For the first fifteen seasons of its existence, the three-point line was treated by most NBA coaches as a gimmick. In the 1979-80 season, the league's first with the shot, teams averaged just 2.8 three-point attempts a game across an entire roster, according to Basketball-Reference's year-by-year attempt totals. A player who spent practice time on that shot was usually seen as a specialist, not a building block. That view has reversed almost completely. By the 2021-22 season, NBA teams were putting up 35.8 three-pointers a night, more than twelve times the rate from four decades earlier.
The shift did not arrive at a steady pace. It came in bursts tied to specific coaches, front offices, and a change in how teams measured value on the floor. Reading the attempt data year by year explains why shooting range, not height or scoring average, is now the trait rosters get built around.
