Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry is only 10 three-pointers made away from fulfilling what always felt like his destiny: breaking the all-time three-point record.
Curry has the opportunity to overtake Ray Allen as the NBA’s three-point king Saturday night when his Golden State Warriors take on the Philadelphia 76ers (at 8:30 p.m. ET on Sportsnet 360).
Although 10 triples in a game is a fair margin, Curry has a good shot at doing so because has managed to go off for 10 or more deep balls in a contest 22 times in his career, by far the most of any player in NBA history (second place on the list his Warriors teammate Klay Thompson, who has six games of 10 or more threes, including the all-time single-game record of 14).
NBA on TNT's Kenny Smith joined @timandfriends to discuss Steph Curry's quest to become the NBA's most prolific 3-point shooter. pic.twitter.com/en0DmgGHCB
— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) December 9, 2021
Against a 76ers team that ranks only 20th in the league defending the three-point shot, allowing teams to shoot 35.6 per cent from deep, it’s expected that Curry will have his opportunities. Last time he played – a 104-94 Warriors win over the Portland Trail Blazers – he put up 17 triples but only made six of them as he looked eager to hit the record which was 16 bombs away.
Within 10 now, though, it should be that much easier for the two-time MVP who's on track for a third with his stellar play for a Warriors team that looks as dominant as the teams that won three titles and made five straight Finals between 2015 and 2019.
But as spectacular as Curry’s career has been thus far, it didn’t have the most auspicious of starts. Ankle injury issues dating back to his remarkable three-season career at mid-major program Davidson looked to threaten his career and possibly lead to one of the greatest “what ifs” in sports as his three-point marksmanship was unquestioned, even as a rookie.
Thankfully, Curry managed to overcome those early injury woes and then, with the hiring of Steve Kerr as the team’s new head coach in 2014, everything changed for Curry as Kerr implanted a new, more free offensive scheme, allowing Curry to take more triples than he ever did before – especially off the dribble and early in the shot clock.
This shift unleashed Curry and turned him into the player he has since become, earning him his MVP honours and, most importantly, leading to tremendous team success for the Warriors.
The shift to the Kerr era of the Warriors led to Curry putting up more threes and taking deeper attempts as well, paving the way to how we now view the three-point shot in a modern sense.
Buzzer beaters, the Stephen Curry way pic.twitter.com/YzTweLR0xo
— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) December 7, 2021
It’s because of this, as crazy as it may sound at first, that Draymond Green believes whatever Curry sets as the record by the time he retires will inevitably be broken.
“Steph Curry's three-point record will 100 per cent be broken,” Green said on his podcast, The Draymond Green Show, recently. “From the time he is done playing, it will probably only take someone 5-6 more years to break that record, if that.
“Reason being, Trae Young comes into the NBA attempting six or seven three-pointers per game, Donovan Mitchell comes into the NBA attempting six or seven three-pointers per game. Steph Curry came into the NBA attempting two to three per game because it's just a totally different ball game, in large part due to Steph Curry and Klay Thompson and the ways those guys shot the basketball. It totally changed the way the game is played just by the way Steph Curry and Klay Thompson have been playing the game all this time.
“When I look back on the 10 years that I have been here, most people, especially in the analytical department, didn't think Steph Curry shot enough threes. To this day, they still don't think Steph Curry shoots enough threes. That just goes to show you where the game is going and why his record will be broken probably within 5-6 years of him playing the game.”
At 33 years old, while Curry is certainly no spring chicken, it’s unlikely he’ll be looking to retire anytime soon. Thus, given the fact he’s averaged roughly 4-5 triples per game since the 2013-14 season, Curry’s record will be tough to beat even with young sharpshooting stars like Young and Mitchell coming in and attempting a ton of threes to begin their careers.
Allen currently holds it at 2,973. So what will Curry’s end up as? 3,500? Maybe even 4,000? No matter how the game has shifted, it will be a metric ton to try to catch up to.
