Three-Point Attempt Rate
The share of a player's or team's field goal attempts that come from three. It measures how much they lean on the three as a weapon.
The pack lands around 40.7%. This season's leaders are out on their own:
- 1 Kostas Papanikolaou Olympiacos 86.5%
- 2 Davis Bertans Dubai 83.9%
- 3 John Dibartolomeo Maccabi Tel Aviv 82.9%
What Three-Point Attempt Rate measures
The three is valuable because of the math. A team hitting 33% from three scores 1.0 points a shot, the same as making 50% of its twos. Anything above 33% beats the average two. Three-point attempt rate tells you how far a team is willing to lean into that edge, trading some easy interior shots for higher-value ones outside.
How Three-Point Attempt Rate is calculated
3PAR = Three-Point Field Goal Attempts ÷ Total Field Goal Attempts
3PAr: Three-Point Attempt Rate / 3PA: Three-Point Attempts / FGA: Field Goal Attempts
The catch
A high rate only works if the shots are open
A team forcing threes out of bad possessions, late in the clock, off the dribble, contested, will have a high attempt rate and a terrible effective field goal percentage. The value of a three depends entirely on the quality of the look. This stat tells you how much you shoot from three, not whether the shots are good.
A low rate is not automatically inefficient
Some of the most efficient offenses are built on high-percentage interior shots, elite rim-running bigs, dominant post play, relentless pick-and-roll. In 2025–26 **Monaco** took a low share of threes at **38.2%** and still finished **23-20** on strong two-point scoring. The rate is about style, not quality.
Seen in a game
Paris Basketball took the most three-heavy approach in the league in 2025–26, a 47.7% attempt rate, and it did not save them. They hit 37.0%, above the break-even line, yet finished 15-23. The three was not the problem. Pace and turnovers were. Paris played the fastest tempo in the league at 80.2 possessions a game while coughing it up 13.3 times a night, and their 53.8% effective field goal mark was below average despite the volume. They never held the game still long enough for the three-point bet to pay off.
Common questions
- What is three-point attempt rate?
Three-point attempt rate is the share of a player's or team's shots that come from behind the arc. It describes shot selection, not accuracy.
- How is three-point attempt rate calculated?
Divide three-point attempts by total field-goal attempts. A team taking 24 threes among 60 shots has a three-point attempt rate of 0.40.
- What does a high three-point attempt rate tell you?
It shows how much a team leans on the three. A high rate points to a modern, spacing-driven offense; a low one to a team that attacks inside or through the post.
