The (R)Evolution of the 3-Point Shot – Basketball’s Game Changer

In basketball, shooters shoot, and the game grows more complex with every new generation of players. Some practices have been historically gimmicky, others have been all about the show, while the bulk has been all about the extreme pursuit of winning. The consistency of striving for greatness by any (rulebook-approved) means necessary is directly linked to sports excellence.

From the groundbreaking fast-break of Bill Russell’s titanic Celtics to the rise of the team-leading guard, basketball has seen a rise of necessary innovations to move the goalposts and make the game even more competitive.

Today’s basketball, more specifically, the NBA (the sport’s pinnacle), is the culmination of this evolution. In Kevin Garnett’s New York Times Interview with David Marchese, he employed his signature and beloved style when describing today’s game: ‘It’s creative. It’s competitive. It’s saucy.’

The 3-point shot is, perhaps, the most important vector in this dynamic. This article will look into the main factors of this evolution, how it changed the game, and why it made it outright revolutionary when compared to the (other) fundamentals of basketball!

Its Introduction – one of ABA’s Legacy Points

Lay-ups have a colloquial reputation that transcends basketball. They have become synonymous with the rudimentary act of grabbing the small and easy gain. The dunk is the legacy of its ban from the NCAA circuit and its popularization in the legendary NBA contests that have soared in popularity during the 1980s. However, Julius Erving was the progenitor of the spectacular slam dunk that we know, love, and revere.

We mention Dr. J and the dunk because they started their journey in the American Basketball League, just like the 3-pointer. While defunct and eventually taken over by the NBA, this league has a legacy that we need to mention so that we can pinpoint the genesis.

Indeed, it’s a bit disingenuous to start by saying that the ABA was the birthplace, but it certainly made it popular and viable. The 3-point field goal was first tested in the 1940s at the collegiate level, experimented with by minor leagues, and introduced by the ABA in 1967.

The 1970s, the heyday of the ABA, was strongly supported by Commissioner and Hall of Fame player George Mikan, the first of an illustrious line of Laker Legends. He believed that smaller players would benefit from this addition, not to mention the fans and the entertainment factor. Prophetic words, indeed.

The Rise of Speciality Shooters

After the fold of the ABA in early 1976, there was a 3-year gap until the NBA decided to adopt the 3-pointer. It’s only natural that this was also the year when Magic and Bird came into the league – a year when Dr. J himself made the only trey during the Finals.

While Magic was the floor general, Bird adopted an increasingly different type of ‘sauciness,’ which culminated in his 1988 victory in the 3-point contest during the All-Start Games. Naturally, the Celtics had the best 3-point percentage during that season.

Larry Legend was starting to get old, but the league was not without its fair share of shooters during the 80s. Michael Adams of the Nuggets and Dale Ellis of the Sonics both made over 160 3-pointers during the 1988-89 season. Reggie Miller also came into the league around this time and started to cement himself as the original alpha 3-point shooter.

We’d also like to mention the archetype created by Bill Laimbeer. While his dirty play and role in the Bad Boy Pistons take central stage in his NBA lore, he was one of the first 3-point big men to use perimeter skills rather than being just a traditional, under-the-basket guy like the post-move legends of the Hakeem vein.

Post-Jordan and the Ray Allen Example

We don’t believe there’s any point in bringing up MJ, his legacy, and his chokehold over the 1990s. However, we’d like to mention two major vectors of his influence.

The first would be the fact that his fadeaway mid-range shot was endlessly influential over the next 20 years, especially in how athletic guards shaped the game. However, if we look at Jordan’s year-by-year stats, we see that his 3-point averages surged once he came back from his initial retirement, peaking at 42.7% during his first full year back.

This shows that even MJ understood the value of 3-point shots, especially uncontested threes. It’s even more interesting when we think that Ray Allen came into the league around this time. Whether you know him as the young Shuttleworth, by his performance against the 2001 Iverson Sixers, his part of the Big 3 in Boston, or his insane shot against the Spurs in 2013, Ray Allen was a bit anachronistic in terms of his style of play.

