All data was scraped from www.basketball-reference.com. This data set includes players shooting statistics from the 1980-2020 season.

Note: 2020 season data is only through ~65 games

NBA teams have been attempting 3 pointers at a much higher rate in recent years than it’s adoption in 1980

Up until 1990, only 24 total teams attempted more than 500 3s and only one attempted more than a 1,000 3 pointers 

## # A tibble: 24 x 3
## # Groups:   Season [4]
##    Season Team  TeamThrees
##     <dbl> <chr>      <dbl>
##  1   1989 NYK         1147
##  2   1989 SAC          824
##  3   1989 SEA          774
##  4   1988 BOS          705
##  5   1989 DAL          681
##  6   1989 DEN          676
##  7   1989 LAL          667
##  8   1987 DAL          653
##  9   1989 PHI          646
## 10   1989 POR          645
## # ... with 14 more rows

Highest 3 point attempts by team and season

Season Team TeamThrees
2019 HOU 3721
2018 HOU 3470
2017 HOU 3306
2019 MIL 3134
2019 ATL 3034
2019 DAL 3002
2019 BRK 2965
2018 BRK 2924
2019 DET 2854
2020 HOU 2832

Highest number of 3 pointers made by teams in a season

Season Team Team_Threes_Made
2019 HOU 1323
2018 HOU 1256
2017 HOU 1181
2019 MIL 1105
2019 GSW 1087
2016 GSW 1077
2017 CLE 1067
2019 ATL 1067
2019 BRK 1047
2018 BRK 1041

Lowest number of 3 pointers made by teams in a season

Season Team Team_Threes_Made
1981 ATL 10
1983 LAL 10
1980 ATL 13
1981 DET 13
1982 LAL 13
1981 SAS 15
1981 LAL 17
1981 PHI 19
1980 LAL 20
1984 CHI 20

Lowest number of 3 pointers made by teams in the 2019 season

Season Team Team_Threes_Made
2019 CHI 745
2019 IND 779
2019 PHO 790
2019 MEM 811
2019 SAS 812
2019 LAC 821
2019 NYK 823
2019 MIN 827
2019 NOP 842
2019 CLE 847

The 2020 season came to halt roughly 65 games into the 82 game season. Despite the shortage of games, there are already 2020 teams that have made more 3 pointers than the lowest 3 pointer team from 2019

Season Team Team_Threes_Made
2020 DAL 1026
2020 HOU 986
2020 NOP 896
2020 MIL 893
2020 TOR 880
2020 MIA 868
2020 MIN 853
2020 UTA 843
2020 POR 829
2020 BRK 824

Players with the best 3 point percentage in a season with a minimum of 500 3 point attempts

Player Team Season 3PA 3P 3P%
Stephen Curry GSW 2013 600 272 45%
Stephen Curry GSW 2016 886 402 45%
Duncan Robinson MIA 2020 543 243 45%
Mitch Richmond* SAC 1996 515 225 44%
Peja Stojakovic NOH 2008 524 231 44%
Stephen Curry GSW 2015 646 286 44%
Klay Thompson GSW 2015 545 239 44%
Klay Thompson GSW 2018 521 229 44%
Stephen Curry GSW 2019 810 354 44%
Reggie Miller* IND 1997 536 229 43%

Who made a living off the 3 point shot? Percent_of_3PA_Over_FGA calculates the percentage of 3 pointers attempted in respect to total shots attempted

Player Team Season 3PA Percent_of_3PA_Over_FGA 3P%
Duncan Robinson MIA 2020 543 89% 45%
Shane Battier MIA 2013 316 87% 43%
Steve Novak NYK 2012 282 84% 47%
James Jones MIA 2011 287 83% 43%
Wayne Ellington MIA 2018 579 83% 39%
Ben McLemore HOU 2020 390 83% 40%
Steve Novak NYK 2013 351 82% 42%
Anthony Tolliver DET 2016 272 82% 36%
Quincy Acy BRK 2018 292 80% 35%
Troy Daniels PHO 2018 458 80% 40%