NBA 2020-21: With a catch-and-shoot corner 3 in the third quarter Saturday night in Salt Lake City, Stephen Curry passed Hall of Famer Reggie Miller for second place on the NBA’s all-time 3-pointers made list.
Miller made 2,560 3-pointers over 1,389 regular-season games during his 18-year NBA career; Curry passed him in his 715th career game, coming early in his 12th NBA season.
“My favorite player growing up was Reggie Miller.”
With @StephenCurry30 passing @ReggieMillerTNT for 2nd all-time in threes made, take a look at the mutual admiration these two sharpshooters have for each other. pic.twitter.com/whsHdsV0KG
— NBA (@NBA) January 24, 2021
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“That’s pretty dope,” Curry said after the game (the Jazz beat the Warriors 127-108). “We got our head beat tonight, but I was trying to still enjoy it. After I made the third one, I knew that was a big one, and then to make that fourth one in the third quarter was pretty special. Something I’ve been looking forward to for a very long time.”
With Miller in his rearview, the only player that stands between Curry and the title of 3-point king is another legendary shooter — Ray Allen, who holds the top spot with 2,973 career 3s. With a cushion of over 400 3-pointers made, Allen’s title should remain safe for 2021, but it’s only a matter of time before Curry claims the record for himself.
Reggie Miller and his son created a special video for Curry:
“You are an inspiration to so many little ones like mine.”
Our guy @ReggieMillerTNT congratulated Steph after he moved into 2nd place on the all-time 3PM list. pic.twitter.com/tsKYHuMUGa
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) January 24, 2021
“You are an inspiration to so many little ones like mine.”
Our guy @ReggieMillerTNT congratulated Steph after he moved into 2nd place on the all-time 3PM list. pic.twitter.com/tsKYHuMUGa
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) January 24, 2021
What separates Curry from Miller and Allen is the pace at which he has climbed the all-time leaderboard. While Miller and Allen utilized the 3-point shot as part of their game, Curry was part of a 3-point revolution thanks to his shooting ability and a rising emphasis on the 3-point shot. To put it simply – he changed the game.
Steph Curry’s past performance
Over the past six seasons, Curry has averaged at least 9.8 3-point attempts per game each year and has three seasons averaging at least 11 3s per game. By comparison, Miller’s career-high in 3-point attempts for a season was 6.6 in 1996-97 (3rd in NBA), while Allen’s was 8.4 in 2005-06 (1st in NBA by 1.6 3PA).
But Curry’s rise is not only attributed to a higher volume of 3-point attempts. The reason Curry is nearly universally regarded as the greatest shooter of all time is that he matches his high volume with historic accuracy.
Curry is a career 43.3% shooter from 3-point range, compared to 39.5% for Miller and 40.0% for Allen. Curry’s 43.3% career 3-point percentage ranks seventh all-time and leads all players ranked in the top 200 in 3-pointers made.
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Curry has a strong connection with the top two players on the all-time 3-point percentage list: No. 1 is his head coach Steve Kerr (45.4%) and No. 2 is his younger brother Seth (44.9%), who is shooting a league-best 59.6% this season from 3 for the Philadelphia 76ers.
It’s his combination of high volume and incredible accuracy that are the key reasons why Stephen Curry needed only 715 games to surpass the career total that Miller accumulated over 1,389 games. And it’s also the reason why Curry will be the first player to eclipse 3,000 career 3-pointers made and will set the standard that all other shooters will have to chase.
Which Players Will Eventually Challenge Curry?
Assuming Curry does catch and pass Allen to establish a new record for career 3-pointers, there are two lingering questions that will remain: 1. How high will he set the mark? 2. Which current players will have a shot at catching him in the future?
Let’s go back to the all-time leaderboard for 3-pointers made, but rather than track totals we’ll look at per-game averages instead. The 14 players with the highest 3-pointers made per game are all active players before we get to Allen at No. 15. Let’s take a closer look at the top 10 on that list and see which players may have a shot at catching Curry.
With the lead that Curry currently holds and showing no signs of slowing down, it is tough to see fellow veteran players catching him. Harden is currently fifth all-time and trails Curry by nearly 200 3-pointers made.
After making 3s at a ridiculous pace during his final two seasons in Houston (4.8 per game in 2018-19, 4.4 per game in 2019-20), Harden is now adjusting to a new role in Brooklyn and has averaged 3.2 3 PM so far this season.
If we remove the veterans from the list (Thompson, Lillard, Harden, and George), then we can focus on the younger players that were influenced by Curry’s game as they watched him on their journey to the NBA.
These players have not only been influenced by Curry, but they are also spending their entire careers in an NBA that has embraced the 3-point shot like never before.