As the famous NBA analyst Kirk Gardberg mentioned in his book "The Trailing Ball" published on 20 19, "By comparing the initial data of each game, we will find that the three-point shooter has changed from a forgotten small role with an average of 2.4 points per game in 1979 to an average of 2017-/kloc-.
In the past ten years, with the success of Stephen Curry, the offensive concept of three-pointers broke out in the league. The team relies more on the three-pointer to improve the space on the court than before, and the three-pointer has become a beacon in the eyes of all general managers. This is just one of the important milestones in the history of three-pointer development. Throughout the whole development history of three-point shooting, there are five milestones with similar significance. Next, we briefly review the six stages of the development of three-point shooting in NBA games.
Brian Taylor is almost a forgotten name in NBA history, because most of his achievements are concentrated in ABA period, including ABA championship, stealing the king, the best defensive formation and so on. But there is one detail that made Brian Taylor leave his name in NBA history-he was the first three-point king in NBA after the introduction of the three-point line in 1979-80 season.
Taylor played for the San Diego Clippers at that time, hitting 90 three-pointers in a single season, beating 73 three-pointers by Hall of Famer rick barry. However, Taylor was on the verge of retirement. After only two seasons, the number of three-pointers dropped to 44 and 23. Darrell griffith of Jazz Band later improved Taylor's record. He made a long shot of 9 1 in 1983-84 season, and further improved his shooting percentage to 92 in 1984-85 season.
1987-88 season, the number of single-player three-point hits has made a huge leap, and the unprecedented three people broke the "three-point mark of single-season 100 hits". Danny Anji of Boston Celtics won the first place with a 3-pointer of 148, followed by michael adams of Denver Nuggets and Dale of seattle supersonics.
However, the shooting percentage of these three players is not so good. Last season, when Angie, Adams and Ellis were not in the top five in three-point shooting percentage, they all shot outside the three-point line in the top three. Adams was the player who tried long shots the most times that season.
After 1987-88 season, the record of players hitting three-pointers in a single season hovered between 160- 170, until 1993-94 season, Dan Mali hit 192 three-pointers, and the distance exceeded 200. Many fans know Marley that Jerry Krause, the general manager of Bulls at that time, admired Marley very much, and then Michael Jordan won the championship easily by averaging 4 1 point against the best second-line defender in the finals.
However, Marley's ability is beyond doubt. 1993-94 season, his three-point shooting percentage was 38.2%, ranking 20th in the league and ranking first in the league with 503 shots. Vernon Maxwell ranked second in 403 shots, but he only hit 120 3-pointers for the Houston Rockets, with a shooting percentage of only 29.8%. In contrast, Marley was the best three-point shooter with the best combination of production and efficiency in that era.
The NBA shortened the three-point line distance between 65438 and 0994-97, which led to a general blowout of players' three-point output. Even Michael Jordan, the "God of Basketball" who is not good at three-pointers, has made a considerable three-pointer percentage in these three seasons. John starks led the league with 2 1994-95 season. Reggie miller dominated the three-point list with 229 three-points in the 1996-97 season.
However, the real star of this period was Dennis Scott who played for Orlando Magic. He hit 267 three-pointers in the 1995-96 season, setting a new single-season three-pointer record, followed by George mcleod of Dallas Mavericks, who hit 257 three-pointers in one season.
However, after the 1996-97 season, the three-point line returned to its original size, and the development course of the league three-point line changed again.
After the three-point line changed back to its original size, no one could reach the height of Dennis Scott in a single season for a long time, until ray allen broke the 250-point three-point line with his textbook shooting performance on the 23-foot-9-inch three-point line (instead of the 22-foot three-point line).
Ray allen, who played for seattle supersonics in 2005-06, made 269 three-pointers, almost three times as many as Brian Taylor's in 1979-80, which was almost an insurmountable miracle at that time.
Junzilei hit 4 1.2% from three-point shooting that season. Goldberger has an interesting description of Allen's historical season in his book. "Of ray allen's 269 three-pointers, 202 came from assists, accounting for 75.65,438+0% of the total, and only 67 were non-assisted three-pointers." Ray allen used his tireless running to find those three-pointers, and staged an art game without the ball.
A few years later, Stephen Curry was born, breaking the number of three-pointers in a single season maintained by ray allen. In the 20 12- 13 season and the 20 14- 15 season, he hit 272 and 286 three-pointers respectively, constantly hitting the three-pointer list. The biggest shock came from the 20 15- 16 season. Stephen Curry made 402 three-pointers this season and was unanimously elected as the MVP.
Curry not only broke the record of shooting 400 three-pointers in a single season, but also set an almost impossible record (the first and only player who shot 400 three-pointers in a single season). In addition, he suddenly improved the record of hitting three-pointers in a single season by 1 16, which was the biggest increase in the three-pointer record list, surpassing any previous one, and Curry just surpassed himself last season.
At present, the Curry of 20 15- 16 season is probably the ceiling of three-pointer technology. In a short time, I'm afraid no one can surpass or even approach the record of 402 three-pointers in a single season.
However, an interesting trend is that from the beginning of 1995-96 season, from Dennis Scott to ray allen, and then to Stephen Curry, almost every ten years, there will be an obvious leap in the number of three-pointer hits, and the innovation of tactical concept and three-pointer technology will promote the rapid development of this skill. Therefore, we can look forward to the 2025-26 season. I wonder if the next historical three-point shooter will be born and break Curry's record in one fell swoop.