The Golden State Warriors are credited with revamping the league style of play with a focus on high efficiency shooting from beyond the arc. Specifically notable was their ability to exploit the corner 3, the shortest of the deepball attempts.
Per Kirk Goldsberry of ESPN:
In 2023, corner 3s are a major part of virtually every NBA offense. Despite the fact that the corners represent just a tiny fraction of the jump-shooting real estate on an NBA court, they now account for a whopping 19.6% of the league’s total jump shot attempts.
Aside from shots at the rim, the corner 3 is now the most common field goal attempt in the best basketball league in the world, and the best teams in the league know how to hunt out the shot’s efficiency — and exploit it to open up the rest of the court for the league’s biggest stars.
Here’s some fun facts to mull over for Dub Nation.
In the first championship season of the Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson “Splash Bro” era, the Warriors shot a blistering 45.3% from that area. That figure led the league by far (next closest were the San Antonio Spurs and Atlanta Hawks at 42.1%). The Dubs also took 6.2 attempts per game from those corner zones, which ranked outside of the top-10 of the NBA’s most frequent corner trey chuckers.
This year they shot 39.6% from corner threes, good enough for 11th in the league. They were ranked eighth in such attempts per game at 9.0. Curry hit a ridiculous 60% of his shots from that territory (39-of-65). Thompson hit 51-of-131 for 40% shooting.
Two years ago when they won their fourth title of the Splash Bros era, they shot 34.1% on corner threes, tied for dead last in the NBA with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
In 2018-2019, the last season they had Kevin Durant, they shot a blistering 42.5% from corner threes, good enough for fourth in the NBA.
In their championship winning 2016-2017 season they were 41.1% on corner threes, on 6.7 attempts per game.
In their 73-9 win season of 2015-2016 they shot 41.3% on corner triples, on 7.4 attempts per game.
Will the addition of pick-and-roll maestro Chris Paul this season help them generate more looks from this analytically tantalizing area of the court?