Much digital ink has been spilled over the proliferation of three-point shots in the NBA, and for good reason. This season the Boston Celtics, fresh off winning the NBA title, attempted a record 48.2 three-point attempts per game. In fact, eight of the top 25 team-seasons in NBA three-point attempts per game occurred in 2024-25.
This has, perhaps inevitably, led to much discussion within the league, media, and fans over whether or not this reliance on the three-point shot is good for the game. I don’t personally have a problem with the number of threes being taken in the NBA, but I understand why people across the game would argue that it has gone too far.
What I find far more interesting is that while everyone with a podcast discusses the number of threes being shot in the NBA, that discourse is largely absent in the WNBA. Today, I want to examine why that is the case and whether or not the WNBA could face its own three-point reckoning in the future.

Before we dive into the three-point numbers in the WNBA and what that means for the league going forward, I think there is one reason this discussion has centered on the NBA that has little to do with statistics. I believe a lot of the people who criticize the number of threes being taken do so because they came of age as an NBA fan in the 90s. Whether it is former players like Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal or simply fans who grew up watching those players, there seems to be a common theme to much of the criticism that basketball was better 30 years ago when post play reigned and the three-point shot was largely an afterthought.

The WNBA doesn’t have this issue for a couple of reasons. First of all, the WNBA is only in its 28th season, and most fans don’t have strong memories of watching Lisa Leslie, Theresa Weatherspoon and Tina Thompson play. Even if the game was actually more fun to watch back then, most fans don’t have personal memories to cling to. Perhaps more importantly, while NBA  fans can lament the death of post play, nobody in their right mind can watch A’ja Wilson or Angel Reese or even Napheesa Collier and complain that nobody in the WNBA posts up anymore.

While post play is not dead in the WNBA, the league has seen a stark rise in three-point attempts in recent seasons. The league’s three-point attempt rate, or percentage of all field goal attempts that were threes, has increased nearly every season over the last decade. Just 21.2 percent of all shots were threes in 2014, compared to a league-record 33.5 percent in 2024.

That is a huge increase, but it looks different when you consider the NBA’s three-point attempt rate went from 26.8 percent in 2014-15 (the first season the Warriors won the championship) to 42.1 percent in 2024-25. By that metric, the WNBA still has farther to go before we have to consider whether players are taking too many threes.
I expect three-point attempts to rise again this season, though not nearly to NBA levels. The WNBA has eight new head coaches this season, including seven making their head coaching debuts. Atlanta Dream head coach Karl Smesko comes from Florida Gulf Coast, where his teams attempted more than 300 three-pointers nearly every season. Sparks head coach Lynne Roberts and Sky head coach Tyler Marsh also expressed a desire for their respective teams to shoot more threes this season. All three of those teams were in the bottom half of the league in three-point attempt rate in 2024, and if those coaches are successful in getting their teams to shoot more threes, it stands to reason the league as a whole will shoot it more from deep.

Interestingly enough, three-point attempts in the preseason were down slightly from a year ago. I’m not going to read too much into that or the early-season numbers, but I intend to keep an eye on it as the season goes along, as well as into next season. With two more expansion teams joining the league in 2026, I think there is a chance we could see even more threes taken next season. As the number of players in the league increases and talent is dispersed, I think teams could try to lean even more heavily on the three as a way to make up for a lack of star players. If that is true, it could continue to shape the direction of the league going forward. Either way, I will be interested.