In the past few years, we’ve seen various statistics showing the NBA audience all the new 3-point records and how differently the 3-point line is used now. For comparison, the leader of the ’87 – ’88 season was Danny Ainge who made 148 3-pointers. During the ’17 – ’18 season is about 45 games in, and Klay Thompson leads the NBA with 154 3-pointers made. This post takes a look at how players have improved to take advantage of the 3-point line.
Few things to note:
- Mark Jackson’s first year as head coach was the 2011-12 season. Steph and Klay immediately were clearly given the green light to shoot after that.
- Eras are grouped as following:
- 80s: 1980 – 1989
- Before Zone Defense: 1990 – 2002
- Introduction of Zone Defense: 2003 – 2010
- Modern Era: 2011 – 2017
- The 3-point line was shortened during the 1994-95 and 1995-96 seasons, the years Steve Kerr and Tim Legler achieved above 50% on 3-point attempts.
- In the second scatter plot, the restrictions are a minimum of 1000 minutes played and at least 120 3 pointers made per season.