Dennis Scott was the precursor to Stephen Curry and this era

Stephen Curry and others of this era may not be cognizant it was Orlando Magic forward Dennis Scott that paved the way for their success.

The NBA has shifted to the era of the 3-point shot. But diagnosing how it got to this point is where things start to prove interesting.

The NBA instituted the 3-point shot in the 1980 season. Chris Ford of the Boston Celtics was the first to drill a triple in NBA action, and maybe few from that era had any indication of how the arc would change the game.

It has been long-in-coming, but there has never been a time since it began that the shot has been so integral to team offenses. Nor has it ever been attempted with the same frenetic urgency it is as we watch games today.

But what changed? Why is Stephen Curry on pace to hit more threes in these last two seasons than the legendary Larry Bird did in his entire NBA career?

The three offers a lot of advantages to an offense. It helps with court spacing because teams do not want to surrender wide-open looks from behind the arc. Now, even power forwards and centers creep out to the arc.

For the opposing big man, that poses a problem: Cover the three or protect the rim? It is picking a poison, really, but one of the most intriguing idiosyncrasies of the three is that it is now used in transition and on fast breaks.

For proof this has not always been acceptable, I flash back to my own playing days when my coach nearly beheaded me for trying it in practice. And I made the shot. It is just that old-school basketball coaches rightfully expected the highest percentage shot possible on a fast break.

That is not a three. But if it is shot at a high enough clip, it makes more sense to launch an uncontested three and have a shot at a rebound than take a contested look in the paint.

Where did the three in transition really start though?

Look no further than Orlando Magic small forward Dennis Scott. Scott was selected No. 4 overall in the 1990 NBA Draft.  He was known to be a gunner.

However, few would expect — or even notice — the long-lasting effect Scott’s play had on the NBA game.

I did not even, and I have been faithfully watching the NBA since 1989. Credit NBA TV’s Rick Kamla for the epiphany. During NBA Game Time he said to Scott, “You know, you kind of started the three in transition movement.”

Dennis paused, chuckled, “Yeah, I guess I did.”

Scott was really the first to attempt threes in transition, and as soon as that happened, the triple became a new threat, a new way to punish a team when the offense has numbers in transition. It has now become so commonplace it is hard to fathom why it was not tried until about a decade into the three’s institution.

Scott still is the all-time Magic record holder for threes in a season with 267 — and when he set his mark in the 1996 season it was an NBA record. Since that time, we have seen the likes of Ray Allen and Stephen Curry best that mark. Allen hit 269 in the 2006 season and Curry bested that mark last season with 272.

Live Feed

Blue Man Hoop

But where it really gets crazy is when one looks at what Curry has been doing this season.

He is hitting nearly five per game and has an outside shot at making more than 400 this year if he stays healthy. The Golden State Warriors play a frantic pace that still somehow remains ordered and under control.

And Curry’s shooting plays an enormous role in the team’s success, as evidenced by the quasi-struggles the Warriors have had with Curry nursing an injury. Golden State barely prevailed against the lowly Denver Nuggets on Saturday, winning by just three without Curry. It took a dominant triple-double from Draymond Green to even win that game.

Curry may go down as the best marksman in NBA history. Some even say he has already achieved that goal.

But he would likely not be benefitting so much from these changes if not for Scott beginning the trend of the transition three.

Scott is not a Hall of Famer. He may not even enter the Orlando Magic hall of fame (though he really should) as one of the franchise’s absolute fan favorites.

However, his impact on the game is undeniable once one looks into it. Sure, there may have come along another guy to try the things Scott had already successfully done at Georgia Tech before entering the NBA.

But we cannot definitively say that. There can only be one pioneer, and that was Dennis Scott.

Scott’s approach to exploiting his shooting range was what enabled him to carve out a successful decade-long career. His range approached that of what Curry’s is, though perhaps not with quite the same level of difficulty in his shots.

Next: Ranking the best small forwards in Magic history

Scott made his name and calling on the 3-point shot. We still can hear the echoes following his made buckets, “Threeeeeee Deeeee!”

We just may have failed to realize we were witnessing history when Paul Porter called his nickname. Even Scott himself did not.