For any basketball fan, Stephen Curry is a household name. In the first round of the 2009 NBA Draft, the 6-foot-2 point guard from the Golden State Warriors was selected with the seventh overall choice. At first, Curry had drawn criticism for his small frame, lack of athleticism and explosiveness, bad defense, and awful finishing near the hoop.

He is now the 2022 Finals MVP, a four-time NBA champion, an eight-time NBA All-Star, and a two-time Most Valuable Player. Curry has become one of the NBA’s greatest shooters and the finest three-point shooter in history in just 11 seasons.

Three-pointers and Stephen Curry

As of the conclusion of the 2021–2022 season, Stephen Curry had made 3,117 three-pointers, which is the record for the most in NBA history. In addition, Curry is the first NBA player with over 3,000 career three-pointers made. This record will likely rise in the years to come as he is anticipated to play at least four more seasons before retiring.

With 402 three-pointers made during a regular season, Curry holds the NBA record. This figure surpasses the total amount of three-pointers made by any NBA club over the first fifteen seasons following the introduction of the three-point shot.

In addition, he has the marks for the most three-pointers made in a playoff run (98), the most three-pointers made in the NBA Finals (9), the most games in a regular season (157), and the most games in a postseason run (90).

With the exception of his injury-plagued 2019–2020 season, when he injured his left hand in the Warriors’ fifth regular season game against the Phoenix Suns, Curry has a 42.8% career average three-point shooting percentage. Curry sat out the remainder of the season’s action.

But he is been trying more and more threes, which generate a lot of money. Up to the 2014–2015 campaign, when the current Warriors dynasty won its first title, Curry made more two-pointers than three-pointers. The graph below illustrates how 51.83% of Curry’s shot attempts during the 2014–2015 season were two-pointers and 48.17% were three-pointers. During the 2015–2016 season, he attempted 44.56% two-pointers and 55.44% three-pointers.

The early years of the three-point shot, including Ray Allen and Reggie Miller

Apart from Stephen Curry, there are two other significant three-point shooters from two distinct NBA generations: Ray Allen, who played from 1996 to 2014, and Reggie Miller, who played from 1987 to 2005. Currently ranked among the NBA’s all-time great three-point shooters, they are ranked fourth and second, respectively. The third-ranked player is Philadelphia 76ers star James Harden.

With the exception of the final two years of his career, Ray Allen often attempted more two-pointers than three-pointers. In the inaugural season of Ray Allen (1996–1997), 21.18% of shots attempted were three-pointers, compared to 78.82% of two-pointers. In the 2008–2009 season, when Curry was still not a member of the NBA, two-pointers made up 77.60% of all shots attempted, while three-pointers made up 22.40%.

Although Allen’s final two years of play coincided with Stephen Curry’s, Curry was still trying more two-pointers than three-pointers at this time. During the 2012–2013 campaign, Curry made 272 of his 600 (45.33%) three-point tries, while Allen made 139 of his 332 (41.87%) attempts. Allen made 116 of his 309 (37.54%) three-point tries in the 2013–14 season, while Curry made 261 of his 615 (42.44%) attempts. 

In the Golden State Warriors’ victory over the New York Knicks on December 14, 2021, Curry surpassed Allen as the all-time leading three-point shooter in NBA history.

The impact of Curry on the NBA

Allen and Miller, though, are not nearly as powerful as Curry. During Curry’s NBA career, other teams did not witness an uptick in three-point shot attempts due to their spectacular three-point shooting. The results of the Pearson’s correlation test indicate that there are marginally positive correlations between the three-point shooting percentages of Allen and Miller and the NBA at the time. The results of the same statistical test indicate a strong correlation between Curry’s and the NBA’s shot percentage: The NBA as a whole is significantly influenced by Stephen Curry’s shooting choices. 

The number of three-point shots Curry and the NBA as a whole attempted rose from the 2009–2010 season to the 2021–2022 season. But Curry’s three-point attempts decreased in the seasons he missed due to injury (2011–2012, when he played just 26 games, and 2019–2020, when he played just 5 games).