Data analytics for sports arose at the turn of the century. Since then, there has been no looking back. Each year, teams turn to analytics to help them assemble assemble rosters, create strategies, and alter gameplans. One major change that has come about, is the increased popularity of three point shooting. Every year, teams are taking more three point attempts, while decreasing the number of 'inefficient' mid-range shots that they take. Just how many more threes are being taken? We collected the shot locations of the top players at each position for the years 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016, to see if there are any noticeable trends. The shot locations were used to create a heatmap of shots. A higher frequency of shots occurs at darker locations. On the other hand, lower frequency occurs at ligher locations.
(Data for shot locations was collected from stats.nba.com, link in design doc.)
Threes have almost become a necessity to be successful in the league. Three point machine Steph Curry takes an astonishing 11.1 attempts a game in 2016, 3 more than his previous high. Likewise, players such as Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson, are taking more threes than they have ever before. Kawhi Leonard has seen his rise to stardom come with his ability to make three point shots at an elite percentage. The exception on this graph is Lebron James, who remains a superstar despite having lost his three point stroke.
(Data for this chart is from basketball-reference.com, link in design doc)
Is having a three point driven offense, the only way for a team to be succesful in the league? In the next graph we explore this question to see if teams attempting more threes have a higher Offensive Rating. To put it simply, offensive rating is how many points a team scores in 100 possessions. We see that there is a slight trend upward.
(Data for this chart is from basketball-reference.com, link in design doc)