Golden State Warriors: Will anyone ever catch Stephen Curry for the 3-point record?

Young Gunners

If you are looking for a pure gunner with the volume to rival Stephen Curry’s, you want to look at the talent in South Beach. Duncan Robinson has gone from undrafted to on fire, hitting 270 3-pointers last year in just his second season in the league. He would need to maintain his volume and have a few seasons where he blows the top off as well; 270 may be the 12-highest total in league history, but it’s also 132 off of Curry’s best season. Already 26, Robinson’s late start likely holds him back.

To catch Curry, we likely have to find a player who started off as a volume shooter at such a young age to have a shot at catching up to Curry. For all of his excellence, Curry can’t change the fact that he was 21 during his rookie season, nor that he has missed large amounts of three seasons due to injury.

Three candidates in the league could potentially fit this profile. Donovan Mitchell is not the first player one thinks of when discussing elite shooters, but he has averaged a robust 2.5 3-pointers made per game over his career, eighth-most all-time. Curry did not get to that mark until his fourth season, so Mitchell is ahead of the curve. He will need to grow that area of his game, and he also was 21 as a rookie, but he has started strong.

Luka Doncic is another candidate here. To maintain the requisite volume a player needs to be star-level through into their 30s, and Doncic is already playing at an MVP-level at 21 and should do so for the next decade or more. At the same age Curry and Mitchell began their careers, Doncic already had 339 career triples to get him started. The problem for him is that he is not a very good 3-point shooter yet, a career 31.7 percent shooter from deep. If he can grow as a shooter he will have the opportunity to push for career records.

Finally, the player billed as the next Stephen Curry: Trae Young. He built on an inefficient rookie year to have a much better sophomore year from deep, hitting 3.4 triples per game. That’s the kind of growth he would need to make a run at Curry’s career numbers. Yet thus far in 2020-21 he has taken a step back in volume and accuracy, dipping to just 2.1 3-pointers per game. Young will need health and a desire to gun from outside, but his shot form and play style are positives in helping him along that path.