Are the green/yellow/orange/red range dots purely about distance, or are they per-character hotspots?
How to test: Walk each character straight out from your basket and log where the under-feet dot turns green → yellow → orange → red, using fixed court landmarks (arc, deep three, logo, half court, far rim). Record the makeable limit with and without a range-extending Zone like Deep Threat.
The Range Dot Is Your Shot-Quality Compass
Look down at the ball-handler’s feet and you’ll see a colored circle. That’s the hotspot indicator, and it’s the closest thing The Run gives you to a shot-quality readout. Because the game has no shot meter, this dot is how you know whether the spot you’re standing on is a good place to pull up — before you ever leave the ground.
The official beta tips lay out the color scale directly: green is great, yellow is good, orange is okay, and red is not good. Treat it like a traffic light for your offense.
Reading the Colors
| Color | Shot quality | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Green | Great | Pull up with confidence — your best looks |
| Yellow | Good | Solid attempt if you’re open and set |
| Orange | Okay | Marginal — only take it with no better option |
| Red | Poor | Pass, drive, or reposition; this is a bad shot |
The dot updates in real time as you move, so you can essentially “dribble into green.” A patient ball-handler walks the defense around until the circle shifts to a friendlier color, then sets and rises.
Hotspots Are Location- AND Character-Specific
Two things drive the color: where you are on the floor and who is holding the ball. Range is character-specific, so a knockdown shooter’s green zone reaches well beyond the arc, while a finisher’s green might stop just outside the paint. The exact green-zone geometry for each player is still being mapped — Stephen Curry is charted so far, and the community project below is filling in the rest of the roster. For now, the reliable approach is to learn two or three signature green spots per character rather than chucking from everywhere.
Range Isn’t Fixed — Zone Abilities Can Stretch It
Your hotspots aren’t permanent. When you trigger an In the Zone ability that affects shooting — Deep Threat extends your shooting range — spots that normally read orange or red can flip to green for the duration. Stacking a range-extending zone with a hot hand is one of the strongest scoring windows in the game, so save those abilities for when you can punish from deep.
How Far Does Elite Range Actually Reach?
The dot doesn’t just say “good or bad” — it tells you how far a shooter’s range stretches, and for the best shooters that’s further than the 3-bar alone would suggest. A live shootaround example: Stephen Curry’s dot stays yellow-to-orange all the way out to half court, meaning the game still treats a half-court pull-up as a makeable shot for him. Pop Deep Threat and it goes further still — his dot reads orange under the opposite basket, turning a near-full-court heave into a live attempt.
That changes how you read the ratings. Two players can share the same 5-bar three, but if one’s dot stays warm ten feet deeper than the other’s, that player’s shooting is meaningfully better than the bar lets on — the same gap the community spotted between the two Kevin Durants (see the June 25 patch thread). It’s a strong hint that 3-point range is a hidden value the coarse 1–5 bar undersells, and a reason elite shooters may play better than their tier suggests.
What the Testing Shows So Far
One community shooting test (How SHOOTING Actually Works in NBA THE RUN) put rough numbers on the colors — standstill, one player (Kevin Durant), about 100 shots per color — so treat it as a first data point, not gospel:
| Dot color | Standstill make rate (reported) |
|---|---|
| Green | ~100% |
| Yellow | ~91% |
| Orange | ~51% |
| Red | ~35% |
Two things from that test back up the hidden-range idea. First, moving and fading drops those rates hard — green fadeaways fell to ~74% — so the color reflects the spot, while movement and contests are separate penalties layered on top. Second, and most telling: two Kevin Durants with identical visible bars showed a different green-to-yellow range, and a lower 3-point bar pulled the colors inward (a 4-of-5 three-rated rookie LeBron got no green at the arc). That’s real support for identical bars hiding different real values — but it’s one tester on a handful of players, which is exactly why we’re mapping the whole roster below.
Help Map Every Player’s Range
This is the open community project: chart how far each character’s dot stays makeable. We’re collecting it by court landmark so the readings are consistent and repeatable. Read it from a standstill with set feet and no defender — that isolates the spot’s range from the movement and contest penalties. Walk straight out from your basket and note where the dot changes color:
| Landmark (out from your hoop) | Roughly |
|---|---|
| Top of the paint / free-throw line | mid-range |
| The arc | the 3-point line |
| A few steps behind the arc | a deep three |
| “Logo” range | way out |
| Half court | Curry territory |
| Past half court → the far rim | Deep Threat territory |
Record three things per player:
- Green to — the farthest landmark where the dot is still green (their money range).
- Makeable to — the farthest landmark where it’s still orange (the limit before it goes red).
- With their range Zone — how far that limit stretches with a range-extending ability (e.g. Deep Threat) active.
Drop your readings in the findings below — name the player, the landmark, and the color. Every player’s page already has a Shooting Range card that your readings fill in directly — Stephen Curry’s is the live example (makeable to half court, and to the far rim with Deep Threat); the other 42 are waiting on the chart.
Combine the Dot With Everything Else
Remember that the range dot is only one input. A green dot still misses if your release timing is off the apex, your feet are moving, or a defender is draped on you. The dot tells you the spot is good; you still have to deliver a clean, well-timed release from it. Pair this page with the Shot Meter breakdown to put both halves together.
Evidence Locker
Sign in to contribute- No findings yet — run a test and post what you see.
Frequently asked
Q. What does the colored circle under my player mean in NBA The Run?
It's the range / hotspot indicator. It shows how good a shot is from your current spot on the court: green is great, yellow is good, orange is okay, and red is poor. Shoot from green whenever you can.
Q. What do the green, yellow, orange, and red dots mean?
They rank your shot quality by location. Green means an excellent shot, yellow a good one, orange a marginal okay shot, and red a poor low-percentage attempt. The color updates live as you move around the floor.
Q. Is the range dot the same for every character?
No. Hotspots are character-specific. A shooter's green zones extend much further out than a slasher's, so the same spot on the floor can read green for one player and red for another. Learn each character's reliable green spots.
Q. Can you extend your shooting range in NBA The Run?
Yes. Certain In the Zone abilities expand your range when activated — for example, Deep Threat extends your shooting range (and reduces the effectiveness of the defender's guard rating). So a spot that's normally orange or red can temporarily turn green while you're zoned in.
Q. Is the range dot just about distance?
No — it's a shot-quality indicator. Position/range is the biggest driver, but the developer lists the dot as one of several factors: your release timing, whether your feet are set or moving, and nearby defenders all affect the shot too. To read a player's true range, test from a standstill with set feet and no defender.