Who is the best three-point shooter in the NBA?

Boston Celtics’ Ray Allen competes in the three-point contest during the NBA basketball All-Star weekend in Los Angeles, February 19, 2011. REUTERS/Gary Hershorn (UNITED STATES – Tags: SPORT BASKETBALL)

As the season winds down, I try to answer questions like these. Here’s my criteria:

1. The player has to shoot at least 38% from long range.

2. He must make at least 1.0 three-pointer per game played.

3. He has played in at least 50 games.

Here’s the alphabetical list of players that qualify: Arron Afflalo, Ray Allen, Ryan Anderson, Marco Belinelli, Mike Bibby, Chauncey Billups, Matt Bonner, Stephen Curry, Jared Dudley, Mike Dunleavy, Landry Fields, Channing Frye, Rudy Gay, Daniel Gibson, Ben Gordon, Kirk Hinrich, Eddie House, Richard Jefferson, James Jones, Kyle Korver, Kevin Love, Kyle Lowry, Kevin Martin, Wes Mathews, Jodie Meeks, Anthony Morrow, Steve Nash, Gary Neal, Jameer Nelson, Anthony Parker, J.J. Redick, Jason Richardson, Luke Ridnour, Brandon Rush, J.R. Smith, Deshawn Stevenson, Marcus Thornton, Hedo Turkoglu, Charlie Villanueva, Reggie Williams, Shawne Williams, Dorell Right and Nick Young.

Three-point accuracy is important, but so are makes. To me, it’s more impressive when a guy is hitting 2.0 threes per game at 39% than if he’s hitting 1.2 per game at a 41% clip. The more makes, the more the defense is keying on stopping that player from getting open looks, so that makes the makes (yep, makes the makes) that much more impressive.

Here’s a look at the chart. As always, click it to see a bigger version.

A few takeaways:

— What a year Ray Allen (45.2%, 2.2) is having. Not only did he break the three-point record, but he’s having his best year accuracy-wise if his career, all at the age of 35 years. As a Bucks fan, I was sad to see the team trade him away for Gary Payton, but I understood the reasoning behind it. They had the younger Michael Redd waiting in the wings. Now look at the two of them.

— Stephen Curry is proving that last year’s accuracy was no fluke. Whenever Ray Allen decides to retire, Curry is the odds on favorite to take the mantle of the best three-point shooter in the league.

— Best big man shooter? I guess we’d have to go with Matt Bonner, who is listed at 6’10” and is hitting 47.5% of his threes. Kevin Love, Channing Frye and Ryan Anderson are also impressive.

— Thirty-two of the 43 players are black. Eight are white Americans. Three are foreign-born (Turkoglu, Belinelli and Nash). I’m surprised there aren’t more foreign-born players on the list, though a few (Carlos Delfino, Omri Casspi, Sasha Vujacic) just missed the list.

— Of the 43 players, there are five power forwards, nine small forwards, 12 point guards and 17 shooting guards. Best shooter by position…PG: Curry, SG: Allen, SF: Jefferson and PF: Bonner. There are two Spurs on that list.

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