Stephen Curry broke Ray Allen’s all-time made 3-pointer record against the New York Knicks, doing it in 511 fewer games (the equivalent of about six and a quarter fewer seasons).
It’s an amazing accomplishment that, considering that Curry still hasn’t turned 34 (his birthday is in March), there is a lot of talk about him setting the bar so high that no one ever breaks the record. We, the prisoners of the moment, gawk at his totals and cannot fathom that he is currently doing this, much less that anyone else has the potential to follow in his footsteps.
But so long as the math remains out of whack, there exists a possibility that even a lesser shooter can amass Curry’s volume. Obviously the player would need to be great, but the next challenger doesn’t need to be a Steph-level revolutionary.
Let’s just start with his early career as the example. Curry was sixth in the NBA with 166 made 3-pointers in 80 games. Jaylen Brown played 58 games and was 29th in the league with 163 last season. The NBA leader in the 2009-10 season was Aaron Brooks, with 209. That, last season, would have put him seventh in the league, 128 behind Curry, the league leader with 337.
Curry set the single-season record, at the time, in 2012-13 with 272. That's now the 13th-best single-season total in NBA history. Four players had more than that in 2019 alone. Curry’s 402 is the record.
But as you can see, Curry is the guy who really was at the forefront of the 3-point revolution, which means the slow start, along with some injuries that have robbed him of time, mean this record could have been broken sooner. Curry will retire someday with a ridiculous record and, somehow, questions about what if?
No one would ever consider Buddy Hield to be on Curry’s level as a basketball player, but he can shoot. He has three of the top 14 3-point totals of all time. Ray Allen, the man whose record Curry just broke, is only in the top FIFTY twice.
Attitudes have changed so much even since Curry came into the league that, provided there are no rules changes to mess with the point totals or shot distances, there is ample opportunity for a lesser player to come along and just amass the sheer volume necessary to challenge the record.
Even just looking at Jayson Tatum’s shooting, which no one would confuse with Curry’s, shows you how the pace will continue to produce monster shooting totals. Through 28 games of their fifth seasons, Curry had 728 3-pointers to Tatum’s 677. It’s a healthy lead, but Tatum isn’t way off the pace. In fact, if Tatum had just made his career average to this point, he’d have 11 more 3’s and the gap would be even closer.
But Tatum is on pace to take nearly 700 3-pointers this season, a mark Curry didn’t hit his seventh season … and he’s FOURTH in the NBA in total attempts and TENTH in attempts per game.
Anthony Edwards, the second-year star for the Minnesota Timberwolves, hit 171 3-pointers in his rookie season, which was 10-games shorter than Curry’s. He made five more than Curry did in that first season, despite shooting 32.9% to Curry’s 43.7%.
Eventually, the volume kicked in and Curry’s ability led to some monster totals that fueled this record. Edwards isn’t going to be a candidate to be hugging Curry the broadcaster on a night like this 14 years from now.
But the point here is that the volume is so much higher than Curry’s early years that a good shooter walking into the league right now with a green light can essentially get a big head start on this record. The only question would be whether that player would have the longevity enough to make that kind of run.
Reggie Miller said on the broadcast that some first grader would be the guy to challenge Curry, implying that there is no one even remotely close around the league right now.
He’s only partly right.
Curry is a basketball phenom who changed the NBA forever. He is the yin to Wilt Chamberlain’s yang; the slight guard instead of the powerful beast who stretched the court’s dimensions. Chamberlain literally widened the lane while Curry redefined shooting range out past the hash marks and onto the logo. He is a revolutionary.
And it is that revolution of attitude that could serve as the undoing of his record. Just in the game against New York, Nemanja Bejelica casually pulled up from 28 feet in a six-point game. While some of the game’s current greats have recently caught on to this trend, the young players now already in the pipeline are starting with this mentality.
Will the record be broken? Of course it will, even if Curry spends a few more years padding the number. Because somewhere along the way, someone will start a career putting up the level of shots Curry found mid-stream. They have to be great, but not necessarily Curry-level at making them to make a real run at the record.