Atlanta Hawks on Verge of Historic Three-Point Shooting Achievement

The Atlanta Hawks are on the precipice of an astonishing three-point shooting feat that has been quite rare throughout NBA history.

In tonight’s game against the San Antonio Spurs, the Atlanta Hawks have a chance to can the team’s 1000th three-pointer as a team on the season.

While round numbers are often arbitrary, 1000 triples is definitely rarefied air in terms of volume three-point shooting. In fact, in NBA history, only 7 other teams have made 1000 or more three-pointers in a season. All of them have been over the past four years of the league as well – typifying the impact that the pace-and-space era has had on the league.

The first team to do it was the 73-win Golden State Warriors of 2015-16, and they still have a stranglehold on the best three-point shooting percentage on this shortlist at a robust 41.6 percent. It took the Warriors only 2592 attempts from beyond the arc to make 1077 on the year, which still ranks 4th among the 7 teams.

One year later, the reigning champion 2016-17 Cleveland Cavaliers scorched the nets from deep to the tune of a 38.4 percent clip from long range on the way to making 1067 threes.

Of course, the most consistent team at producing over 1000 triples is the Houston Rockets, whose obsession with Moreyball and an offensive engine like James Harden means that the team has made over 1000 threes in each of the last three seasons.

So far this year, the Rockets, as well as the Milwaukee Bucks, have hit the 1000-three threshold.

It must be noted that for most of these seven teams, shooting a ton of threes has led to terrific regular season success, as the combined winning percentage for these teams is a strong 67 percent. The only losing team in the bunch is the 2017-18 Brooklyn Nets, who finished with a 28-54 record. The Atlanta Hawks already have 28 wins, so it seems likely that they’ll best that total – though the team’s schedule is quite difficult to end the season.

While this statistic is more of a curio than anything else, the Atlanta Hawks making over 1000 threes certainly underscore Gead Coach Lloyd Pierce’s modern offensive system, as well as General Manager Travis Schlenk’s focus on obtaining shooting talent to build around for the future.