No NBA head coach perhaps benefited from the existence of the three-point line more than Steve Kerr during his time with the Golden State Warriors, but he is now wondering whether eliminating it would help the game. During an interview with Charles Bethea of The New Yorker, Kerr was asked about adding a four-point line to the NBA.
“I would never do a four-point play,” Kerr said. “In fact, I would even consider getting rid of the three-point line.”
This comes from a man who had Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, the greatest shooting backcourt in NBA history, help him win four titles as a coach. Kerr was an incredible shooter himself, too, and actually holds the record for the highest career three-point percentage at 45.4%. So, why is he, of all people, thinking it should be taken out of the game?
“I just think that the game, as it was designed, is really to create the best shots possible,” Kerr said. “That’s why in the early days, you just throw it inside to the big guy. A three-point line came from the A.B.A., in 1979, and I think it was really effective. It makes for an exciting play, but the analytics revolution has created a weird situation where we all know exactly where the highest efficiency shots are: layups and corner threes because the corner three is twenty-two feet and not 23.9, like the up above the break.
“You have this whole no man’s land between those areas,” Kerr continued. “So if you shoot a twenty-two-footer now from the top of the key, that’s considered a really bad shot. I just wonder—and I don’t know if this would work or not—if we got rid of the three-point line, if it would diversify the way everybody would play and create a lot of different creative solutions to basketball.”
You can very clearly see the no man’s land that Kerr is referring to. Here is a look at the top 300 shot locations in the NBA in 2005 and 2025.
Analytics dictates that you either shoot threes or go all the way to the rim, and that’s led to less variety in the game today. Players are discouraged from shooting the mid-ranger, and here’s an interesting comparison from the 2024-25 season.
While removing the three-point line entirely is a bit radical, many have called for the corner three to be taken out of the game. The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is among those who think it should be removed. It doesn’t seem to be something the NBA is considering at this point, though.
With the way things are at present, expect teams to just keep shooting more threes. Teams averaged 37.0 three-point attempts per game in the 2025-26 season, the second-highest mark in league history. The highest was 37.6 in the 2024-25 campaign.
As for how big a jump this has been, teams attempted just 16.0 threes per game in 2005-06. The number has more than doubled in about 20 years. You wonder how much higher it can go.
