Most clutch NBA players: Portland Trail Blazers' Deandre Ayton surprisingly leads list
When you think of clutch NBA players … you think of Deandre Ayton?
A recent study revealed the "most clutch players in the NBA" and Ayton, the former Phoenix Suns player who is now on the Portland Trail Blazers, is the most clutch player in the league, according to the study.
FlashPicks analyzed NBA games from 2020 through this season to determine its ranking of the most clutch players in the league, looking at which players had attempted at least 100 field goals within the last five minutes of the fourth quarter, where fewer than just five points separated both teams.
Ayton leads that list, scoring on almost 59% of his attempts in the final five minutes of those games, according to the study.
He made 70 of his 119 field goal attempts during that time frame.
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Ayton has company on the list, with the Miami Heat's Bam Adebayo second, at 55.73%.
The New Orleans Pelicans' Zion Williamson is third, at 54.63% and the Sacramento Kings' Domantas Sabonis is fourth, at 51.54%.
Scottie Barnes of the Toronto Raptors is the fifth most clutch player in the NBA, according to the study, at 51.18%.
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Suns' Bradley Beal among most clutch NBA players
According to the study, current Suns player Bradley Beal is the seventh most clutch player in the NBA.
Beal has made 50.5% of his field goals attempted in the last five minutes of the fourth quarter since 2020, according to the study. Most of that time period was spent with his previous team, the Washington Wizards.
No other current Suns player is in the Top 25 of the rankings.
But two other former Suns players are in the Top 12.
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Mikal Bridges, Chris Paul among most clutch players in NBA
Another former Suns player, Mikal Bridges, came in at No. 9 on the list, at 49.69%, meaning that Phoenix has evidently traded two of the nine most clutch players in the NBA in the past two seasons.
But another former Suns player is in the Top 12.
The Golden State Warriors' Chris Paul, also a former Suns player, is No. 12 on the list at 48.57%, giving Phoenix three former players among the 12 most clutch players in the NBA.
Paul was part of the deal that brought Bradley Beal to Phoenix. Bridges was included in the Kevin Durant trade. The Suns got Jusuf Nurkic and Grayson Allen in the deal for Ayton.
According to the study, they gave up three of the most clutch players in the league in those deals. Ayton, Bridges and Paul all were part of the Suns' 2021 NBA finals team.
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Reach Jeremy Cluff at jeremy.cluff@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter @Jeremy_Cluff.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Suns traded clutch players in Deandre Ayton, Chris Paul, Mikal Bridges
