Stephen Curry Should Become The NBA’s All-Time Three Point Leader In Four Seasons

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Stephen Curry added another piece of three point shooting history on Monday night.

The former two-time NBA Most Valuable Player award winner sank the 2,000th three point basket of his career against the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday:

Stephen Curry followed up the no-look layup by making his 2,000th career three-pointer!#DubNation pic.twitter.com/jjjmzVqEUQ

— Def Pen Hoops (@DefPenHoops) December 5, 2017

With that three pointer, Stephen Curry becomes the 8th player in NBA history to make at least 2,000 three pointers in his NBA career. The other NBA players who have made at least 2,000 three balls in their careers are Vince Carter ( 2,057 ), Jamal Crawford ( 2,079 ), Kyle Korver ( 2,109 ), Paul Pierce ( 2,143 ), Jason Terry ( 2,243 ), Reggie Miller ( 2,560 ) and Ray Allen ( 2,973 ).

The Chase

But Curry didn’t just become a member of that exclusive club, he also becomes the fastest player to achieve the feat. Curry made his 2,000th three pointer in his 597th NBA game, breaking Ray Allen’s previous record by a remarkable 225 games. This is how the others got to the 2,000 three pointers club:

With this remarkable pace, it’s very likely that Stephen Curry is going to break Ray Allen’s All-Time three point mark before he calls it a career. Sure, he still has seven more players to pass to get there, but it’s very doable, given he is only 29 years old right now. Barring any serious injury, Stephen Curry is going to own that record, just as he has obliterated so many three point shooting records already.

Among the players in the list that Curry is chasing, only Pierce, Miller and Allen are retired. The other members of the exclusive 2,000 three pointers club are still playing in the NBA right now. This means that Curry’s chase for the ultimate three point record is a live one because he is chasing active players along the way. Check out how the other active members of the club are doing this season:

Steph Curry has made 83-218 three pointers this season. His 83 makes are third most in the league behind James Harden ( 98 ) and teammate Klay Thompson ( 86 ). Curry’s 218 three point attempts rank 2nd to Harden ( 242 ) as is Curry’s per game average of 3.6 made three pointers which is right next to Beard’s ( 4.5 ) three point output per contest.

Unlucky Injury

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Unluckily for Curry, he hurt his ankle on the same game he reached the 2,000 plateau. But luckily, the MRI was negative. ESPN reports though that the size of the swelling is that of a baseball and Steph is going to miss a significant number of games. According to the ESPN report, Curry is likely out until ‘late December.’

The Warriors have 12 more games on schedule until the end of the year so if Curry misses the rest of the year with the ankle injury, he will have missed a total of 14 games for 2017. Assuming he’s healthy the rest of the way and he rests a couple of games along the way, it’s safe that Curry will play a total of 65 games this season. Deduct the 23 games he’s already played, he will probably still play 42 more games this season.

At his current 3.6 three point makes per game, Curry will hit another 151 three pointers when he comes back. Add that to his current total of 83, then Curry is likely to finish with 234 this season and 2,151 career total at season’s end.

Passing Kyle Korver

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Among the current leaders, only Korver and Crawford are going to at least keep pace with Curry’s production this year. Korver has never played less than 65 games in a season since 2010. So if he plays 65 games this season, he’s probably going to end up with 100 more three pointers from hereon going forward ( 65-25 games played = 40 games x 2.5 3PM per game) or 2,209 career total ( 2,109 + 100 ).

Jamal Crawford has also never played below 64 games since 2015 and if we use the same base figure for him, Crawford will hit an additional of 48 more three pointers till the end of the season or a total of 2,128 ( 2,080 +48 ) career total by season’s end. This means that it’s likely Steph Curry is going to pass Crawford this season but not Korver, at least not yet.

If we base our 2018-19 computation on this year’s production, Cury makes 1.1 three pointers per game than Korver. If that’s the difference in per game three point makes, Curry is going to make up for their estimated career difference of 58 ( estimated 2,209 for Korver less estimated 2,151 for Curry ) in about 53 games ( 58 divided by 1.1 ). So most likely, Steph Curry is going to pass Korver next season.

Catching Ray Allen

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We projected Curry to make 234 three pointers this season ( 3.6 three pointers @ 65 games played ). If he makes the same number of threes next season, he’ll probably have around 2,385 career three pointers at the end of the 2018-19 season. That should push him up to #3 on the all-time list at age 31, passing Paul Pierce ( 2,143 ) and Jason Terry ( 2,243 ).

By then, Curry will be around 175 threes shy of Reggie Miller and considering he would be about to reach his prime by that period, he’ll still most likely make around 234 threes during the 2019-20 season. That’s going to put him at #2 probably at the latter stages of that season. With Miller out of his way, the challenge now would be Ray Allen’s 2,973.

Using the same 234 three point makes until the 2019-20 season, Curry is likely going to be at around 2,619 by then or 354 short of Ray Allen’s mark. Another 234 will give him 2853 at the end of 2020-21. If that’s the case, then Steph Curry should safely pass Ray Allen during the 2021-2022 season or when he is 34 years old. That’s four seasons from now and a long way to go. Let’s just hope and pray that he is going to be healthy and doesn’t suffer any serious injury along the way.

The Best Ever

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Stephen Curry has broken the single season three point record three times, breaking his own records. He is the only player in NBA history to make 400 three pointers in a single season, he made a record 402 in 2015-16. Heck no other player has even made 300 threes in one season yet. He’s been faster to reach all the three point milestones than anybody in history.

Like it or not, Stephen Curry is the best three point shooter of all-time. He may even be the greatest shooter of all-time. Sure, he’s going to share some of the shooting and scoring load with Kevin Durant but given how they played beautifully together for over a season now, Durant’s presence isn’t going to derail Curry’s chase for the all-time three point record.

Given that he already owns a handful and continues to make a mockery of the NBA’s three point records with his incredible pace, there’s no doubt that Stephen Curry is going to be the NBA’s all-time three point leader long before his career is going to be over.