NBA basketball changed immensely between the 1979-80 season –the year the three-point line was implemented– and the 2016-17 campaign. Players are attempting (and making) many more triples and scoring less points around the basket, A.K.A. the paint or post. Most players who attempted three pointers were point guards, shooting guards and a few small forwards. Those players are usually smaller and quicker than power forwards and centers and score more points from the perimeter than the latter two positions.
The three-point line was unpopular among players when it was introduced because many had to adjust their approach to the game and weren’t comfortable taking a triple unless it was absolutely necessary. But as time passed, players developed a rhythm and realized its importance to the sport, so the number of triples sky rocketed. There are several reasons this transformation happened.
The game is a lot less physical than it used to be, mostly because of rule changes like eliminating hand checking, which let defenders have both of their hands on opposing players at all times. This rule was done away with in the 1994-95 season, which is roughly the time when the concept of the stretch 4, a power forward who can stretch defenses with three-point range, was becoming a staple in the NBA.
The Houston Rockets won the championship that season because they put four shooters on the court at the same time as their legendary center Hakeem Olajuwon, which opened up driving lanes for guards and allowed for Olajuwon to pass out of the post when he got double teamed. At the time, only a handful of teams played like this, but now, almost every squad implements this strategy.
To show just how important the three-point shot is to modern basketball, 12 of the 16 teams that made the playoffs (out of 30 total) in the 2016-17 season had the best percentage of three-point field goals in the league. And nine of those 16 teams led in three point makes. By comparison, only five playoff teams in 1979-80 were in the top 12 –that was how many teams made the post season that year because there were 22 teams in the NBA– for three-point percentage. And only five playoff teams were in the top 12 for most made three pointers. This trend is also reflected in averages.
The league average for three point makes per team in the 1979-80 season was 64, which is 0.78 per game. To put that in perspective, that number in the 2016-17 campaign was 792, which translates to 9.65 triples a game. The chart below shows the league average for three pointers made per season and its percentage from that territory.
What’s interesting, though, is that the increase of three pointers has not affected overall scoring. In fact, in the 2016-17 season, teams averaged less points (8,658 for the year, roughly 105.6 points a game) than in 1979-80 (8,965 for the season, 109.3 points a contest).
That’s because teams got more points closer to the basket and from the free throw line in the latter season.
The impact of the triple can also be seen on an individual level. When the three-point line made its debut, the league leader for made triples was Brian Taylor, who drained 90, which is 1.09 a contest. The leader in the 2016-17 season was Stephen Curry, who made 324 three pointers, which is 4.1 per game. Making 3s is crucial to having a successful team, but so is defending the three-point line.
The league average for three-point field goal percentage in the 2016-17 regular season was 35.8 percent. 12 of the teams that made the playoffs held squads below that mark, ranging from 32.4 percent to 35.7 percent in opponent’s three point field goal percentage.
To compare that, in 1979-80, the average three-point field goal percentage was 28 percent. And seven playoff teams were in the top 12 for defending the three-point line, ranging from 23.8 percent to 27.1 percent. The triple was not as much of a factor as it is now, so that’s also one reason the accuracy was much lower in the 1979-80 season.
Something to keep an eye out for is if teams eventually attempt more three pointers than two pointers. It might not be far off, as teams like the Houston Rockets and Cleveland Cavaliers took 46.1 percent and 40.1 percent of their shots from deep, respectively.
For season comparison statistics, I got my information from basketball reference here: https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2017.html#all_team_shooting and here: https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_1980.html#all_team-stats-base
For the amount of three pointers players made per game and for rule changes in the NBA, I went here: https://stats.nba.com/leaders/?Season=2016-17&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&StatCategory=FG3M and here: http://www.nba.com/analysis/rules_history.html
For how the game changed in the 1994-95 season, I went here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2015/05/08/stretch-4s-how-rudy-tomjanovic-and-robert-horry-radically-changed-nba-offenses/?utm_term=.d681c31bbc88
For the teams’ rates of three pointers, I went here: https://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/three-point-rate?date=2017-06-13