BY HENRY ABBOTT

Now that Stephen Curry has made glorious history by breaking Ray Allen’s record for career 3-pointers, it’s worth addressing the real matter at hand: How many times did NBA TV air that special they made about Steph? 

It culminates in a moment when Steph muses about who might one day surpass his own 3-point shooting totals. He mentions James Harden, Klay Thompson, Damian Lillard, and Buddy Hield. His interviewer, Reggie Miller, who held the title himself for more than a decade, cuts Curry off. 

“NO ONE IS COMING FOR THE CROWN!!” insists Reggie. Curry talks about somebody watching, who might be in the second grade. Reggie interjects again, culminating in announcing, at a shout, that “THIS IS ONE RECORD THAT WILL NEVER, YOU HEARD IT—NEVER—BE TOUCHED.”

David Thorpe: “I don’t think that’s a smart thing to say.”

Everyone knows Stephen Curry is epic, life-changing, game-changing, and the greatest shooter of all time. (He is in my top five of all time.) And I love the point Steve Kerr made: Curry broke Ray Allen’s record in an NBA that has changed league to truly embrace 3-pointers. Ray didn’t have that. Credit Curry, though—along with Kerr, Mike D’Antoni, and many others—with the change. Steph didn’t inherit a league that loved 3s, he made one.

Anyone who might want to threaten Steph’s record gets to enjoy that. Back when Steph was at Charlotte Christian, nobody in America averaged four made 3-pointers a game, however many shooters had the skill, almost none had coaches who’d embrace that many attempts. Then Curry started winning titles draining 3s off the dribble a step over half-court, and he lit the world on fire. Players started practicing the long ball in giant numbers. By the time Trae Young was a high-schooler in 2016, thirty high-schoolers averaged four made 3s a game. Coaches are giving shooters green lights.

Not to mention, for all of his gifts, Curry also had some barriers in getting to this record. He played three years at Davidson, costing him two NBA seasons. He was injured a lot in his early career. And he was 27 years old the first time his coach really turned him loose to shoot a proper number of 3s. With an enlightened coach from the start, a few extra years to add to the total, and better health, who knows what his career total could be. There are plenty of candidates in the pipeline, they won’t all face those constraints.

This season, 38 players have better 3-point percentages than Curry, and some—like Devin Booker—are young and have very green lights. Even if none of the next generation of shooters is anything like as good as Steph, a giant pipeline of competitors is reason enough to bet the field. Trae Young has never had an NBA 3-point shooting season anything like Curry’s best, but he started shooting NBA 3s at 20 instead of 21. Joshua Primo is a lights-out shooter who joined the NBA at age 18. Right now, he happens not to play on a team that has him shooting much, but that could change, or another Primo will come along. 

Unless … there is one other possibility. Curry drained a lot of those 3s against defenses that believed 3-pointers were gimmicky. Many of his opponents featured plodding big men who could offer no resistance. One of the tricks the Warriors exploited was ignorance about the magical power of the 3. 

The league is not ignorant any more. Primo might never play against a defense that dares him to shoot. Now almost every NBA defense patrols the perimeter with purpose, almost every big man can race out to the perimeter. And we see an emerging class of fast, long defenders—Matisse Thybulle, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luguentz Dort—who delight in stymying 3-point shooters. 

There were a few years when Michael Jordan was the best athlete in the history of the sport, flying over guys who didn’t lift weights. Then the whole league learned and got super athletic, and nobody could jump over everybody, because everybody could jump. It might be that the conditions that allowed Steph to hit 400 3s per season will never exist again, and that clean looks will become ever harder to find. 

Interestingly, the numbers of high-schoolers averaging 4 made 3s a game has come down from 30 five years ago, to 19. If you watch, many more of those shots appear to be contested. If defenses have figured some things out about 3s, history might prove Reggie Miller correct. But in the end, the area behind the 3-point line (unlike the area under the rim) is vast. Shooters are spread all over the court, and have learned slick dribble moves from watching tape of Curry. The defense can’t focus on all of it. With dozens of young shooters set to join the NBA in the years to come, my bet is this record will eventually fall, probably to someone who is watching Steph video right now.

What is the correct amount of ball hogging?

An NBA game is like a shopping trip. But, instead of shopping with money, you spend possessions. Possessions (which are different from plays or attempts, it’s a long story) alternate all game, so both teams get almost exactly the same number over four quarters. The winner is whoever can bring home the most points on the same budget. 

Which puts attention on ball hogs. Your teammate’s heat check clanging off the high backboard is like leaving a fiver on the bathroom floor. It means we just can’t have as much nice stuff. 

In some kind of communist system, every player would take a fifth of the shots when they’re on the floor. In the very capitalist NBA, Luka Doncic takes close to double that. Which is … bad?

There will be no easy answers. Usage rate is a tough metric to think about. For some players using a ton of possessions makes more sense than others. But we do know that the higher the number is, the fewer possessions there are for your teammates. If they are especially bad at creating shots for themselves, it might be valuable to Iverson it up. If you play with Marcus Smart, and miss a lot, you might hear about it.

Taylor Snarr, who runs DunksandThrees.com and invented Estimated Plus-Minus, explains that “far-and-away the most impactful thing you can do on offense is score efficiently and frequently. High-usage players move the needle up and down pretty quickly relative to low-usage players, and players with unremarkable efficiency typically still help by creating for teammates or distracting the defense.”

A downside of using the ball all the time is that if the whole defense knows who’s going to shoot, it becomes a simple choice to send double teams and other help. Your team becomes easier to guard, which you can see in the data. If your team is good at finding open looks, you will probably have a good offense, and your almost-never-open star probably won’t lead the league in usage rate. 

And shooting like crazy can be a very quick way to hurt your team. “If you use a ton of possessions but have very poor efficiency you are very likely hurting your team regardless of anything else you do,” says Snarr. 

He adds that “unsung heroes are average usage guys that are super efficient, typically nice-finishing bigs.”

I have noticed that for the most part, the very best NBA teams throughout history often feature the best players, but tend not to feature the most ball-hoggy players. In the first part of this season, two teams have stood out: the Suns and Warriors, who have combined to win 45 of 55 games. Neither hogs the ball. Here are all of the players from those two teams in the NBA’s top 100 of usage rate. 

• 9th Devin Booker (Suns)

• 13th Stephen Curry (Warriors)

• 39th Cameron Payne (Suns)

• 52nd Jordan Poole (Warriors)

• 59th JaVale McGee (Suns)

• 62nd Andrew Wiggins (Warriors)

• 80th Jonathan Kuminga (Warriors)

• 99th Deandre Ayton (Suns)

NOTE: Chris Paul is not in the NBA’s top 100 in usage rate.

Flirting with trouble this early season are Luka Doncic, Joel Embiid, and Jayson Tatum. I don’t think it’s totally fair to compare them to secondary scorers like Mike Conley, John Collins, and Chris Paul. But if you’re trying to beat Steph’s team, and Steph is getting his team twice as many points per possession used, well, you’re making things hard. Some stars need more shots to fall, or to shoot less. 

Rick Carlisle would like you to know Luka not only can be 50 percent more effective, but was just last year, when his offensive production was far higher (5.3 compared to 3.6) and his usage rate was a little lower.

Secondary scorers like Conley and Collins being so high on this list says something about those players. And that it is smart for Donovan Mitchell and Trae Young to continue fighting the urge to shoot even more. Their teammates are killing it! Teammates performing at a high level is a great way to win.

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