How Steph Curry Made "Beyond the Arc" the New Midrange
The Warriors changed basketball. Steph Curry’s success and MVP seasons brought forth the 3-point revolution. He paved the way for scorers like James Harden to pick up their games, and inspired players like Trae Young to come into the league dropping 30-foot bombs like it was the playground. And still, he continues as the greatest shooter to ever do it.
That’s all common knowledge. When people say that the midrange is “dead”, it’s largely attributed to Steph’s hyper-efficient shot charts where midrange jumpers are eschewed for easier layups or stepback treys. Steph (an excellent midrange shooter still), however, didn’t kill the off-the-dribble midrange: He just brought it a few feet further away from the basket.
Let’s run it back to the 2013-2014 season, the last year of Mark Jackson’s tenure in Golden State. Back then, Curry was an all-star with potential but riddled with ankle issues. He lead the league in pull-up threes attempted per game with 5, making 2 of them. He was one of seven players who was attempting at least three pull-up triples a game. Fast forward to last season, 2020-2021, and there are now THIRTY players attempting three or more. That is a significant change in less than 10 years. Move that goalpost back, and you’ll see even more value added to the three point line.
The pull-up jumper used to be considered a midrange move, patented by Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. In 13-14, Kyrie Irving (a known Kobe aficionado) led the league in midrange field goals taken while dribbling prior to the shot, attempting 5 twos a game after dribbling 7+ times. That same year, Damian Lillard lead the league in threes with 7+ prior dribbles with 1.7. The league leader last year in threes taken of that nature was once again Lillard, who did attempted 4 per game. The expansion of the off-the-dribble shot to the outside is a new phenomenon, and while it still exists in the midrange, it’s prominence on the outside is responsible for a few more points per game.
It seems like, from the stats, that Lillard was the reason these shots became so popularized. And this is a fair thing to say just looking at the numbers. However, a check on the efficiency of these shots makes it clear Steph is the cause. In 20-21, Lillard shot 4 threes off 7+ dribbles good for 35%. Steph Curry took 2.4, but clipped in at an insane 50%. James Harden, the “stepback king”, took 3.6 and shot 36%. The volume difference in about a shot and a half per game, especially considering how insane Curry is off-ball and the sheer volume he already shoots at, is a negligible difference. Curry led the league in pull-up 3s attempted from 2014 to 2017, two of which he won MVP in. He showed people just how effective the shot was.
Really all you need is the eye test to see how Steph has revolutionized the three-point shot to have it be a skilled off-the-dribble attempt. Last season, ESPN’s Kirk Goldsberry created a graph showing that Curry shot 47% on 161 stepback threes. The next highest of players attempting over 100 stepbacks was Zach Lavine at 37%. Watching how he gets separation is mind-boggling. While some of these stats may seem cherrypicked, the NBA’s shot tracking database is public access, so it’s encouraged for people to check out the trends for themselves. No matter how much digging they do, however, the conclusion is the same: Steph Curry made the three-point shot the new midrange in an era where the midrange was presumably dead.
(Photo credit: Ezra Shaw / Getty images)