In this episode of The Draymond Green Show, host Draymond Green interviews former NBA sharpshooter JJ Redick about the greatest three‑point shooters in league history and how the three‑point shot has transformed modern NBA offense. Redick names his personal top‑5 shooters—Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Kyle Korver, Ray Allen and Reggie Miller—explaining that his ranking emphasizes the difficulty and volume of shots taken today, which differ from earlier eras. The conversation delves into the evolution from the 1980s/90s style of occasional jump‑shots to the current high‑volume, high‑difficulty approach, citing the impact of analytics, the physical toll of shooting 20+ threes per game, and the role of teams like the early‑2000s Phoenix Suns and Orlando Magic in pioneering the modern three‑point mindset. Redick reflects on his own place in the all‑time three‑point rankings (15th at the time) and notes that future players such as Damian Lillard are the only ones approaching Curry’s all‑around shooting repertoire. Throughout, the hosts discuss statistical milestones (Curry surpassing Reggie Miller and Ray Allen), the changing perception of jump‑shooting teams, and the strategic nuances (alpha DHOs, step‑up pick‑and‑rolls) that define today’s three‑point offense.
Chapters
But for yourself, who is one of the greatest 3-point shooters that we've seen in this league, who do you rank in your top 5 3-point shooters to come through this league?
Oh, that's easy. That's easy. Steph is first.
I respect that.
Everybody else is way down the list to me. In no particular order, the other 4, it's Klay, Kyle Korver, Ray Allen, Reggie Miller. To me, those are the guys. Because when we talk about great shooters, you— I, I, I don't want to disparage the previous iteration of three-point shooters in the '80s or the '90s, but those guys were not shooting the shots we take today. Those guys were not taking the, the difficult shots we were taking, nor were they shooting it at the volume. So yes, A guy like Tim Legler, great shooter. He shot, I think, 55.6% one year to lead the league. But he wasn't shooting the shots Klay was shooting. He's not shooting the shots Kyle Korver was shooting. And that's not a knock on Tim.
That's—
it was a different game and the game has evolved. And now we put such a premium on generating 3-point looks. Mm-hmm. It's not just about the quality of the look. It's the, it's the, it's the volume of looks. If, if Steph Curry And Tom Haberstroh always talks about this. I think Steph's up to like 15, almost 15 a game this year. Tom's always been like, Steph needs to shoot 20 a game. 'Cause you do the math on that. Those 20 shots equal about 27 points on average. On average.
Yeah. No, I think it's funny because I was talking to Bob Myers a couple weeks ago and he was telling me like, you know, Steph's 3-point shots are getting up, But all of my analytical guys tell me every time I ask him like how many threes or stuff, man, he saw my analytical guys, they tell me, well, he's getting up there, but we need him at 20 a game. I'm like, number one, 23-point shots a game, that is brutal on the body, man.
Yes, yes. He's already putting in enough work to get his shot off, to get his clips off.
Absolutely, and that's a lot of work on the body, but I, I think it is very interesting of where we see the league going. I remember going back to my, man, first 2, 3 years, 4 years in the league, everybody's like, "They're a jump shooting team. You can never win that way." Right. Like, "You can never win shooting jump shots." And within one year, we went from like taking the most threes to like 16th in the league because everybody's like, "Oh man, we need to take more threes." So it's been very interesting. To see that growth in the game. But something you just said really hit home with me, and comparing the older generation to the newer generation and how the game actually worked. Because—
Yeah.
Like, you see all the numbers of Steph passing Reggie Miller and going to pass Ray Allen soon. He's done it in like half the amount of games. And it's gonna be interesting because as you just said, and I agree, Steph.
The way he goes about things. I don't wanna disrespect any other shooter as someone who's not a shooter myself, but I think Steph is like in a farly different category than anyone else just because of the difficulty of shots. He's shooting them off the dribble, he's shooting them off the catch, he's shooting them off the spot. He's shooting them now, he's shooting them from 30 feet out each and every time he shoots the ball. But when you look at a guy like Draymond Green, a guy like Donovan Mitchell, these guys who's coming to the league taking threes at this rate from the very beginning of their career, they're gonna pass Steph's number in 500 games. And yet I don't think that's necessarily going to tell the story of Steph being the greatest shooter alive and greatest shooter ever. But yet he changed the game. Like, what's your take on that?
Well, So I was gonna bring this up when you were talking earlier just about your first few years and them saying jump shooting teams can't win. When I look at the evolution of the 3-point shot, the 2 teams I think of that sort of started this were the Phoenix Suns with Steve Nash and Quentin Richardson, Joe Johnson, Sean Marion, and then my Orlando Magic teams. Which by accident, we ended up starting Rashard and Turk together 'cause Tony Battier hurt his shoulder in training camp. So we were 4 out, 1 in with Dwight. If you look at the numbers of those teams, those teams would be at the bottom of the league right now in 3-point attempts.
Yes.
Bottom of the league. To your point about Trae and Donovan and just really the next generation of players, I'm 15th right now in 3-pointers made all time, right? Which is crazy. In 10 years, I'll be outside the top 50 probably. I'm being realistic on that. I mean, it's— The volume is so different now. The other thing I would say about Steph, to your point about him, the shots he takes, my bag generally was coming to my right shoulder, left-right plant. You know this. Everything was run on the left side, me coming left-right plant, shooting over that shoulder away from the defense so they couldn't bother my shot.
All right.
Mm-hmm. Then Alpha DHOs, and sort of step-up pick and rolls, a 1 or 2 dribble pull-up 3. That was my bag, right? Kyle Korver.
Yes, sir.
A lot of the same, right? Klay, a lot of the same. Reggie, a lot of the same. Ray Allen, to a degree, had some off-the-dribble bounce, but at the end of his career when he was shooting a lot of 3s, a lot of the same. Steph, it's everywhere.
It's everywhere.
The only guy that shoots it even remotely like Steph, and I'm not saying one's better than the other, that he's that far behind Steph is Dame. Dame is the only guy to me that in some way emulates what Steph does from the 3-point line. Yeah.
