of all the players in the sample across all 16 of the category combos. It's also weighted so that the combinations that had the highest negative correlations (i.e., the rarest stat profiles) are rewarded more than those that were more common.

Weighted Unicorn Average

It's a pretty solid list if you ask me. I am not entirely sure how Saddiq Bey snuck in there, but let's let him have his day!

And just like that, it's finished! My manifesto is complete! I am not sure if I unearthed anything groundbreaking here, but it sure was a lot of fun.

Seriously though, thanks for reading and for your support. Let's have a fantastic basketball season!

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