How to build the most accurate 3-point shooting team in NBA history

Last time, I laid down the blueprint for a 2017-18 team to become the most accurate free-throw shooting team of all-time — a record currently owned by the unlikely 1989-90 Boston Celtics. This time: I get a 2017-18 team to top the league’s all-time best 3-point shooting squad, a lofty 42.8 percent.

It is no surprise that the list of the most accurate 3-point shooting teams is rotten with Curry’s. The twist: No. 1 is occupied by father Dell, who helped set the record alongside Glen Rice for the 1996-97 Charlotte Hornets. Unlike last week’s free throw debate, there’s no question that players and teams have gotten pretty much exponentially more talented at the 3-pointer over time. The elder Curry’s Hornets dropped in 591 shots from beyond the arc — which would have ranked 31st in 2016-17, just behind Minnesota’s last-place 601 makes.

While sheer tonnage of 3-pointers is no doubt what is in vogue across the league today, there’s a pretty convincing case to be made that quality is still more important than quantity. Looking at the 2016-17 team rankings in 3-point accuracy, all eight of this year’s 50-win teams are among the top 15 most-accurate teams. Among the bottom 15 least-accurate teams, there are only three winning squads (Memphis Grizzlies, Atlanta Hawks, Oklahoma City Thunder). Sorting the league by just the total number of made 3-pointers provides a different picture: there are seven winning teams in the top half of the rankings and seven in the bottom half.

Also, the three most-accurate teams this season are unquestionably the three best teams in the league this season: the Golden State Warriors (38.3 percent), Cleveland Cavaliers (38.4 percent), and San Antonio Spurs (39.1 percent). Here are the moves these teams need to make if they are going to out-gun the likes of Curry the Elder, Glen Rice, and Muggsy Bogues. As was the case with the elite free-throw squads, the victors in the Kyle Korver and J.J. Redick free agent sweepstakes will clearly gain a monster edge over their competition.

Golden State Warriors

Last year’s 73-win Warriors are second all-time in accuracy — and still they were more than a full percentage point behind the old Hornets, 41.6 percent to 42.8 percent. The Warriors have gotten to the brink of the most dominant championship run ever this season even though their team accuracy dropped by over three percentage points, including huge drops from Steph Curry (-4.3 percent) and Draymond Green (-8 percent).

1. Let Shaun Livingston walk in free agency, send 2020 and 2021 second-rounders to Dallas Mavericks in exchange for Seth Curry.
A realistic move? Perhaps not. The move everybody wants to see? Oh hell yes.

Livingston’s three-year, $18 million deal with Golden State — signed in July 2014, back when we all wondered whether Steve Kerr was a smart hire — has been one of the best-fitting free agent signings in league history. This story ends in the best way possible: Livingston — and his 19.7 percent career 3-point accuracy — has priced himself out of the Warriors’ available budget for second-unit players.

The youngest Curry is not only under contract for $3.02 million in 2017-18, but adding him to the Warriors makes sure that every Curry experiences the highest of highs as the game’s best-shooting family. This is no charity move, either: among players with at least 100 career 3-point makes, Seth has the sixth-best accuracy in league history (43.2 percent). (Steph is third, and Coach Kerr is first.)

2. Sign C.J. Miles to fill the vacated Brandon Rush role.
It seems like too impossible a trivia fact to be true: Brandon Rush was a rotation player on the winningest regular season of all-time. (Jud Buechler played 74 games for the 72-10 Bulls, so maybe it’s not the craziest thing.) This year’s Warriors just didn’t have that bench player who could come in for 15 minutes a game and drop 41.4 percent of his 3-point shots, as Rush did in 2015-16. Enter C.J. Miles.

Since Miles came straight out of high school, he just turned 30 years old this spring — even though he once played alongside Greg Ostertag in Utah. After being just one of 12 players last season to shoot better than 40 percent on three-pointers on at least five attempts per game, it was a smart decision for Miles to turn down his $4.77 million player option with the Pacers. If Miles shot that well with one of the league’s most paint-bound teams in Indiana, it would be on with him in Golden State.

3. Get experimental with those stretch-5’s: Christian Wood and Donatas Motiejunas will be in the free agent bargain bin.

One crucial thing the Warriors have done that their Finals opponent in Cleveland has not: turn literally almost anybody under contract into a valuable contributor. There’s hardly anybody on Golden State’s roster who came into the league fully hyped. This is a world-beating rotation built with once-freely available parts like Patrick McCaw, Ian Clark, or JaVale McGee.

