By Jack Baer/ Yahoo Sports
Stephen Curry is now owner of the second spot on the NBA’s all-time 3-pointers list, and it should only be a matter of time until he’s knocking on first.
The Golden State Warriors star passed Reggie Miller on Saturday with the 2,561st 3-pointer of his career, scored early in the third quarter against the Utah Jazz. Curry eventually finished with 2,562 career 3-point makes, going 5-for-10 from deep with 24 points, 7 assists and 7 rebounds in a 127-108 loss.
Only Ray Allen sits ahead of Curry on the list, with a record of 2,973.
At Curry’s current rate of about 4.1 3-pointers made per game since the 2012-13 season, it would take him only 101 games to pass the Hall of Famer. If you use his rate of 4.6 per game since 2015-16, that number goes down to 90. Either way, Curry is on track to break the record sometime next season barring injury or an inexplicable loss of form.
Allen might be ahead of Curry (for now), but it’s hard to argue that Curry hasn’t surpassed him as the preeminent shooter in NBA history.
Allen made his 2,973 3-pointers over the course of an 18-year career. Curry is on track to pass him in Year 13, despite losing significant chunks of multiple seasons to injury. Allen played 1,300 games, Curry just wrapped up his 715th.
Allen shot 40.0% from deep for his career, while Miller shot 39.5%. Curry has shot 43.3% in his career. In fact, you have to go all the way down to Hubert Davis at 205th on the all-time 3-point list to find a player who made 3-pointers at a greater rate than Curry (other players with a higher career 3-point rate than Curry: his brother Seth Curry and coach Steve Kerr).
Curry already owns the all-time single season record for 3-pointers as well, with 402 in his unanimous MVP year in 2015-16. Four other spots on the all-time top 10 belong to him.
No player in NBA history comes close to combining accuracy and volume at the 3-point line like Curry. He might be doing it in the most 3-point-happy era in basketball history, but it was Curry himself who helped usher the NBA into that era, and it should be Curry who retires with the clear title of the NBA’s greatest shooter.
