Overview Games Teams Players Analytics

Thirty seasons · 5.7 million shots

How the NBA changed

Every dot of heat below is real: the location of every shot attempted in an NBA game since 1997, drawn on the court where it happened. Watch the mid-range empty out and the three-point line catch fire.

12.237.0

Threes per game, per team

37%10%

Share of shots from mid-range

10.8 ft13.8 ft

Average shot distance

60%67%

Field goal % at the rim

1997-98 season compared with 2025-26.

1997-98 The old geometry. Four of every ten shots were long twos.

37% mid-range 16% threes

2005-06 The isolation years. Mid-range was still king.

34% mid-range 20% threes

2015-16 Curry goes unanimous. The floor starts to stretch.

25% mid-range 28% threes

2025-26 The full revolution. The mid-range is a memory.

10% mid-range 42% threes

The crossover

In 1998 the league took four mid-range shots for every three-pointer. The lines crossed in the mid-2010s, and they never looked back.

10% 20% 30% 40% 1997-982005-062015-162025-26 Threes 42% Mid-range 10%

Why it happened

The math was always there: a 35% three-pointer is worth more than a 45% long two. What changed is that teams started acting on it. Analytics departments priced every spot on the floor, spacing became a roster-building strategy, and a generation of players grew up shooting from thirty feet. The result is the widest, fastest, highest-scoring game the league has ever played.

Shot locations from the NBA's official play-by-play archive, 1996-97 through 2025-26. The 1996-97 season is excluded from comparisons above because the league used a shortened three-point line until 1997-98.