His long, storied, and trailblazing career shows that shapeshifting one’s play style can extend careers. Even Lebron, a basketball savant, as Stephen A Smith would say, moved toward a more technical game rather than his consistent physical tour de force during the first half of this career.

Ray Allen had plenty of hops and the physical tools to be a great athletic guard, but his 3-point prowess was apparent since his arrival in the league. He hit over 40% of his 3-pointers in 8 different seasons and 39% in 12 seasons. In fact, his regular season percentage over his entire career is exactly 40% on over 7400 attempts, with almost 3000 made treys.

When the NBA guards were still chasing Jordan’s ghost and making highly-contested (but flashy) mid-rangers, Ray Allen was busy being the best shooter in the league.

The Seismic Shift of Curry’s Warriors

Steph Curry is the son of a 3-point shooter, the brother of a 3-point shooter, and, in many specialty opinions, the single-biggest revolutionary of the modern game of basketball (from a technical sense). The point-forward archetype would be second place, in our opinion.

Steph Curry average below 40% from 3 only in the 2021-2022 season as of this article’s writing. Since his story is still being written, things can still somehow nudge from a statistical point of view. However, his legacy is still being written.

Throughout his career, he has made almost 4 threes a game (over 16 seasons, some of them cut short by injury). His accuracy has been absolutely incredible, and his 50.4%–45.4%(!!!)–90.8% shooting averages during the 2015-2016 season is something that we, basketball fans, will profess as being messianic. The 3-1 collapse of that Warriors’ season is the only narrative that can sit at the same table in the 2010s basketball lore.

The 2014-2015 season, when the Warriors came out gunning, was a revolution with incredible proportions. Curry became the idol of a new generation of players who could impact the game despite having a smaller physical profile (Damian Lillard being another idol), and the high-value shooting of the entire Warriors team proved a point.

Klay Thompson was catching and shooting beyond belief at the same rate as Curry, while Draymond Green was making a point by throwing physicality, grit, and a psychotic sense of competition that married high-value shots with his intangibles. Things were starting to change.

High-Value Shots and the Rise of Analytics

The NBA was starting to change before the Warriors became a dynasty. Basketball Reference’s NBA averages show that the 3-point attempts were surging as Curry was rising in the league, but not by that much. In the 2014-2015 season, the average was 22.4 attempts per game. In 2016-2017, the average surged to 27. Teams began to notice and implement.

Think what you will of Daryl Morey, but his analytics and sports science approach has proven a point. His teams might not have won a title, but his reliance on scientific approaches and the favoritism for the 3-point shot has been proven around the league as a fact of the new game of basketball.

His Executive of the Year Campaign during the 2017-2018 Rockets season was the closest we’ve seen the Durant Warriors come to the brink of being defeated fair and square. They attempted a mental 42.3 threes a game during the season (over 13 attempts over the league average). The combination of having a floor general who can set up shots (Chris Paul), a peaking, historic shot creator in MVP James Harden, and a set-up of talented shooters was something that was very close to defeating the most dominant team in NBA history.

At the middle point of the 2024-2025 seasons, when we write this article, the league average for 3-point attempts has soared to over 37 attempts. The champions of the previous season, the still-favorite Celtics, attempted 42.5 threes during their 2023-2024 title-winning campaign. It would appear that the way of the analytics won.

Conclusion

The 3-point shot came a long way from being a shot in the dark. Once thought of as being in the vein of casino bonus codes and being more than simple attempts, they have become the class of their respective field. The trey, or 3-pointer, has become the shot of shots. It’s so influential that concerns about its diluting of the NBA product have risen, with a 4-point shot being experimented with by PBA.

Basketball has become even more about efficiency, hot hands, and snipers ruling the field. From shooting bigs like Porzingis to the rise of the 3-and-D wings, the profile keeps gaining complexity. As fans, we can only see where the sport is going. Only one thing is certain; as Rasheed Wallace said, ball don’t lie.