21st in Attempted Threes… 6th in Made Threes
Last season, the Denver Nuggets were the epitome of an average three-point shooting team in the NBA. As a team in 2021-2022, they were 14th in 3FGM (12.7), 13th in 3FGA (35.9), and 16th in 3FG% (35.5%). This year appears to be very different for the Nuggets however. With the returns of Michael Porter Jr and Jamal Murray, as well as the off-season additions of Kentavious Caldwell Pope and Bruce Brown, Denver has been the most efficient deep scoring team in the league. As a team they are shooting a legendary 42.6% from beyond the arc.
Clearly the team as a whole is elite through 9 games from deep, but which players specifically are doing the heavy lifting for the #1 ranked 3FG% team in the NBA? Quite honestly, every non-big is shooting incredibly well. The NBA league average for 3FG% so far this season is 35.8% and the only guard/wing not crushing that mark for Denver is rookie Christian Braun, who is still shooting an average 35.7%. Jamal Murray is shooting a solid 38.5% from three and every other guard/wing on the roster is at 40%+. The three leaders in terms of made threes this season are making threes at a clip of 49.2% (Michael Porter Jr.), 50.0% (Bones Hyland), and 53.8% (Kentavious Caldwell-Pope).
Which Teams Hold the Best 3FG% in NBA History?
When looking at the most efficient three-point shooting teams in history, there are four main teams to look at. The first team that comes to mind, is the 73-9 Golden State Warriors with peak Splash Bro performances by Steph Curry and Klay Thompson. In 2015-2016 the Warriors shot 41.6% from three on 31.6 attempts per game.
Moving on to technically the best team 3FG% performance for a season is the 1996-1997 Charlotte Hornets, featuring Glen Rice, Dell Curry, Tony Delk, Muggsy Bouges, Ricky Pierce, and Anthony Goldwire. As a team, they shot 42.8% on the year, but this was also on just 16.9 attempts per game so there may be a bit of an asterisk on this record.
The 2009-2010 Phoenix Suns are the other slightly older team who are on this list. Led in threes by the likes of Channing Frye, Jason Richardson, Steve Nash, and Jared Dudley, the Suns shot 41.2% from beyond the arc on the season and they did so on 21.6 attempts per game.
The final team worth mentioning, although not listed in the top 3 of all-time is the 2020-2021 Los Angeles Clippers, who are the most recent team to shoot above 40% from three for a full season. Led by Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Marcus Morris, Reggie Jackson, Nicolas Batum, and Luke Kennard, they shot 41.1% from deep on 34.7 attempts per game. This Clippers team did eventually get beat by the Denver in the playoffs, so the Nuggets will look to top the Clippers once again if they can keep their 3FG% this high the remainder of the season.
