Stephen Curry is going through a breakout season in almost every individual and team parameter but it’s his shooting accuracy from beyond the arc that’s astonishing, leading the NBA in three point field goals and on pace to record the highest single season percentage for those taking over 500 shots in a season.
Curry is averaging 22.2 points per game this season, already attempting a career high 410 three pointers this season, averaging 7.2 attempts per game, making 45.1% of his shots. Amazingly, despite the amount of shots he’s taking, he’s ranked third in the NBA when it comes to accuracy. Kyle Korver is shooting a 46.2% from beyond the arc, but has attempted almost 100 less shots than Curry, averaging a very high 6 attempts per game, but is unlikely to make the cut of 500 attempts in a season.
Second to Korver, at the moment, is Martell Webster of the Washington Wizards, making 45.2% of his shots from beyond the arc this season. He has attempted only 217 so far, averaging 4.8 shots from beyond the arc, scoring 13.7 points per game.
There have been 32 players in the history of the league to attempt 500 shots or more from three in a season, several of them doing it a number of times. Peja Stojakovic has the best shooting percentage of them all in a specific season, making 44.1% of his shots for the Hornets in the 2007-2008 season. Only Mitch Richmond, Ray Allen and Damon Jones have seasons with over 43% with that kind of shot-volume.
Curry is shooting 44.5% in his career from beyond the arc, but during the first three seasons of his career he was limited to under 5 shots per game. With the Warriors changing their offense (and Monta Ellis gone) to focus on Curry’s abilities to make threes, many of them off his own dribble instead of being a catch and shoot type of player, in a few years we might be able to put Curry on top of the pile when it comes to the greatest three point shooters in NBA history.