Note: “Bigs” includes Forwards and Centers. “FGA” refers to field goal attempts. All data sourced from ShotTracker. Analysis covers Division I men’s and women’s basketball from the 2025-26 season.
Few shots have become more synonymous with modern basketball than the stepback jumper. The stepback jumper allows an offensive player to create separation from a defender while still getting a shot off in rhythm. Whether it’s used to create space beyond the three-point line or to free up a midrange jumper, the stepback has become one of the most recognizable—and often most difficult—shots in the game.
Because of its degree of difficulty, the stepback is often viewed as a low-percentage attempt reserved for a team’s best shot creators. But is that perception accurate? Using ShotTracker data from the 2025–26 NCAA season, we’ll examine which positions rely on the stepback most frequently, how efficient those shots actually are, where these shots are occurring on the court, and whether the numbers support the shot’s reputation.
Who is taking Stepback Jumpshots?
While guards already account for the majority of field goal attempts in both the men’s and women’s games, stepback jumpers are even more heavily concentrated in their hands. In men’s basketball, guards take over 86% of all stepback jumpers despite accounting for 63% of overall field goal attempts. The trend is even stronger in the women’s game, where guards are responsible for 90% of all stepback attempts while taking just 68% of all shots.
This implies that the stepback is far more than just another jumpshot—it is a specialized skill most often used by guards to generate separation when defenders take away more conventional scoring opportunities. Although some bigs incorporate the stepback jumpshot into their game, it remains overwhelmingly a guard’s weapon.
Where do Stepback Jumpshots most often occur on the floor?
Half of all stepback attempts in both the men’s and women’s games originate from the top of the key and short wing three – 50.2% of stepbacks on the men’s side, and 47.6% on the women’s. The midrange accounts for the next most significant share, over 30% for both men and women. The corners and paint zones are used sparingly when it comes to stepback jumpshot attempts.
The most frequently used areas are not necessarily the most efficient, though. The highest field goal percentages naturally occur on shots in the paint (47.1% for men and 40.1% for women) and the midrange (40.4% for men and 34.8% for women). While some of the less common zones convert at higher rates, players continue to favor the top of the key and short wing areas because they naturally tend to be the zones that are the least crowded and most effective to create separation.
How efficient is the Stepback Jumpshot overall?
One of the more surprising findings is that the typical efficiency advantage held by bigs nearly disappears on stepback jumpers. Throughout most of the game, bigs consistently shoot a higher field goal percentage than guards, largely because of the higher volume of shots they take around the basket.
Stepbacks, however, tell a different story. In the men’s game, guards actually edge out bigs in efficiency (35.4% vs. 33.4%), making this one of the few shot types where guards have the advantage. The women’s game shows nearly identical efficiency between the position groups (30.7% vs. 31.2%), with bigs holding only a slight advantage.
On the surface, the data appears to support the common perception that the stepback jumper is a low-percentage shot. However, considering where these attempts come from on the floor—predominantly from the midrange and beyond the arc—and comparing them to traditional jumpshot percentages, the numbers tell a different story. For men, traditional jump shots are converted at 34.8%, actually slightly below the 35.1% conversion rate on stepback jumpers. For women, the gap is similarly small, with traditional jump shots converted at 32.0% compared to 30.8% on stepbacks. This suggests stepbacks are not inherently inefficient. Instead, they are a specialized shot that allows skilled perimeter players to generate quality looks in situations where there aren’t many other options.
Best returning stepback shooters – FG% (min. 20 Stepback Jumpshot FGA)
While the stepback jumper remains a challenging shot, it has also become one of the most effective shot-creation tools. The data show that it is overwhelmingly the domain of guards, is used primarily to generate separation at the top of the key, and is converted at rates comparable to traditional jump shots. Rather than being a low-percentage gamble, the stepback has become a calculated weapon for players capable of creating quality looks when defenses take away everything else.
