Anybody who loves basketball knows who Stephen Curry is. The 6-foot-2 point guard from the Golden State Warriors was chosen with the seventh overall pick in the first round of the 2009 NBA Draft. Curry’s diminutive stature, lack of quickness and explosiveness, poor defense, and terrible finishing near the rim initially drew criticism.

A statistical analysis of Stephen Curry’s three-point shooting legacy

In addition to being the 2022 Finals MVP, he has won four NBA titles, been an eight-time All-Star, and been named the MVP twice. In just 11 seasons, Curry has developed into one of the NBA’s best shooters and the best three-point shooter in history.

Stephen Curry and three-point shots

Stephen Curry holds the record for the most three-pointers made in NBA history with 3,117 as of the end of the 2021–2022 season. Curry is also the first player in the NBA to have made more than 3,000 three-pointers in their career. It is expected that he will play for at least four more seasons before retiring, therefore this record will probably climb in the years to come.

Curry owns the NBA record with 402 three-pointers made in a regular season. This number exceeds the total number of three-pointers made by any NBA team in the first fifteen seasons after the three-point shot was introduced.

He also holds the records for the most three-pointers made in a playoff run (98), the most in the NBA Finals (9) and the most games played in a regular season (157). He also holds the record for the most postseason games played (90).

Curry has a 42.8% career average three-point shooting percentage, with the exception of his injury-plagued 2019–2020 season, in which he hurt his left hand in the Warriors’ fifth regular season game against the Phoenix Suns. Curry missed the rest of the league season.

However, he has been attempting more and more threes, which bring him a sizable sum of money. Curry made a greater percentage of two-pointers than three-pointers prior to the 2014–2015 season, which saw the current Warriors dynasty win their first championship. The graph below shows that during the 2014–2015 season, 51.83% of Curry’s shot attempts were two-pointers, while 48.17% were three-pointers. He attempted 44.56% two-pointers and 55.44% three-pointers in the 2015–2016 campaign.

Early adopters of the three-point shot, such as Reggie Miller and Ray Allen

In addition to Stephen Curry, two more notable three-point shooters from two different NBA generations are Reggie Miller (who played from 1987 to 2005) and Ray Allen (who played from 1996 to 2014). They are currently rated fourth and second, respectively, among the NBA’s all-time great three-point shooters. James Harden, the star player for the Philadelphia 76ers, is placed third.  Ray Allen, with the exception of his last two years of play, frequently tried more two-pointers than three-pointers. During Ray Allen’s first season (1996–1997), 21.18% of shots were attempted as three-pointers, while 78.82% of shots were two-pointers. During the 2008–2009 season, two-pointers accounted for 77.60% of all attempts, while three-pointers accounted for 22.40% of the total, during Curry’s time out of the NBA.

Even though Allen played during Stephen Curry’s final two years, Curry was still attempting more two-pointers than three-pointers at this point. Curry made 272 of his 600 (45.33%) three-point shots during the 2012–2013 season, while Allen made 139 of his 332 (41.87%) attempts. In the 2013–14 season, Allen made 116 of his 309 (37.54%) three-point shots, while Curry made 261 of his 615 (42.44%) attempts.

Curry overtook Allen to become the all-time top three-point shooter in NBA history on December 14, 2021, during the Golden State Warriors’ victory over the New York Knicks.

Curry’s effect on the NBA

However, Curry is far more powerful than Allen and Miller. Because of Curry’s incredible three-point shooting during his NBA career, other teams did not see a rise in three-point goal attempts. The three-point shooting percentages of Allen and Miller and the NBA at the time show somewhat positive relationships, according to the results of the Pearson’s correlation test. The same statistical test’s results show a large link between Curry’s and the NBA’s shot percentage, indicating that Stephen Curry’s shooting decisions have a big impact on the league as a whole.

Between the 2009–2010 season and the 2021–2022 season, Curry and the NBA as a whole attempted more three-pointers. However, in the two seasons he missed due to injury (2019–2020, when he played just 5 games, and 2011–2012, when he played just 26 games), Curry’s three-point attempts fell.