Top 5 NBA Players Who Made The Most Three-Pointers

Introduction

Three-pointers are the best and most efficient way of racking up points for your team, so it’s no surprise that NBA players are often ranked by how many they hit. When you consider how many three-pointers a player hits when compared to how many they attempted, you can figure out how reliable they are at scoring from behind the three-point line.

Here we are looking at five of the NBA’s top three-point scorers. Some of them are still in the game today, and will no doubt climb higher up the rankings as the season’s pass, while others are basketball legends who have left the sport. For those who are still in the game, consider supporting them when you’re next looking at Fanduel’s NBA odds.

1. Ray Allen

Having played 18 seasons before retiring in 2014, Ray Allen leads the NBA in career three-pointers at 2,973. That’s out of 7,429 attempts, making his three-point percentage 40%. That’s pretty good for a player that played almost 20 years of basketball and is now retired.

Anybody who followed basketball in the late 90s to early 2010s would have seen this coming, as he was regularly celebrated for his outside shooting abilities on the court. Allen played for the Milwaukee Bucks, the Seattle SuperSonics, the Boston Celtics, and the Miami Heat, racking up many accolades as he went. At his peak performance with the Sonics, he was scoring 26 points per game.

For example, Allen won an Olympic gold medal as part of the 2000 US men’s basketball team. He was also designated NBA All-Star 10 times, for more than half of his played seasons. Now coaching children in basketball, Allen was a talented player who is best remembered for this three-point shooting.

2. Stephen Curry

As one of the biggest names in the NBA right this moment, Stephen Curry is our first active player on this list. Naturally, that means some of the figures here may change when the next seasons are played. In fact, Curry is just 15 three-pointers away from passing Ray Allen’s record, so we’d say it’s a sure thing.

As it stands, Stephen Curry has made 2,958 three-pointers after attempting 6,860 of them, which is a percentage of 43% of three-pointers made. The start of his 2021 season was celebrated for an even better three-pointer record than his usual seasons. Having only played 13 of them, he should have several great seasons in him going forward.

3. Reggie Miller

At 2,560 three-pointers scored, Reggie Miller is third in the entire NBA for making shots from behind the three-point line. Over the course of his 18-year career, roughly the same span of time as Ray Allen’s career, he attempted 6,486 three-pointers and made 39% of them. While that falls short of Ray Allen and Stephen Curry, it should be noted that other players hovered around 14% during Miller’s career.

Miller was famous for his less-than-graceful shooting performance. While his form was off, the results of his messy points shooting can’t be denied, and this made for a unique player whose talent and strategy couldn’t be replicated. During Ray Allen’s Hall of Fame speech, he even conceded that Miller was the best shooter that Allen had ever witnessed.

Though his record has since been beaten by the likes of Steph Curry, Miller still holds one of the NBA’s most legendary scoring performances. In a 1995 game for the Indiana Pacers, Miller scored 8 points in 9 seconds against the New York Knicks. He did this by scoring two three-pointers in rapid succession, then hitting the two following throws as well.

4. James Harden

Often called the best shooting guard in the NBA, James Harden of Houston Rockets fame (and now starting with the Brooklyn Nets in 2021) is our next best three-point scorer. So far, he has 2,503 three-pointers after 13 seasons played. He has attempted 6,895, which is more than Curry and a lot for somebody that isn’t at the end of their career yet. Harden is hungry for three-pointers, attempting them more often and racking up more three-pointer fouls than entire teams.

His 2021 season with the Brooklyn Nets has seen his three-pointer crusade continue. Having already attempted more three-pointers than anybody else on this list, he may beat Ray Allen, Steph Curry, and Reggie Miller through attrition.

5. Kyle Korver

Our last best NBA three-point scorer is Kyle Korver, who has played 17 seasons and has made 2,450 three-pointers during that time. That’s out of 5,715 attempts, meaning he has the best three-point percentage, one of the best on this list at 42%. He was closer to the top a few years ago but has been upset by Steph Curry and James Harden in recent years.

Still, he’s made his mark by leading the league in three-point percentage four times throughout his career and will again if Curry misses a few shots down the line. Korver’s future in the NBA has been questioned after he didn’t sign on for the 2021 season but has also not announced his retirement.