Giving an Indirect Nod to Stephen Curry, 3x- All Star and Former Cleveland Champion Dissect Importance of 3-Pointers

The NBA game has seen a lot of variations throughout the years. While it began as a low-post center dominant sport, there has been a gradual shift away from the basket. Today, the 3-point shot is the most valuable commodity in the league. If you’re a good shooter, making you are highly sought after. Of course, the credit in that shift goes to a few different men. However, none more so than sharpshooter Stephen Curry who led the change with his sharpshooting.

Discussing the impact of the shot itself, and the change in playstyles were a few guaranteed buckets in their own right.

The Stephen Curry effect

For the last few days, a specific graphic has been making the rounds of X and Instagram. It highlights a stark contrast: Teams in the 1980s averaged about 2.8 3-point attempts a game. Yes, you read that right. Teams, as in, the entirety.

Meanwhile, a small section of players alone eclipsed that mark this past season. Not much, just around 173 total qualified names. There is some complicated maths here, but that’s more than half of the league that regularly gets minutes. Suffice it to say, the 3-point revolution is here to stay.

Speaking about the same difference, Gilbert Arenas and Iman Shumpert in Iman Amongst Men talk about it. First, went Agent Zero, “This is a new game. Speaking new terms. You got these guys saying, ‘Oh, this is a horrible shot.’ Yeah, back then. Back then when y’all was shooting two threes, 10 threes a game. Now it’s 40 threes so someone’s gotta take them.”?

Shumpert joined in on the conversation, endorsing the value of the shot. “If you don’t get enough of ’em up, you can’t win this game.”?He even brought up the last NBA Finals. “Watching Miami [Heat] compete with Denver [Nuggets]. If you can’t respond to that three ball, just for two games, it’ll kill you.”?

The shift has been a radical and swift one. Today, as the two point out, winning without a consistent 3-point threat is almost impossible. However, the man most responsible for bringing about that change wasn’t just Stephen Curry.

The shift in times

In a sport where the objective is to put the ball in a 10-foot basket, height plays an obvious advantage. In fact, for the longest time, it was believed to be impossible to win an NBA championship with a short player as your leader. Even Michael Jordan faced similar critiques before his first championship.

Read More: How Many Threes Has Stephen Curry Hit in His NBA Career So Far?

However, those conversations were put to rest after the Golden State Warriors triumph in 2015. Led by jump shooting, the team defied all odds against Shumpert’s own Cleveland Cavaliers. As a result, a new era was upon us. One, where jump shooting was of the essence. But it wasn’t just Golden State that caused the shift.

James Harden, Daryl Morey, and the Houston Rockets played a vital role in the expansion of the 3-point shot. While they might be at odds now, their analytics-based offense paid huge dividends for a long time, forcing the league to shift its approach.

As a result, as Gil and Shumpert explained, not every poor look is a bad shot today. And, the 3-pointer is of utmost importance.

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