I was looking at Stockton's stats and over a four season stretch in his early to mid 30s, he averaged about 43% from 3. But he took less than 2.5 three pt shots per game. A basketball generation later, Steve Nash averaged 43% from three for his CAREER. Yet the most attempts he ever took in a season was 4.7 (he averaged 3.2 for his career). There were over 80 players in the NBA last year that averaged more than 4.7 threes per game.

It isn't like the value of the three point shot was a mystery or you needed an advanced stats specialist on your staff to figure it out. When the NBA added the 3 pt line in 79, commentators would state the obvious — "if you make 33% of your threes, you are really shooting 50%" — and back then 50% for anyone would have been a fantastic %. Larry Bird said guys back in the 80s didn't even practice taking threes and didn't defend against them. It was all about pounding the ball inside. How is it that it never occurred to any coach back then that a couple of good three point shooters would create space for everybody else? Weird.