The Whiteboard: Where does James Harden rank among the greatest shooters of all time?

With a pair of 3s against the Utah Jazz last night, James Harden moved into second place on the NBA's all-time 3-pointers list, passing legendary shooter Ray Allen. After the game, Harden acknowledged that this is probably the highest he's ever going to go and that there's no way he ever catches Steph Curry.

But for a lot of people, Harden still feels like in an incongruous inclusion near the top of a list that includes Curry, Allen, Reggie Miller, Damian Lillard, Klay Thompson and Kyle Korver. Combined, that group of seven players has completed 53 seasons shooting 40 percent or better from the 3-point line.

Harden has never done it even once. The best he's ever shot from beyond the arc for a full season is 39 percent. He's been over 38 percent just three times in 16 seasons and he's a career 36.3 percent shooter on 3-pointers. His inclusion on this list is entirely about volume but not in the way we've been accustomed to, with incredibly lengthy careers allowing players to climb cumulative record lists simply by hanging around. Harden is in the No. 2 spot because he took so many dang 3s.

James Harden is has been attempting 3-pointers at an absurd rate

It took Harden about 700 extra 3-point attempts to make two more attempts than Allen. Curry is the only player in NBA history to attempt more 3s than and Harden currently has 8195 3-point attempts, about the same as Steve Nash and Manu Ginobili, combined. If you compare the year-by-year progression of Harden's total career 3-point attempts to Miller and Allen it's clear that passing them was a foregone conclusion even if he was nowhere near their league in accuracy.

By his sixth season, Harden was firmly ahead of the 3-point attempt trajectory of Miller and Allen and it only accelerated from there. He passed Miller's career 3-point attempt total in his five years ago and Allen's two years ago. The biggest leap came in 2018-19, his 10th season, when Harden attempted 1028 3-pointers, still an NBA record and 142 more than anyone else has ever attempted in a single season.

All this means, that Harden's spot at the top of the list is utterly unique. The rest of the group includes outliers for their eras (Allen, Miller, Kyle Korver), outliers for any era (Curry), legends of longevity (LeBron, currently No. 8) and players who rode the wave of a changing era (Klay, Lillard). Harden is, almost as much as Curry, responsible for the wave, the culture change that moved one era into the next.

Harden is nowhere near Curry in terms of 3-point accuracy. But he's arguably Curry's equal in recognizing the value of the 3-point shot and being willing to break norms to an extreme degree to squeeze as much value from it as possible. It may not make him one of the greatest shooters in NBA history but it certainly makes him one of the most groundbreaking.

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NBA news roundup:

• It sure looked like the Cavs were headed for a rebuild after last season's playoff disappointment but they brought everyone back, swapped in a new coach and they're off to a 15-0 start. The record win streak to start a season is 24, set by the 73-9 Warriors and the Cavs will be tested if they want to get there with a pair of matchups against the Celtics in their next six games.

• TNT will no longer be broadcasting NBA games but Inside the NBA, their award-winning studio show, will be brought over to ESPN next year. Hooray for the jobs that were saved. Boo for carrying on a tradition of non-serious basketball analysts who don't care to watch the games or learn how to pronounce players' names correctly.

• Don't look now, but the Warriors have the best record in the Western Conference and the third-best point differential in the league, ahead of the Celtics. They are currently the only team in the league in the top five in both offensive and defensive efficiency.

Luka Doncic's pull-up jumper is way off

The pull-up jumper has always been one of the most dangerous weapons in Luka Doncic's arsenal, given his ability to get to pretty much any spot he wants with his combination of handle, strength and footwork. He posted an effective field goal percentage of 52.5 on all pull-up jumpers, both 2s and 3s, last season a healthy number for a shot that can be used in any broken possessions or up against the shot clock.

But this season, Doncic's efficiency has cratered — his effective field goal percentage on pull-ups has dropped to 38.2 and he's shooting just 33.3 percent on 2s and 28 percent on 3s. It wouldn't be quite so problematic for the Mavericks offense if he wasn't attempting 13.7 of these shots per game, by far the most in the league and only slightly less than last season when he was operation at peak efficiency.

His inefficiency isn't the only reason the Mavs are struggling — Klay has been meh and everyone besides Kyrie Irving has been absolutely abysmal from beyond the arc. But he's their most important offense player and he's been absolutely terrible with one of his most common offensive tools.