The Slow Build Before the Explosion
Growth in three-point volume was gradual through the 1990s and early 2000s, then accelerated. Mike D'Antoni's Phoenix Suns pushed the pace in the mid-2000s, leading the league with 24.7 three-point attempts a game in 2004-05, 25.6 in 2005-06, and 24.0 in 2006-07, numbers that looked extreme at the time but read as ordinary within a decade. League-wide attempts climbed from 15.8 per game in 2004 to 18.1 by 2008. By 2014-15, the Golden State Warriors, already stacked with shooters, averaged 27.0 attempts a game, and that figure ranked only fifth in the league, a sign the whole sport was catching up at once. League average hit 32.0 attempts a game by 2018-19.