Despite being such a revolutionary 3-point team, the Warriors have never really had a 7-footer sinking threes — they just take their 7-footers off the floor when they want to start burning things up. Wood and Motiejunas could add an intriguing new dimension to the team. Which, yes, sounds insane — but adding McGee sounded insane just a few short months ago, too.

4. The long-odds moonshot: sign Dirk Nowitzki.

Here’s how it pretty much has to happen: the Mavericks, looking to save a few bucks, turn down Nowitzki’s $25 million club option, with the intent of immediately re-signing him to a deal in the $10-$15 million range. This is when Golden State swoops in with a monster one-year deal, flipping the team from heels to babyfaces and sending Dirk out on a championship.

It sounds crazy, but it also almost happened between Manu Ginobili and the Philadelphia 76ers last summer.

Cleveland Cavaliers

1. Trade J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert to the Orlando Magic in exchange for Evan Fournier and Mario Hezonja.
David Griffin, thus far, has always managed to find a way to wiggle out of a tough cap spot. Still, the $32.35 guaranteed owed to Smith after this season, coming right off of a career-worst season, seems like it could really be a cap-clogging problem. After the longest Trade Machine jaunt of my life, this is the best I could find. Orlando makes the trade because they want to wipe away two of Rob Hennigan’s guys, and replace those roster spots with championship-experienced veterans. Cleveland makes the trade because, even though Hezonja may be a sunk cost at this point, he is a small cost. Fournier, meantime, combos together shooting and passing skills that make him best-suited as a supporting player on a talented team.

It all sounds just a little less crazy if you remember that, the last time Cleveland made a deal with Orlando, it was getting Channing Frye in a more clear-cut salary dump maneuver.

2. Re-sign Deron Williams.
It can’t be what the one-time Olympian wanted, but landing as the Cavaliers’ back-up has to be something like a best-case scenario for this point in his career. Williams is at 41.5 percent with Cleveland so far, between the regular season and playoffs. Lock that up!

3. Play James Jones more.
Technically, Jones is a free agent this summer — but we all know that there’s a nice spot for him at the end of the Cleveland bench so that he can be with ol’ pal LeBron James. James and Kyrie Irving were both in the top 15 in minutes per game this regular season. Seeing as LeBron’s Cavaliers can most definitely flip on some sort of mental switch come playoff time, Cleveland definitely needs to get those fellas more rest during the opening act of the season. Jones hasn’t played more than 700 minutes in a year since 2010-11 with the Miami Heat: let’s get that well-rested sharpshooter (40.1 percent for his career) out there.

San Antonio Spurs

1. Allow Jonathon Simmons to walk, sign Joe Ingles.
The Spurs not only know how to write a fairy-tale basketball story, they know when to end it, too. After making Boban Marjanovic in just one magical season, R.C. Buford was more than happy to let the man go get his money in Detroit. A similar fate no doubt awaits Simmons this summer as he ventures into the third act of his real-life sports movie.

At the same time: it’s not necessarily a bad thing to get Simmons and his 32.2 percent career accuracy outta there. It is time now for the cosmically predestined move of Joe Ingles to the Spurs to finally happen. The cerebral Australian boasts a truly rare combination of steals, assists, (lack of) turnovers, and 3-point shooting, and is generally much more interested in passing the ball on instead of taking his own shot. A Spur for sure.

2. Sign Anthony Tolliver.
In the many years since Tolliver was brought into the league as an undrafted D-League project by the Spurs, he hasn’t just added a 3-point shot — he has also established himself as the hyper-efficient block/charge collision master. Coming off of his fourth straight season with over 200 3-point attempts, Tolliver’s career percentage sits at a respectable 36.2 percent, which is excellent for a frontcourt player. Tolliver becoming a raging success with the Spurs right after getting cut by the Kings, as he was last week, also just feels like the right sort of thing to happen.

Next: Jayson Tatum, the Warriors, and the power of imagination

3. Re-sign Patty Mills.
Some guys are destined to earn too much money to stay on the Spurs, and some guys are just destined to say. It’s been hard to determine which one of those Patty Mills is, but the time to make that decision is now, seeing as Mills’ phenomenally team-friendly three-year, $13 million deal is up right now. If Mills leaves some money on the table in order to stay in San Antonio, he’s pretty much a lock to retire in silver and black alongside all the Matt Bonners and Bruce Bowens and Manu Ginobilis behind him. At 39.5 percent on 3-pointers for his career, Mills of course provides real value for San Antonio that’s worth whatever size the investment is.