Are the Brooklyn Nets the best 3-point shooting team ever?

The Brooklyn Nets haven’t been at full strength many games this season, but the team has been playing well recently, going 8-2 over the last 10 games. While the team’s defense has improved a bit lately, the general formula — great offense and bad defense — has remained the same.

Brooklyn has the league’s No. 2 offense, scoring 117.7 points per 100 possessions — a mark that would be the best in recorded NBA history over an entire season (topping the Dallas Mavericks’s 115.9 last season). It’s worth noting that three other teams — the Milwaukee Bucks (118.0), LA Clippers (117.1) and Utah Jazz (117.0) are in position to break the record as well.

While the Nets’ offense has been impressive across several statistical categories, the team’s 3-point shooting has been particularly noteworthy. Brooklyn is not only shooting 40.4 percent from three (2nd only to Clippers’s – 42.0 percent), it’s doing so on a hefty number of 3-point attempts. 43.1 percent of the team’s shot attempts have come from downtown, 7th-highest in the NBA.

If the offense can keep this up, it would be the first NBA team to enter the “40-40 Club” — shoot at least 40 percent from three AND attempt at least 40 percent of their shots from downtown. No other squad is currently in position to do so.

Could the 2020-21 Brooklyn Nets be the best 3-point shooting team ever?

Have any teams ever gotten close to meeting the 40-40 Club criteria? Since the 3-point line was introduced in 1979-80, only six teams have shot at least 40 percent from downtown. The most recent squad was the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors, who went a record 73-9 in the regular season before falling to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Finals. With a 3-point attempt rate of 37.8 percent, none of the six teams have gotten closer to “40-40” status.

Charlotte Hornets: 1996-97 (42.8 percent 3-point percentage, 21.9 percent 3PA rate)

Phoenix Suns: 2009-10 (41.2, 26.1)

Golden State Warriors: 2012-13 (40.3, 24.2)

San Antonio Spurs: 2013-14 (40.1, 26.9)

Golden State Warriors: 2014-15 (40.1, 32.2)

Golden State Warriors: 2015-16 (41.7, 37.8)

How many teams have posted 3-point attempt rates of at least 40 percent? And have any of these squads shot close to 40 percent from three? No NBA teams eclipsed the 40 percent 3-point attempt rate until 2016-17, when the Houston Rockets and Cleveland Cavaliers both did so.

2016-17: 2 teams

Houston Rockets (36.0 percent 3-point percentage, 48.7 percent 3PA rate), Cleveland Cavaliers (38.4, 41.8)

2017-18: 2 teams

Brooklyn Nets (36.0 percent, 43.6), Houston Rockets (36.5, 52.5)

2018-19: 5 teams

Closest to 40-40 Club: Houston Rockets (35.6, 42.0)

2019-20: 10 teams

Closest to 40-40 Club: Utah Jazz (38.0, 41.4)

Interestingly, the closest team to ever reaching the 40-40 Club appears to be the 2016-17 Cavaliers, who came up short with a 3-point percentage of 38.4 percent. While this team lost to the Warriors (who had added Kevin Durant in the offseason) in five games, some have argued this Cleveland squad has become underrated. The team’s 3-point prowess seems to support this line of thinking.

Conclusion

While Brooklyn is the only team currently positioned to enter the 40-40 Club if the season ended today (43.1, 40.4), it’s not the only squad with a chance to do so. The other notable contenders include the Jazz (39.6, 48.9), the Portland Trail Blazers (38.1, 46.0), the Toronto Raptors (38.3, 45.7), the Hornets (38.2, 41.1) and the Bucks (39.6, 40.9).

If the Nets do become the one and only team to ever meet these criteria, however, the team should be able to reasonably claim itself as the best 3-point shooting team ever.

(Credit to sports-reference, NBA.com and KenPom for statistics)