The Three Point Shot

Over the past decade, basketball has gone from a game of big men to game of three-point shooting. The most dominant team of the past five years, the Golden State Warriors, exemplifies this new basketball playstyle perfectly. But watching this team break three-point record after three-point record, it made me wonder, what makes this teams three-point shooting so good? Many factors determine the accuracy of a three-point shot, but in the end, speed, angle, and spin decide whether the ball goes in the hoop or not.


The basketball is shot in an arc due to the hoop being above the point where the ball is shot from, as well as the ball having to drop through it in the y-direction. The angle of the shot must be great enough that the ball can make it through the hoop without clipping the rim. While any angle above 33 degrees can work, the ideal shot is actually at a 45-degree angle


The next important factor, speed, needs to be controlled based on the angle of the shot. X and y directions play a similar effect as they did in figuring out the angle of the shot. The ball's speed must be great enough to reach the hoop, but not so much that it has not had enough time to drop in the y-direction to fall through the hoop. The angle of the shot determines how much force, and from the force speed, must be applied in both the x and y-direction. The speed in each direction can be derived using the equation v*sinΘ = vy and v*cos Θ = vx Unlike the angle of the shot, the speed of the shot has to be almost exact, which makes it the most important factor in the three-point shot. The ideal speed of a shot at 45 degrees is 8.9 m/s according to Creighton University.

The spin of the basketball also plays a part in the success of the shot. Backspin on the ball can cause the ball to float in the air longer, as well as slow down. This force is called the Magnus force and is seen in other sports to a greater extent, such as baseball and table tennis. By utilizing this force, basketball shots can be more forgiving, as being able to slow down the ball while keeping it floating can make the difference between hitting the rim and bouncing out of the hoop, or bouncing into the hoop.

These three factors have decided the result of many games throughout the history of the NBA, and look to play an even bigger part in the years to come.